AMD's market share continues to collapse, now resides at a troubling 18 percent

[Gabe Carey]

Back in Q4 2014, we caught word that Nvidia was ahead in the discrete GPU market with 76% market share, heavily outweighing AMD's contributions. At the time, Nvidia's highest performing card was the GTX 980. This was long before Titan X came out in March of this year, and the GTX 980 Ti in June, both of which boasted improved support for 4K gaming, no sweat.

The R9 390X was supposed to introduce a positive change for the Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker, but on the contrary, it was anything but revolutionary. Instead, it was just another reskin of the 300 series video cards.

Now, Nvidia has unsurprisingly taken yet another leap, pouncing AMD once again at a sudden boost from 76% market share in Q4 2014 to 82% in Q2 2015, acording to data acquired by Mercury Research. Even after issuing a slew of new products, AMD has failed to redeem itself assigning it a worrying label of 18% market share.

Curiously, even its futuristic R9 Fury X card couldn't save it from a disastrous year in sales. Tweaktown reports that this is due to a low manufacturing rate of the HBM1 modules, with only 30,000 units made over an entire year. Also problematic is the concern over performance comparisons with Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which has proved to be a better value in raw price vs. performance, especially if you overclock.

With so few on the market and so little difference between HBM1 and GDDR5 technology, incentive to buy AMD over Nvidia is marginal, at least presently. On top of that, the Fury X's AIO cooler while benefitial and attractive to prospective buyers of a high-end GPU, hasn't come without drawbacks.

Moving forward, Nvidia is planning to introduce its GP100 and GP104 next year, both sporting the forthcoming Pascal architecture. AMD, on the other hand, seems to be sticking with the Fiji architecture.

Likewise, Nvidia will be moving to the 16nm fabrication process and plans to skip HBM1 and attempt HBM2 head-on. With the new module, Nvidia will be able to present memory bandwidth of approximately 1 terabyte per second, nearly double that of the Fury X's 512GB/sec speeds.

Looking ahead, AMD can only hope that Nvidia releases one hell of a failed product in the coming year. Even in that unlikely scenario, it would be nearly impossible to regain its lost GPU market share considering it hasn't seen 35% since the first quarter of 2014.

Editor's note: Article edited to remove negative comment about the Fury X's cooler which is not our official stance, as published in our full review of the AMD Radeon Fury X.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/61832-amd-market-share-continues-collapse.html

 

[Lionvibez]

"Fury X's AIO cooler occupies an obtrusive amount of space in the chassis and provides little benefit to justify its inclusion."

I disagree with this statement.

As I have G10+H55 setup on my 7970Ghz, every modern case has a 120mm rear exhaust. Besides keeping the card running cooler and not dumping excessive heat in your case its also has lower noise level than most air coolers.

Unless I'm mistaken and you were trying to install this in some HTPC which would valid the space issue but not the other benefits.

 

[oldikes]

Lets look at AMDs console chip market share...

 

[Adhmuz]

Re-branding cards from 2012 for 2015 was s pretty big problem, adding more memory to an already aged GPU is not the way to get back your customers, it only pushes them away, in search of something newer and actually better. AMD has been slowly killing themselves off in both GPU and CPU divisions, anyone who knows anything will be building Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU right now, otherwise your on a budget, and that's still no excuse to. Go ahead and cry AMD fan boys, my first gen i7 is still faster than anything AMD has released in the last 6 years. GPU wise I was a supporter of the ATI side of things, my 5870s served me long and well, but since then I have been unimpressed with every GPU AMD has released since, with exception to Fury, but that's too little too late and too niche a market, nor does it logically make sense when held up to Maxwell's efficiency. As nice as it is to have two companies competing to keep the market fair, this is only worth anything when the two companies can actually compete with each other. For AMD to compete in either CPU or GPU division they'll need to kill off the other, and right now both are a dismal failures in my opinion.

 

[lived]

They should lay off many employees in marketing department, cut prices in half, hire some realy good mechanics and software engineers and try cooparate with sumsung...

 

[yRaz]

Lets look at AMDs console chip market share...

