Home / Component / Graphics / Nvidia’s discrete desktop GPU market share hits highest level ever – Mercury Research

Nvidia’s discrete desktop GPU market share hits highest level ever – Mercury Research

Since the introduction of its graphics processing units based on the second-generation “Maxwell” architecture in the third quarter of 2014, Nvidia Corp. has been steadily growing its share in the market of discrete graphics cards for desktop computers. In Q2 2015 the company’s share set a record: the company shipped more than 80 per cent of GPUs.

Shipments of standalone graphics processing units for personal computers have been declining for many years as integrated graphics processors have been gaining performance and feature-set. According to Mercury Research, sales of discrete graphics processing units for desktops declined by 18.2 per cent, whereas shipments of GPUs for notebooks decreased by 34.1 per cent year-over-year in the Q2 2015. The on-year decline is the worst since the Q1 2009, when sales dropped due to the deep recession and inventory correction caused by the 2008 financial crisis.

“Both desktop and mobile GPU attach rates fell in the quarter, with mobile GPU attach rates down steeply,” said Dean McCarron, the head of Mercury Research. “The declines were caused by lower OEM GPU shipments, likely due to inventory adjustments ahead of new product launches in the second half of 2015.”

nvidia_geforce_gtx_980_ti_style

But while GPUs in general are losing popularity, shipments of discrete graphics processors used by gamers have been growing as the PC is gaining importance as a gaming platform. Since sales of gaming GPUs are on the rise, despite vast drops of volumes, market revenues were not impacted much at all because gaming is growing and most of the unit decline was in GPUs sold to OEMs at very low prices.

Nvidia GeForce is a particularly popular brand among gamers, which is why Nvidia has been enjoying great sales of GPUs recently. Moreover, Since Q2 2014 the company has managed to significantly increase its market share. Based on data from Mercury Research, in Q2 2014 the company shipped 82 per cent of all standalone GPUs for desktops. The slide from Nvidia’s presentation (which authenticity has been confirmed) published by TweakTown reveals that AMD’s share has been declining for about a year now.

47105_06_amds-gpu-market-share-drops-again-even-release-fury_full

It should be noted that in a bid to filter out oddities in share due to inventory adjustments, one-off events and other occurrences, Mercury Research reports its market share-related findings as a four-quarter volume-weighted average to smooth the noise of seasonal inventory cycles and reveal ongoing share trends. According to Dean McCarron, the average is done because both Nvidia and AMD have large spikes/downturns in shipments due to inventory adjustments, and because the inventory cycles of the companies are not aligned.

“This makes sell-in share very noisy; in contrast the sell-out does not see nearly so much share variation, so it's an attempt to get the sell-in data to reflect reality rather than noise,” said Mr. McCarron.

While the diagram above is accurate and represents AMD’s and Nvidia’s GPU sell-in numbers (i.e., the share of GPUs that AMD and Nvidia sell to their partners), the diagram below is a four-quarter volume-weighted average, which may better represent actual sales of discrete desktop GPUs to the consumer.

mercury_gfx_mkt_shares

Even when possible “spikes” are “smoothed”, it is evident from both graphs that AMD’s share is declining, whereas Nvidia’s share is growing. This is a particularly alarming trend for AMD, which is losing its CPU market share as well.

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KitGuru Says: Given current GPU and graphics cards production cycles, it is unlikely that AMD manages to regain its market share from Nvidia any time soon unless it releases a breakthrough product that simply stops Nvidia’s sales. In a bid to actually fight back the share, AMD now needs to produce the right amount of competitive GPUs first, which means securing capacities and spending massive amount of cash.

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9 comments

  1. When a company is more engaged in internal fighting than getting products of a high quality out of the door, this is what happens. After AMD’s new line-up, it was clear the company hadn’t a clue what it was doing – it advertised Fury X as a Titan killer and overclockers dream. It was neither of these by a long shot, making you wonder who on earth setup the marketing campaign.

  2. Where did AMD, the company advertise the Fury X as a “Titan Killer” and an “oveclocker’s dream”?
    The part whit the oveclocker’s dream was only some comment an AMD engineer made. He was clearly wrong or maybe he tested the card in other ways, tools and not in real world situations.

    Anyway in September AMD will launch something Nvidia can’t match and that is the Fury X2 price it at 1000$ and there you have your Titan Killer.

  3. If you’ve been watching every announcement and discussion from AMD and things Lisa Su had mentioned, then it was indicated to be an incredible product. When AMD said it would be a Titan Killer this was back in February, when AMD said it would be an Overclocker’s Dream this was within weeks of release. When reality hit the fan, they kept a lid on it all the way till release in order to trick people into buying an inferior product.

  4. Great, a dual-GPU card like the R9 295×2 that nobody in his right mind ever bought.

    Just like all those GTX 690’s you see going for less than half the original price within a year of its release.

    Keep dreaming though.

  5. Everybody who wanted a 295×2 bought one.
    The Fury X2 will be the fastest single card solution on the market.

  6. You are just making stuff up.
    Again AMD the company didn’t advertise Fury X as a Titan killer and overclockers dream?
    And the part whit overclockers dream was mentioned by one of AMD chief engineers the same day the Fury X was launched, it was just his own comment and haters act like AMD advertised the Fury X that way.
    Also Lisa Su always talked abut Fury X from a technical point of view.

    Where did AMD the company say Fury X would be a Titan Killer?

  7. I don’t have to explain this… just use google… Also, Lisa Su had an interview which she stated that people would be very pleased with its overclocking. And prior to that in the earlier months… Like I said reps touted HBM that it would be Titan Killer, which fed through to the masses and people repeated the phrase.

  8. There is noting to google about, you are just twisting words here and there.

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