The results suggest that things were better due to increased PC demand and growth in Intel's data center and cloud businesses. However Wall Street was a little disappointed with Chipzilla's revenue forecast for the current quarter and have rated the results "seven out of ten must try harder".

As a result Intel's shares were down 5.3 percent at $35.75 in after-hours trading yesterday.

Intel said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $15.7 billion, plus or minus $500 million. Analysts on average were expecting $15.86 billion.

Executive Vice President Stacy Smith said on a conference call with analysts that this figure was below the average seasonal increase for the fourth quarter as Intel is expecting the worldwide PC supply chain to reduce their inventory.

Last month, Intel raised its third-quarter revenue forecast for the first time in more than two years, citing improving PC demand.

Revenue from the data center business, rose 9.7 percent to $4.54 billion in the third quarter, from a year earlier. Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich said on the call that revenue growth from this unit for the full year will likely be in the high single digits, as demand for cloud-based services has been growing as more businesses shift to cloud-computing methods.

Intel, which has been hurt due to weak PC demand, said last month it was seeing signs of improvement among PC parts suppliers.

Revenue from the company's traditional PC business, which still accounts for over half of Intel's total revenue, rose 4.5 percent to $8.89 billion.

The company's net revenue rose 9.1 percent to $15.78 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $15.58 billion.

Net income rose to $3.38 billion, in the third quarter ended 1 October, from $3.11 billion last year.