Q4 PC graphics shipments: Nvidia maintaining its momentum while AMD gears up for Q1 rollout

Tiburon, CA—February 5,
2006—Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the
industry’s leading research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia,
today announced estimated graphics shipments and supplier market share for the
fourth calendar quarter of 2006. Detailed fourth-quarter results are available
in the Q4 2006 edition of Jon Peddie’s First Look, the firm’s quarterly graphics survey. The companion
report, Market Watch, provides an
in-depth look at the PC graphics market and includes unit shipment and segment
market share data, trend analysis, shipment forecasts, and profiles of major
suppliers.

Jon Peddie Research estimates
that approximately 83.5 million PC graphics devices shipped from major
suppliers in Q4 2006, a surprisingly small 0.9% increase from the prior quarter
and a 5.1% increase over the same period the previous year.

“Overall, we didn’t see the
big bang in Q4 this year everyone had hoped for,” says Dr. Jon Peddie, President
of Jon Peddie Research. “But, the mobile market is on fire, growing 13% this
quarter and an astonishing 34% year-to-year. Nvidia is the big success story in
that segment with the most growth, two quarters in a row.”

The desktop graphics segment saw shipments decline by 4.0% from Q3’06 to Q4’06 and shipments shrnk 4.2% year-to-year.
Desktop integrated graphics processor (IGP) shipments dropped 2.9% sequentially
(the second consecutive quarter of decline) and decreased 1.5% annually. Discrete desktop dropped by 6.0% on
a quarterly basis and 8.9% year-to-year.

“Vista, ATI’s new part (the
R600), and several new add-in boards (AIBs) from Nvidia are expected to pump up
the declining desktop discrete market,” Peddie added.

The mobile graphics segment saw quarterly shipments rise a dramatic 13.8% and grow 34.1% year-to-year.
Mobile IGP shipments drove growth in the laptop market in the second quarter
with 13.0% increase in shipments during the period, and discrete mobile
shipments grew a stunning 16.2% during the quarter and jumped 24.2% compared to
the same period the previous year.

“The laptop market has moved
to the large-screen, multimedia usage model,” says Peddie. “Now the criterion
for performance is being able to play a full-length movie on one battery
charge.”

JPR estimates that a record 25.8
million mobile graphics devices shipped in Q4’06, 19.7 million of which were
integrated chipsets (IGPs) for notebooks. Mobile IGPs claimed a commanding
share of 76.3% in the mobile graphics market, up 13.0% from the prior quarter
and up a dramatic 37.6% from the same period a year ago. Intel led the mobile
graphics market with a 49.8% share (down from 51.4%), AMD dropped to a 23.4%
share, and Nvidia jumped with a 22.9% market share gain for the quarter. SiS
and VIA saw declines in market share.

In the discrete mobile segment,
AMD saw shipments decline on a quarterly basis while Nvidia saw shipments
increase sequentially. Nvidia grew discrete mobile segment share from 53.0% in
Q3’06 to 59.1% in Q4’06. AMD’s segment share fell from 47.0% in Q3’06 to 40.9%
in Q4’06.

“Timing is everything in the
mobile market,” says Peddie, “and Nvidia had its mobile parts lined up and
ready to ship with Intel’s recent laptop rollout.”

JPR estimates that approximately
57.6 million desktop graphics devices shipped in Q4’06. Overall, Intel
held at 31.8% of the desktop graphics market, AMD increased to 22.8%, while
Nvidia declined to 31.0% market share. In the discrete desktop segment, Nvidia
also declined, to 53.8% share, and AMD grew to a 46.2% share during the period.

In the overall PC graphics
market, Intel saw a flat quarter in graphics shipments in Q4’06, but was
still the largest supplier of PC graphics devices worldwide. Nvidia remained
the second largest supplier in Q4’06 but with a minor 0.3% sequential decline
in shipments and decreased market share. AMD, the third largest reduced the gap
with Nvidia with a 3.0% sequential increase in shipments and increased market
share. The following table lists the ranking and relative market share, based
on unit shipments in Q3’06 and Q4’06, of the major graphics suppliers to the PC
industry.