That's actually very good point, especially since console gaming out numbers PC gaming(unfortunately). Let's just hope AMD's next generation of CPU's are as good as they've been hyping them up to be. I miss the days of the Athlon X2's wiping the floor with pentium 4's. Ever since conroe it's been downhill for AMD. I'd love to see the red team make a comeback, but until then I'm sticking with Intel and nVidia.

 

[Lionvibez]

Lets look at AMDs console chip market share...

The market share may be high for the consoles but they aren't making much profit off it. This is the reason I heard that NV didn't care to lose this deal there wasn't enough money to be made on it at least with the margins the consoles makers wanted.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Looking ahead, AMD can only hope that Nvidia releases one hell of a failed product in the coming year.

The same way AMD has been hoping for Intel to screw up at some point the last decade? AMD needs a game changer and here recently everything they bring to the table is so inferior. I feel bad for AMD and their loyal followers.

Sure AMD's products might compete, but at what cost? Where do they have to push their products harder to make it happen? And yes, I'm talking about efficiency. What would happen to AMD if Intel and nVidia pushed their products to the limit the way AMD does. The only reason AMD is still operational is because Intel and nVidia are allowing them to continue.

 

[EEatGDL]

I'm going to repeat the observation another guy did in the Forbes article: the Fury X was released just 6 days before the end of the quarter, with scarce availability.

Lets look at AMDs console chip market share...

That's actually very good point, especially since console gaming out numbers PC gaming(unfortunately). Let's just hope AMD's next generation of CPU's are as good as they've been hyping them up to be. I miss the days of the Athlon X2's wiping the floor with pentium 4's. Ever since conroe it's been downhill for AMD. I'd love to see the red team make a comeback, but until then I'm sticking with Intel and nVidia.

What, last time I heard, PC gamers surpassed 700 millions. All the last-gen consoles sum op barely 40 million.

 

[yRaz]

What, last time I heard, PC gamers surpassed 700 millions. All the last-gen consoles sum op barely 40 million.

Well I'm too lazy and drunk to look for statistics on my own, but I will say that with the way developers treat PC gamers it certainly doesn't feel like we make up the larger market share. Of course, 700 million is 1/10 the world population so perhaps you're referring to gamers running starcraft on 10 year old hardware in third world countries

 

[Duckeenie]

Lets look at AMDs console chip market share...

That's actually very good point, especially since console gaming out numbers PC gaming(unfortunately). Let's just hope AMD's next generation of CPU's are as good as they've been hyping them up to be. I miss the days of the Athlon X2's wiping the floor with pentium 4's. Ever since conroe it's been downhill for AMD. I'd love to see the red team make a comeback, but until then I'm sticking with Intel and nVidia.

What, last time I heard, PC gamers surpassed 700 millions. All the last-gen consoles sum op barely 40 million.

Sony Network alone has over 100 Million subs.

 

[EEatGDL]

Well I'm too lazy and drunk to look for statistics on my own, but I will say that with the way developers treat PC gamers it certainly doesn't feel like we make up the larger market share. Of course, 700 million is 1/10 the world population so perhaps you're referring to gamers running starcraft on 10 year old hardware in third world countries

Yeah, by no chance are people playing GTA V. Just think of all the asian people, those who play just LoL, Dota, WoW, etc. I'm not intending to give figures about all the people that play different and recent titles.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I'm going to repeat the observation another guy did in the Forbes article: the Fury X was released just 6 days before the end of the quarter, with scarce availability.

Yeah, but when you have only 30000 (rumored) cards to sell throughout the year, it doesn't matter WHEN you launch it.

The fury x was a mistake. The modified GCN 1.2 bottlenecks itself, OC is a joke, and HBM was NOT ready for primetime.
They would have been better off rebuilding the 290x with gcn 1.2 rather then rebranding all their old stuff.

 

[EEatGDL]

Sony Network alone has over 100 Million subs.

Dude, "last-gen"... LAST... GEN... 9 million XB1s, 25M PS4s, 10M Wii Us. You're talking about PS3 and PS4 users, may include bots and people with multiple accounts; that's why I didn't mention the reported amount of active users in Steam.

