During the epidemic, demand for graphics cards grew considerably as some people spent more time at home playing games, while others attempted to mine Ethereum for money. However, it appears that now that the world has reopened and Ethereum mining on GPUs is no longer viable, demand for desktop discrete GPUs has plummeted considerably. According to Jon Peddie Research, shipments of discrete graphics cards reached a 20-year low in Q3 2022.
In the third quarter, the industry sold around 6.9 million standalone graphics boards for desktop PCs — including the greatest graphics cards for gaming — and a comparable number of discrete GPUs for notebooks. According to JPR data, AMD, Intel, and Nvidia supplied approximately 14 million standalone graphics chips for desktops and laptops, a 42% decrease year over year.
Integrated GPU shipments totalled roughly 61.5 million units in Q3 2022.
In fact, 6.9 million desktop discrete add-in-boards (AIBs) shipped is the lowest number of graphics cards shipped since at least Q3 2005, and, given that sales of standalone AIBs were strong in the early 2000s because integrated GPUs were not good enough at the time, it is safe to say that shipments of desktop graphics boards will hit at least a 20-year low in Q3 2022.
Despite weakening demand for discrete graphics cards for desktops (unit sales were down 31.9% year on year), Nvidia not only maintained its advantage, but strengthened it with an 86% market share, its best ever, according to JPR. In comparison, AMD’s market share fell to roughly 10%, its lowest in several decades.
Intel, on the other hand, managed to capture 4% of the desktop discrete GPU market in just one quarter, which is rather impressive. Of course, the majority of AIB parts supplied by Intel in Q3 2023 were entry-level versions, but these were in high demand due to brand awareness and other factors.
However, there is a caveat when comparing desktop AIB sales to the early 2000s. Shipments of discrete laptop GPUs were lower in the early 2000s than they are today since there were fewer notebooks sold. As a result, it is feasible that in typical quarters, sales of standalone GPUs for desktops and notebooks would be similar to what we witnessed 15 – 17 years ago. Furthermore, as GPUs have become much more expensive, AMD and Nvidia have thrived in recent years.
It was already reported in November that sales of integrated and standalone GPUs fell in the third quarter as enthusiasts awaited Nvidia and AMD’s GeForce RTX 40-series and Radeon RX 7000-series discrete graphics boards, while PC makers were attempting to deplete stocks of their CPUs with built-in graphics. Nonetheless, although the overall market fell by roughly 25.1% year on year, the market for discrete GPUs fell by 42% year on year.
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