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Demand for graphics cards drops dramatically in Q1 – report

The first quarter of 2015 is not over, but manufacturers of various computer components can already make conclusions about demand for their products during the period. A media report citing makers of graphics cards suggests that sales of discrete desktop graphics adapters may hit record low levels in Q1 2015.

Shipments of standalone graphics cards in the first quarter of 2015 are projected to decrease by whopping 20 – 25 per cent quarter-over-quarter, reports DigiTimes citing sources in the industry. The decline from Q4 to Q1 is unprecedented. According to Jon Peddie Research, shipments of graphics add-in-boards (AIBs) decreased 6.7 per cent sequentially in Q1 2014, whereas the 10-year average drop is 3.2 per cent.

JPR recently found that around 12.4 million discrete desktop graphics adapters for desktop computers were shipped by various manufacturers in Q4 2014. If the DigiTimes’ report is correct, then sales of graphics cards will drop to 9.3 – 9.92 million units this quarter, which will be the first time in the recent history, when quarterly shipments of graphics adapters will drop to below 10 million units per quarter. Traditionally, sales of graphics cards are also not strong in the second quarter, hence, further declines are possible.

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The report claims that the recent scandal with specifications of Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX 970 graphics card slowed down demand for such adapters as customers preferred to wait until Nvidia drops the price of the graphics solution. It is noteworthy that the recent launch of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 960 graphics card did not stimulate sales significantly.

Nvidia currently dominates the market of discrete desktop graphics cards with 76 per cent share, according to JPR. Advanced Micro Devices commands 24 per cent of the market.

AMD and Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

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KitGuru Says: Looks like the times are not exactly good for graphics cards business. Considering the fact that AMD will only introduce its new lineup of graphics adapters in June, do not expect sales of discrete AIBs to improve until late Q2 or Q3. In fact, since the third quarter is traditionally good for sales of graphics cards, it will be not be easy to determine whether the new Radeon graphics adapters or seasonality will drive demand.

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7 comments

  1. Irishgamer Gamer

    Product and price…..
    Nvidia has product at the wrong price.
    AMD have price but the wrong product.

    I don’t accept the silicon in the Titan x cost much more to make than what is in the 960.
    (Assuming similar production run levels). What is needed is a Titan level jump in Performance
    at a 970 price point.

    Also isn’t DX12 suppose to boost performance, so could dampen demand, although older cards may
    not fully support DX12, they will clearly be given a performance boost which means they might last another year or two

  2. Rick N April Dyson

    Nvidia sold over 2 million gtx970 and then over a million gtx960. After this people find out that Nvidia labeled their gtx970 as the same as the gtx 980 but less cores.. After all the pc nerds loved the gtx970 till they push it hard and start showing it’s weak in the memory front and will never come close to gtx 980 cause of it..So yeah you sold everyone a card that needed one and now Hitting the rich folks with this titan x, Amd has nothing to offer at the moment. So 1 sold tons of cards in 2014 Q4, 2 no games are out that need a bigger Gpu, 3 4k tvs are overprice for the common JO. Last gtx 970 show people Nvidia loves money and used tricks to sell all of their crappy gpus that didn’t fit the gtx980.

  3. % = percent
    I’m waiting for the 390x

  4. Rick N April Dyson

    Yeah I forgot that dx 12 will boost games but also with SLI you can add up the memory in dx 12 might help push more sales for gpus.. Mostly I think why the slow down is.. Nvidia screwed up and got caught pushing gtx970 that was told to be as fast as the gtx 980 when overclocked since only cores are the thing that separates them but later find out the specs are wrong after xmas sales… too many gpus in the market now. We need more games and cheaper 4k screens for more gpu sales. I see the gtx 970 going down to $299 and gtx980 to $499 after amd launches 300’s

  5. The price is so much in many countries. It is hard to people will small pocket , to even think for a upgrade as almost all component price got higher. ALso problem is in many region like me PC Market is termed as luxury market where a buying a pc component like good card or PSU or something will fetch equal extra tax as a luxury car , if not a AUDI !

  6. I do think the neglect of the bitcoin course and thus the amount of profit you earn by mining it also plays a part in this GPU demand declination.

  7. Demand is probably at an all-time high, but since no real innovation on the graphicscard front nor any real performance gain has been archieved over the last two years, people are gonna wait for the AMD 300 series or Nvidias Pascal.