Desktop graphics sales rose 4.5%, according to the third quarter update from Jon Peddie Research.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry’s research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers’ market share for the third quarter of 2013.

3Q13 was the second quarter in a row to show a gain in shipments, up 1.6% quarter-to-quarter, but down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. AMD’s overall unit shipments decreased 4.2%, quarter-to-quarter, Intel’s total shipments increased 3.5% from last quarter, and Nvidia’s increased 2.3%. The attach rate of GPUs to PCs for the quarter was 137% which means only 73% of the PCs with embedded graphics are using them.

The overall PC market increased 6.8% quarter-to-quarter, but declined 7.6% year-to-year. The third quarter is when retailers stock up for the holiday season and is traditionally seasonably higher than previous quarters. The gain this quarter compared to pre-2008 years is smaller, but it is positive.

JPR says GPUs are traditionally a leading indicator of the market, since a GPU goes into every system before it is shipped and most of the PC vendors are guiding down to flat for 4Q13. 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.

The popularity of tablets and the persistent economic slowness are the most often mentioned reasons for the decline in the PC market. The CAGR for total PC graphics from 2012 to 2016 is  -2.7%; JPR expects the total shipments of graphics chips in 2016 to be 429 million units. In 2012 479 million GPUs were shipped and the forecast for 2013 is 436 million.

The ten-year average change for graphics shipments for quarter-to-quarter is a growth of 6.5%. This quarter is below the average with a 1.6% increase.

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.

The quarter in general

• AMD’s shipments of desktop heterogeneous GPU/CPUs, i.e., APUs jumped 27.8% from 2Q13 but declined 21.3% in notebooks. AMD’s discrete desktop shipments declined 3.1%, and notebook discrete shipments declined 4.5%. The company’s overall PC graphics shipments decreased 4.5%.
• Intel’s desktop processor-graphics EPG shipments decreased from last quarter by 1.1%, and Notebooks increased by 5.1%. The company’s overall PC graphics shipments increased 3.5%.
• Nvidia’s desktop discrete shipments showed the most growth,  up 8.2% from last quarter; however, the company’s notebook discrete shipments decreased 3.3%. The company’s overall PC graphics shipments increased 2.3%.
• Year-to-year this quarter AMD’s overall PC shipments declined 8.5%, Intel dropped 2.7%, Nvidia declined 18.7%, and VIA fell 82.4% from last year.
• Total discrete GPU (desktop and notebook) shipments were roughly flat from the last quarter (up 0.12%) and down 18.8% from last year for the same quarter due to the same problems plaguing the overall PC industry. Overall the trend for discrete GPUs is down with a CAGR from 2012 to 2016 of -5.7%.
• Ninety-nine percent of Intel’s non-server processors have graphics, and over 67% of AMD’s non-server processors contain integrated graphics; AMD still ships IGPs.

Year-to-year for the quarter, the graphics market decreased. Shipments were down 8.9 million units from this quarter last year.

Total Graphics Chip Market shares