AMD GPU marketshare soars to 33.7 percent thanks to mining demand

Posted on Tuesday, February 27 2018 @ 12:47 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Jon Peddie Research published its latest add-in board report. The firm estimates video card sales fell 4.6 percent sequentially in Q4 2017, which is slightly more than the ten-year average of minus 4.4 percent. Compared with the same period a year ago, sales were up 9.7 percent.

AMD's marketshare rose to 33.7 percent in Q4 2017, up from 27.2 percent in Q3 2017 and 29.5 percent in Q4 2016. This was at the expense of NVIDIA, which saw its share decline from 72.8 percent in Q3 2017 to 66.3 percent in Q4 2017. Jon Peddie notes cryptocurrency miners bought an estimated 3 million video cards last quarter, with most of the demand going to AMD. This largely accounts for the increased marketshare of AMD.

Total video card sales came in at $4.4 billion in Q4 2017, so mining sales of $776 million accounted for roughly 17.6 percent of sales volume.

Q4 2017  GPU marketshare stats
“The add-in graphics board market behaved seasonally in Q4'17, decreasing 4.6% sequentially, explained Jon Peddie, president of the industry’s research consulting firm Jon Peddie Research. The seasonal ten-year average for Q4 is -4.4%%, and this year it was just below that, which we think is due to the sharp rise in prices driven by cryptocurrency miner’s demand.”

The market shares for the desktop discrete GPU suppliers shifted in the quarter too.

Over three million add-in boards (AIBs) were sold to cryptocurrency miners worth $776 million in 2017. AMD was the primary benefactor of those sales. Quarter-to-quarter graphics board shipments decreased 4.6% and increased 9.7% year-to-year.

The add-in graphics board market dropped in Q4'17, decreasing -4.6% sequentially.

The market for AIBs decreased this quarter due partially to seasonal demand, as well as price-elasticity caused by the increased price in AIBs as a result of the cryptocurrency miners demand.

AIBs using discrete GPUs are found in desktop PCs, workstations, servers, rendering and mining farms, and other devices such as scientific instruments. They are sold directly to customers as aftermarket products, or are factory installed by OEMs. In all cases, AIBs represent the higher end of the graphics industry with their discrete chips and private, often large, high-speed memory, as compared to the integrated GPUs in CPUs that share slower system memory.

The overall GPU shipments (integrated and discrete) are greater than desktop PC shipments due double-attach—the adding of an AIB to a system with integrated processor graphics, or a second AIB using either AMD’s Crossfire or Nvidia’s SLI technology.

Improved attach rate. The attach rate of AIBs in desktop PCs has declined from a peak of 84% in 2002 to a low of 36% in 2015, and steadily increased since then to 54% this quarter, a decrease of 23.0% from last quarter which was negative. Compared to this quarter last year it increased 15.8% which was pretty good.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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