Jon Peddie: GPU sales up 7.0 percent in Q1 2020

Posted on Friday, June 12 2020 @ 14:50 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Jon Peddie Research reports sales of discrete GPUs rose 7.0 percent year-over-year in Q1 2020. Not all is rosy though as sales decreased 19.5 percent versus the previous quarter, whereas the trend for the first quarter is usually "flat to down." NVIDIA gained some marketshare versus the previous quarter at the expense of AMD, but no massive shifts. Marketshare figures can be viewed below.
The JPR add-in-board quarterly report is part of the continuing research and tracing Jon Peddie Research performs and maintains for the PC computer graphics market.

The add-in board market decreased in Q1'20 from last quarter, while Nvidia gained market share for the quarter. Over $2.7 billion dollars of AIBs shipped in the quarter.

Year-to-year graphics add-on board shipments increased by 7.0% and decreased quarter-to-quarter by -19.5%

The market shares for the desktop discrete GPU suppliers shifted in the quarter too. Nvidia increased market share from last quarter, and AMD went down -1%. For the year, AMD increased its market share by over 7%.

Jon Peddie, president of JPR noted, “The trend of quarterly increases in AIB sales ended in Q1 due primarily to the Coronavirus pandemic and the stay at home mandates. The effects have been disruptive to the desktop PC and AIB market, but beneficial to the laptop market, somewhat at the expense of the desktop, and AIBs. That has unbalanced the seasonality, but we do not think it will have a major effect on the overall sales for the year.

We believe the stay at home orders are creating pent up demand. People have increased their gameplay and some new users have begun playing, adding to the demand. However, some of it will be offset due to the record-setting unemployment.”

Add-in boards (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 dedicated, often large, high-speed memory. Systems with integrated GPUs in CPUs share slower system memory.

The PC AIB market now has just two chip (GPU) suppliers which also build and sell AIBs. The primary suppliers of GPUs are AMD and Nvidia. With the anticipation that Intel will be entering the dGPU market later this year. There are 54 AIB suppliers. They are the AIB OEM customers of the two major GPU suppliers, which they call “partners.” Some of the AIB suppliers offer AMD and Nvidia-based products, and others offer only one or the other.

In addition to privately branded AIBs offered worldwide, about a dozen PC suppliers offer AIBs as part of a system, and/or as an option, and some offer AIBs as separate aftermarket products. We have been tracking quarterly AIB shipments since 1987—the volume of those boards peaked in 1999, reaching 114 million units when every PC had a graphics AIB in them. This quarter 9.5 million shipped.

The AIB market reached $17.3 billion last year and is forecast to be $18.7 billion by 2023. Since 1981, 1,311 million AIBs have been shipped.

The first quarter is normally flat to down from the previous quarter. This quarter it was down -19.5% from the last quarter. That is below the ten-year average of -9.7% which is very low when compared to the desktop PC market, which decreased -5.6% from the last quarter.
JPR Q1 2020 GPU marketshare report


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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