Discrete GPU shipments down in Q2, AMD regains market share

Following on from another report earlier this month covering the entire graphics market, where Intel came on top once again thanks to its integrated offerings, JPR has released new market share figures related strictly to discrete add-in board (AIB) GPU shipments and sales during Q2 2012. The report considers GPUs used in desktop PCs, workstations, and servers, that are either factory installed or sold directly to consumers.

As usual, it was a two horse race between AMD and Nvidia. The latter still dominates the market but its share slipped 2.6 points to 59.3% during the quarter. Likewise, AMD rose 2.5 points to 40.3%. JPR attributes this to the introduction of the Radeon HD 7000 series and the success of the A10 Trinity APU. At the same time Nvidia suffered from supply constraints affecting its ability to ship more GPUs.

According to the market research firm, overall discrete graphics cards shipments during Q2 2012 were seasonally down in line with previous years. But unit shipments were also lower on a year-to-year comparison and on a quarter-to-quarter comparison -- total AIB shipments decreased from the previous quarter by 6.5% and 7% from the same quarter last year to 14.8 million units.

JPR still notes that the decline is less than the 10-year average of 11.3% for the quarter. Traditionally, sales pick up in Q3 but the firm didn’t venture to make any predictions, claiming this has been a very turbulent year and that the world-wide economic conditions are just too uncertain.