Desktop GPU Shipments Are Plummeting But NVIDIA, AMD And Intel Shouldn't Panic
If it's been a minute since you've upgraded your desktop graphics card, you're not alone. Far from it—the latest shipment data from Jon Peddie Research indicates that the GPU add-in board (AIB) market fell off a virtual cliff over the past year, even with Intel entering the fray with its relatively affordable Arc A770 and Arc A750 graphics cards.
Unit shipments dropped 12.6 percent in the first quarter of 2023, which is rough. But in terms of year-over-year comparisons graphics card shipments continued to plummet, dropping a staggering 38.2 percent, according to JPR's latest research report. So, what happened to cause GPU shipments to slide so precipitously over the the past four quarters? A variety of factors played a role.
"Shipments of new AIBs were impacted by turn-down in the PC market due to inflation worries and layoffs, and people buying last-gen boards as suppliers sought to reduce inventory levels. With inventory being run down, sales of new-generation boards will pick up, but not until Q3," said Jon Peddie, JPR founder and president.
There's no direct mention of pricing, though we suspect that had a significant impact as well. Both AMD and NVIDIA launched new generation products—Radeon RX 7000 and GeForce RTX 40 series, respectively—and as is usually the case, both focused on the high-end segment out of the gate.
Only recently have we started to see more mainstream offerings like the Radeon RX 7600 and GeForce RTX 4060 Ti. One only need to take a peek at the Steam's monthly hardware survey for evidence that gamers flock in larger numbers to cheaper graphics cards.
Right now, for example, the GeForce GTX 1650 holds the biggest market share among Steam gamers (or at least those surveyed), followed by the GeForce GTX 1060.
Looking ahead, shipments will not fully rebound but there's still no need for companies to hit the panic button.
"Q2 is traditionally a down quarter, and the year won’t be any different, but probably not as severe as might be expected," Peddie added.
We also anticipate an uptick in shipments as more mainstream SKUs find their way into the marketplace, such as the GeForce RTX 4060 (non-Ti).
As far as the market share breakdown goes, NVIDIA continues to lead the pack at a dominating 84 percent share (down from 86 percent sequentially but up from 75 percent year-over-year), followed by AMD at 12 percent and Intel at 4 percent, according to JPR's latest GPU shipment report.
It will be interesting to see if Intel can continue to climb in share as time goes on, and if so, whether it will come at the expense of NVIDIA's share (as happened last quarter) or if it will chew into AMD's as well.
