Video card sales again dropped compared to last year





That there have been some massive changes and shifts in GPU sales should not come as a surprise as the mining segment pretty much collapsed, and newer model graphics cards have become too expensive for the majority of people. The research was conducted by Jon Peddie Research. In their latest report, they show some interesting figures.
The numbers for the fourth quarter of 2018 overall show that the GPU sales fell by 2.65 percent compared to the previous quarter, AMD's sales where down 6.81 percent, Nvidia with 7.62 percent and Intel's 0.67 percent.
Compared to the previous quarter, Intel went with market share of both AMD and Nvidia, the latter two had a decrease of 0.6 and 0.82 percent respectively. On an annual basis, gpu sales fell by 3.3 percent, the video card market had a decrease of 20 percent.
According to JPR, the reason for this large decline lies in the large surplus of cards at the start of 2018, while demand fell sharply as a result of the collapse of the crypto market, which was also cited in the report for the third quarter. According to the company, this decline would continue in the first and second quarters of this year.
The PC GPU market decreased year-to-year by (3.3)%, sequentially GPU shipments decreased (2.6)%
Jon Peddie Research, the market research firm for the computer graphics industry, has released its quarterly Market Watch report on world-wide GPU shipments used in PCs for Q4'18. Overall GPU shipments decreased -2.65% from last quarter, AMD shipments decreased -6.8% Nvidia decreased -7.6% and Intel's shipments, decreased -0.7%.
AMD's market share from last quarter decreased -0.6%, Intel's increased 1.4%, and Nvidia's market share decreased -0.82%. Year-to-year total GPU shipments decreased -3.3%, desktop graphics decreased -20%, notebooks increased 8%. Although overall GPU shipments declined PC sales saw an uptick of 1.61% which is a positive sign for the market overall.
"The channel's demand for add-in boards (AIBs) in early 2018 was out of sync with what was happening in the market," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president and founder of Jon Peddie Research. "As a result the channel was burdened with too much inventory. That has impacted sales of discrete GPUs in Q4, and will likely be evident in Q1, and Q2'19 as well."
The fourth quarter is typically flat to up from the previous quarter in the seasonal cycles of the past. For Q4'18 it decreased -2.7% from last quarter and was below the ten-year average of an 11.59% increase.
Quick highlights
- AMD's overall unit shipments decreased -6.81% quarter-to-quarter, Intel's total shipments decreased -0.67% from last quarter, and Nvidia's decreased -7.62%.
- The attach rate of GPUs (including integrated and discrete GPUs) to PCs for the quarter was 135% which was down -5.92% from last quarter.
- Discrete GPUs were in 27.78% of PCs, which is down -3.83% from last quarter.
- The overall PC market increased by 1.61% quarter-to-quarter, and decreased -3.79% year-to-year.
- Desktop graphics add-in boards (AIBs) that use discrete GPUs decreased -10.75% from last quarter.
- Q4'18 saw a no change in tablet shipments from last quarter.
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 cautiously for next quarter.
For those who wish to understand the PC market, an understanding of the highly complex technology and ecosystem that has been built around the GPU is essential to understanding the market's future directions.
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 cautiously for next quarter.
For those who wish to understand the PC market, an understanding of the highly complex technology and ecosystem that has been built around the GPU is essential to understanding the market's future directions.
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I gladly upgrade for half the price.
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Happy that Nvidia is supporting Freesync now. That's a good thing for everybody

I'm still torn between justifying the purchase of a 1080p/1440p card considering how little gaming I do on my PC now compared to console. Let alone deciding on if I want to shell out $50+ on the ASUS STRIX 1660 Ti O6G, a different version of the 1660 or opt for the RTX 2060.
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I expected a bigger decline now that mining is over. This is actually impressive to me. When you factor in the inflated numbers of the last year or so.
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so why arent 580s going for 80 bucks then
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Don´t tell me people don´t want more expensive cards that are barely faster than current cards... Shocked...

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The decline is larger than I expected - AMD down by 6.8% and Nvidia down by 7.6% (Intel iGPUs don't really count IMO). These are also quarter-by-quarter numbers, which is well after the mining crash, although part of it is probably due to the hangover (oversupply of mid-range GPUs).
I think these figures reflect the overall situation in the GPU market. There aren't many compelling upgrade options from either company so no reason to upgrade - AMD continues selling Polaris and Vega and Nvidia has yet to release a mainstream Turing GPU. As the report states, this will continue for some time.
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I think people are just pissed off they can't get a 1080ti anymore. These new cards all suck, except the 1660ti which is basically borderline OK for a new gen card. It's acceptable. It would have been great at $250, but AMD left the building, so...
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Majority of people are playing at 1080p or even 720p resolutions(maybe not 720 so much), with that you really can get away with anything 770 and above on the Nvidia side, or most GCN based cards on the AMD side. On top of that, pricing for hardware now and adaptation of newer standards is really slow. Just about 10 years ago, you could buy an 8800 GT for $250 and play games with that for a good few years, buying a 5 year old card that was $250 now wouldn't get you too far...
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I dont see prices ever returning to normal and even though the 20 series isn't that great or much of an improvement from the last generation people would buy them if the prices weren't so ludicrous. I hope their greed hurts them because they deserve it at this point.
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in the time frame when rtx first launched until now .. there hasnt been much demanding titles that 10 series cards from nvidia or amd rx series that would require an upgrade to a newer gpu.
Shadow of the tomb raider, battlefield v, metro exodus, FF15 etc... sure they had dlss support and dxr but they are not enough to drive gpu sales..
The pricing of the rtx cards doesnt help boost the sales either ...
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I'm giving Nvidia the benefit of the doubt that introducing new tech is indeed expensive, and RTX is new tech. Still too expensive for me, and my tri 980ti still do fine.
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If prices were the only problem, AMD would not have gone down 6.8% as it has cheap graphics cards.
At this point the market is stagnant, there is nothing from AMD and Nvidia that is really worth investing compared to the last 2~3 years.
Most are waiting for Nvidia and AMD to make serious progress with 7nm cards.
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hardly shocking and to battle this they will increase prices I bet. in e 3- 4 years when, IF i make new pc i wonder what prices will be. I already weary prices and if they keep going up I will just stick to consoles
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Considering that the gpu sales do not reflect pc gaming market in the least I'd say yeah it is on the rise. Games sold is a better thing to look at.
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sure, high prices fault, videocards with prices so much higher than last series and same improvement percentage like always