New JPR report says desktop graphics sales up 3% second quarter in a row.
There was a small rise in graphics chip shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the latest market report from Jon Peddie Research. The rise reflects a small increase in PC sales, after several quarters of decline, the second straight quarter of upturn.
According to the latest edition of Jon Peddie Research Market Watch, total graphics chip sales were up 1.6% quarter-to-quarter, and up 2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2012.
Results from the three leading vendors:
- AMD overall unit shipments decreased 10.4% sequentially
- Intel total shipments increased 5.1% sequentially
- Nvidia total shipments increased 3.4% sequentially.
The attach rate of GPUs to PCs for the quarter was 137%; 34% of PCs had discrete GPU—which means 66% of shipping PCs in the quarter used embedded graphics. The overall PC market increased 1.8% quarter-to-quarter, but declined 8.5% year-to-year. For 1Q13 most PC vendors are guiding down to flat.
The popularity of tablets and the persistent economic slowness are the most often mentioned reasons for the decline in the PC market. The one bright spot in the PC market has been the growth of gaming PCs where discrete GPUs play a significant role.
The ten-year average change for graphics shipments for quarter-to-quarter is -2 %. This quarter is 1.6% suggesting the market may have bottomed out and is slowly recovering. However, one quarter does not a market make, up or down.
JPR’s findings include discrete and integrated graphics (CPU and chipset) for Desktops, Notebooks (and Netbooks), and PC-based commercial (i.e., POS) and industrial/scientific and embedded. This report does not include handhelds (i.e., mobile phones), x86 Servers or ARM-based Tablets (i.e. iPad and Android-based Tablets), or ARM-based Servers. It does include x86-based tablets, and x86-based Chromebooks.
AMD’s shipments of desktop APUs (heterogeneous GPU/CPUs) jumped 15% from the previous quarter but declined 26.7% in notebooks. AMD’s discrete desktop shipments increased 1.8%, and notebook discrete shipments declined 6.7%. The company’s overall PC graphics shipments decreased 10.4%. Notebook build cycles are specific, and AMD was late with its new parts.
- Intel’s desktop processor-graphics EPG shipments increased from last quarter by 5.2%, and Notebooks increased by 5.1%. The company’s overall PC graphics shipments increased 5.1%.
- Nvidia’s desktop discrete shipments were up 3.6% from last quarter; and its notebook discrete shipments increased 3.2%. The company’s overall PC graphics shipments increased 3.4%.
- Year-to-year this quarter AMD’s overall PC graphics shipments declined 5.4%, Intel increased 5.4%, Nvidia increased 0.9%, and Others fell 77% from last year.
- Total discrete GPU (desktop and notebook) shipments were up 1.5% from the last quarter and down 2.4% from last year for the same quarter due to the same problems plaguing the overall PC industry. Overall, the trend for discrete GPUs is roughly flat with a CAGR from 2013 to 2017 of-1.3%.
- 99% of Intel’s non-server processors have graphics, and over 67% of AMD’s non-server processors contain integrated graphics; AMD still ships integrated graphics chipsets (IGPs).
Year-to-year for the quarter, the graphics market decreased. Shipments were down 1.6 million units from this quarter last year, which suggests the big declines are leveling off.
| Market Share 4Q13 |
Market Share 3Q13 |
Unit Chg. Qtr-Qtr |
Share Change Qtr-Qtr |
Market Share 4Q12 |
|
| AMD | 18.3% | 20.7% | -10.4% | -2.4% | 19.7% |
| Intel | 65.1% | 62.9% | 5.1% | 2.2% | 63.0% |
| Nvidia | 16.6% | 16.3% | 3.4% | 0.29% | 16.8% |
| Others | 0.07% | 0.12% | -43.7% | -0.06% | 0.542% |
Total graphics chip market shares
Graphics chips (GPUs) and chips with graphics (IGPs, APUs, and EPGs) are a leading indicator for the PC market. At least one and often two GPUs are present in every PC shipped. It can take the form of a discrete chip, a GPU integrated in the chipset or embedded in the CPU. The average has grown from 1.2 GPUs per PC in 2001 to almost 1.4 GPUs per PC.
Pricing and availability
The Jon Peddie Research’s Market Watch is available now in both electronic and hard copy editions, and sells for $2,500. Included with this report is an Excel workbook with the data used to create the charts, the charts themselves, and supplemental information. The annual subscription price for JPR’s Market Watch is $4,000 and includes four quarterly issues. Full subscribers to JPR services receiveTech Watch (the company’s bi-weekly report) and a copy of Market Watch as part of their subscription. For information about purchasing Market Watch, visit the Jon Peddie Research website at www.jonpeddie.com.
