Quarter-to-quarter graphics add-in board shipments increased significantly by 29.5% year-to-year and 3.0% quarter-to-quarter.

Unit shipments in the add-in board market increased in Q4’21 from last quarter, while AMD gained market share. Over $13.5 billion worth of AIBs shipped in the quarter.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Jon Peddie Research, AIB shipments during Q4’21 increased from the previous quarter by 3%, which is well above the 10-year average of -2.8%. AMD’s quarter-to-quarter total desktop AIB unit shipments, meanwhile, increased 12.4% and increased 35.7% from that quarter in the previous year. Nvidia’s quarter-to-quarter unit shipments increased 0.5% and increased 27.7% from Q4’20. Nvidia continues to hold a dominant market share position at 77.2%.

The AIB market reached $51.8 billion over the last four quarters. JPR forecasts it to reach $52.2 billion by 2023. Intel’s entry into the market could, due to the strength of its brand and position with OEMs, create an increase in the unit shipments and TAM. Intel says it plans to ship AIBs in Q2’22.

The relative changes from quarter to quarter are illustrated in the following chart.

Add-in boards (AIBs) use discrete GPUs (dGPUs) with dedicated memory. Desktop PCs, workstations, servers, rendering and mining farms, and scientific instruments use AIBs. Consumers and enterprises buy AIBs from resellers or OEMs. They can be part of a new system or installed as an upgrade to an existing system. Systems with AIBs represent the higher end of the graphics industry. Entry-level systems use integrated GPUs (iGPUs) in CPUs that share slower system memory.

With the help of the rise of esports and the growing popularity of PC gaming, AMD and Nvidia have been reporting record game segment revenues over the past quarters.

Quick highlights

• JPR found that AIB shipments during the quarter increased from the last quarter by 3%, which is well above the 10-year average of -2.8%.
• Total AIB shipments increased by 29.5% this quarter from the same quarter last year to 13.1 million units and were up from 12.72 million units from the previous quarter.
• AMD’s quarter-to-quarter total desktop AIB unit shipments increased 12.4% and increased 35.7% from the same quarter last year.
• Nvidia’s quarter-to-quarter unit shipments increased 0.5% and increased 27.7% from last year’s Q4. Nvidia continues to hold a dominant market share position at 77.2%.
• AIB shipments from year-to-year increased by 29.5% compared to last year.

Dr. Jon Peddie, president of JPR, noted, “Intel is poised to enter the AIB market in 2022. It is unknown if the company will sell add-in-boards as AMD and Nvidia do, or just offer chips. The company is entering the market at a high point and may be surprised when the hangover of COVID and  crypto mining falls off. The big question most people are asking is how much market share will the company take?”

JPR has been tracking AIB shipments quarterly since 1987—the volume of those boards peaked in 1998, reaching 116 million units. In 2020, 42 million shipped. In 2021, over 50 million AIBs shipped through the year.

Pricing and availability

Jon Peddie Research’s AIB Report is now available and sells for $2,750. The annual subscription price for JPR’s AIB Report is $5,500 and includes four quarterly issues and four hours of consulting. Subscribers to JPR’s TechWatch are eligible for a 10% discount. Bundle packages are also available. For information about purchasing the AIB Report, please call (415) 435-9368 or visit the Jon Peddie Research website at www.jonpeddie.com.

Contact Robert Dow at JPR ([email protected]) for a free sample of any of our reports.

About Jon Peddie Research

Dr. Jon Peddie has been active in the graphics and multimedia fields for more than 30 years. Jon Peddie Research is a technically oriented multimedia and graphics research and consulting firm. Based in Tiburon, California, JPR provides consulting, research, and other specialized services to technology companies in various fields, including graphics development, multimedia for professional applications and consumer electronics, high-end computing, and Internet-access product development. JPR’s Market Watch is a quarterly report focused on PC graphics controllers’ market activity for notebook and desktop computing.

Company Contact:
Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research
415/435-9368
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Robert Dow, Jon Peddie Research
415/435-9368
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