GPU Shipments Declined Sequentially In Q1, But AMD’s Overall Share Increased

Jon Peddie Research (JPR) has published its latest report that looks at the overall GPU industry. The latest report shows that the GPU market increased year-to-year by a scant 3.4% while GPU shipments have declined compared to last quarter to the tune of 10%. That decline may show that the cryptocurrency mining boom is waning, which is good news for gamers. Despite GPU shipments declining on the quarter, JPR says that the crypto market is still having a significant influence on the PC graphics market overall.

Compared to the same quarter of last year, JPR’s data shows that the overall GPU shipments increased 3.4%, desktop graphics increased 14% while notebooks decreased 3%. While shipments decreased overall, AMD saw a smaller decrease than both Intel and NVIDIA. AMD’s shipments declined 3% compared to last quarter while NVIDIA decreased 10% and Intel saw an 11% drop. AMD was able to increase its market share thanks to new products for workstations that launched this quarter and crypto mining.

At the close of the quarter, AMD held 14.9% of the graphics market compared to the 14.2% it held last quarter. NVIDIA holds the same exact 18.4% of the market this quarter that it had last quarter. Intel still holds the lion’s share of the GPU market but did cede some to AMD in the quarter with 66.6% of the market this quarter compared to 67.4% last quarter.

The cryptocurrency mining market is still significant with JPR data showing that over three million add-in boards were sold to miners in 2017 worth $776 million. In Q1 2018, another 1.7 million cards were sold to miners. JPR reports that it believes the market for crypto mining AIBs is saturated and all the miners who wanted cards got them. Gamers who stopped buying video cards due to increasing prices and poor availability should see pricing start to come back down and supply increase. A surge in demand is expected in Q2, helping to mitigate the usual decline in that quarter.

Despite a predicted surge, GPU makers are lowering guidance for the quarter. Other notable facts from the JPR report include that the attach rate for GPUs to PCs this quarter was 140%, up 5.75% from last quarter. That percentage includes both integrated and discrete GPUs.