JPR: Nvidia loses discrete graphics market share, still on top

The first quarter of the year saw some 19.03 million discrete graphics cards shipped worldwide, according to the latest numbers from Jon Peddie Research. This number represents a slight 0.2% increase over the 18.84 million recorded in Q4 2010 but was not enough to beat the year ago period. And though Nvidia remains the leader in unit shipments for the quarter, it actually saw a sequential drop of 2% from Q4, while AMD increased 5.7% during the same period.

In terms of market share, the green team now sits at 59.12%, dropping 1.65 percentage points from 60.77% last quarter and as much as 5.38 points from 64.50% in Q1 2010. Meanwhile, AMD went from 34.65% last year and 38.77% last quarter to 40.46% in Q1 2011. The company's upward trend is fueled by another successful Radeon series, which has been toe to toe with Nvidia's offerings when it comes to performance.

Note that these numbers only concern discrete graphics card shipments, which is why you don't see Intel listed in the chart above. JPR published results for combined discrete and integrated graphics shipments earlier this month, showing a 10.3% spike in shipments after a weak holiday quarter for the industry.

Intel led the pack controlling 54.4% of the market, well ahead of AMD's 24.8% cut. Nvidia further cemented its third-place position by dropping eight percentage points from the year ago quarter to 20%. The remaining portion was largely represented by Matrox and VIA/3, who had a combined share of 0.75%, while SiS was entirely off the map in Q1 2011.