AMD gained marketshare in GPU market thanks to cheaper Polaris cards

Last week we wrote about AMD's rising marketshare in the overall graphics market. The summary of the Jon Peddie report didn't contain a lot of details on how the company achieved this but FUD Zilla got to the bottom of this and heard that it was not Navi, but low priced Polaris-based Radeon RX 570 and Radeon RX 580 cards that helped AMD to recapture marketshare.

The site heard AMD's reference-based Navi cards didn't sell well as people are waiting for AIB cards with better coolers. FUD Zilla says AMD's increased marketshare is largely the result from clearing out inventory, by selling cards at very thin margins. The reporter explains that this is very different than the strategy that NVIDIA follows, the green team does not want these low-margin markets.

Radeon 570, and 580, ironically Raja Koduri and Hook legacy got AMD’s market share gain. These cards are more than two years old and were selling for less than half of its original Suggested retail price - SRP. AMD’s graphics business unit management had to drop these cards and sell them before the new one comes out. This is not extraordinary and is the right way to do it, just with the best possible price and margins for the benefit of one’s CFO. The ability to sell Polaris 570 and 580 after Navi came out dramatically decreased.

AMD is also selling a lot of Radeon 550 cards that sell for well below 90 Euro price point. Newegg has these cards for $78.99 price point. Market share is being gained with such products, and unfortunately, this is the market that no one wants. The sales margins are incredibly thin at this market.