New data including in Market Watch and Add-in-Board Reports
In spite of boost from crytocurrency mining, GPU shipments decrease in the fourth quarter of 2017. Shipments were -1.5% compared to the previous quarter.
Year-to-year total GPU shipments decreased -4.8%, desktop graphics decreased -2%, notebooks decreased -7%. Over 363 million graphics units shipped in 2017.
AMD has increased its market share, thanks to solid new products and the crypto bounce, by 8.1%, Nvidia decreased -6%, and Intel decreased -2%.
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| Graphics Chip Market shares |
JPR has refined its database to calculate the effect of the crytocurrency boom. Over three million add-in boards (AIBs) were sold to cryptocurrency miners for $776 million in 2017. AMD was the primary benefactor of those sales.
Over all shipments show an ongoing decline in accordance with the industry trend towards declining PC sales over all. The annual growth in discrete desktop chips, when looked at in conjunction with AIB sales points to the effect of crypto currency mining.
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| The Graphics Chip Market according to JPR’s Market Watch Report. |
The fourth quarter is typically flat to slightly up from the previous quarter in the seasonal cycles of the past. For Q4'17, it decreased -1.5% from last quarter and was above the ten-year average of -3.40%.
“Gaming has been and will continue to be the primary driver for GPU sales, augmented by the demand from cryptocurrency miners.,” said Dr. Jon Peddie, President of Jon Peddie research. We expect demand to slacken from the miners as margins drop in response increasingly utilities costs and supply and demand forces that drive up AIB prices. Gamers can offset those costs by mining when not gaming, but prices will not drop in the near future.”
Quick highlights
- AMD’s overall unit shipments increased 8.08% quarter-to-quarter, Intel’s total shipments decreased -1.98% from last quarter, and Nvidia’s decreased -6.00%.
- The attach rate of GPUs (includes integrated and discrete GPUs) to PCs for the quarter was 134% which was down -10.06% from last quarter.
- Discrete GPUs were in 36.88% of PCs, which is down -2.67%.
- The overall PC market increased 5.93% quarter-to-quarter, and decreased -0.15% year-to-year.
- Desktop graphics add-in boards (AIBs) that use discrete GPUs decreased -4.62% from last quarter.
- Q4'17 saw no change in tablet shipments from last quarter.
- GPUs are traditionally a leading indicator of the market, since a GPU goes into every system before it is shipped, and most of the PC vendors are guiding cautiously for Q1’18.