Yeah, but when you have only 30000 (rumored) cards to sell throughout the year, it doesn't matter WHEN you launch it.

The fury x was a mistake. The modified GCN 1.2 bottlenecks itself, OC is a joke, and HBM was NOT ready for primetime.
They would have been better off rebuilding the 290x with gcn 1.2 rather then rebranding all their old stuff.

By no means I'll defend AMD, but of course the tendencies can't be turned up in one week. It does matter when things happen, market share reports are done each quarter; and in this industry: it's all about timing. Right now AMD doesn't deserve to be bashed, in fact, I feel bad for them.

 

[yRaz]

Yeah, by no chance are people playing GTA V. Just think of all the asian people, those who play just LoL, Dota, WoW, etc. I'm not intending to give figures about all the people that play different and recent titles.

I'm going on the assumption that many people in these Asian countries don't have money for new hardware and therefore aren't a target market of new gen developers.

Dude, "last-gen"... LAST... GEN... 9 million XB1s, 25M PS4s, 10M Wii Us. You're talking about PS3 and PS4 users, may include bots and people with multiple accounts; that's why I didn't mention the reported amount of active users in Steam.

The points you're making are solid, but wording in a more civil manner will allow more people to read and respond to them without bias.

By no means I'll defend AMD, but of course the tendencies can't be turned up in one week. It does matter when things happen, market share reports are done each quarter; and in this industry: it's all about timing. Right now AMD doesn't deserve to be bashed, in fact, I feel bad for them.

Please try to organize your comments into one post as much as possible.

 

[dividebyzero]

I'm going to repeat the observation another guy did in the Forbes article: the Fury X was released just 6 days before the end of the quarter, with scarce availability.

Mercury (and JPR for that matter) quote units shipped for revenue, not actual sales - which is why you see adjustments in figures retroactively on occasion as written-off inventory/ cancelled orders are factored in for parts that can't be sold.
Having said that, I doubt that any significant numbers of Fury/Fury X have been shipped - or will be shipped. Even if AMD shoved 30,000 out the door in the last six months of the year, it would be a drop in the bucket out of the ~ 25 million discrete cards that will be sold during that time. It might raise AMD's ASP a point or two, but that will likely be mitigated by AMD's aggressive price cutting (unless AIB's are absorbing all rebates they are offering) of 200 series cards and professional graphics boards.

 

[EEatGDL]

The points you're making are solid, but wording in a more civil manner will allow more people to read and respond to them without bias.

I think that post was balanced in tone, since the explanation after the "may" is more about considering other possibilities and not just the hard number. If I'm not being read correctly the first time, I think I deserve to be a little rude in my reply, without insulting. Probably a little too much rude; but I'm not childishly attacking the individual, just the reasoning used to counter my argument.

I may correct the XB1 sales figure to 13M according to vgchartz, but you get the point.

Please try to organize your comments into one post as much as possible.

Yeah, sorry. I had just posted one when the other post quoting me came up.

 

[yRaz]

I think that post was balanced in tone, since the explanation after the "may" is more about considering other possibilities and not just the hard number. If I'm not being read correctly the first time, I think I deserve to be a little rude in my reply, without insulting. Probably a little too much rude; but I'm not childishly attacking the individual, just the reasoning used to counter my argument.

I may correct the XB1 sales figure to 13M according to vgchartz, but you get the point.

Well I'm trying to give you contructive critizism here so you can be a contributing member of the community, but think of commenting more of writing an essay rather than a comment on facebook

Yeah, sorry. I had just posted one when the other post quoting me came up.

It's quite alright, I did the same thing when I was new until other members pointed it out to me. If you feel that you will be a long term member of the community it would be in your best interest to learn more about the "forum mode" posting system.

 

[Duckeenie]

Sony Network alone has over 100 Million subs.

Dude, "last-gen"... LAST... GEN... 9 million XB1s, 25M PS4s, 10M Wii Us. You're talking about PS3 and PS4 users, may include bots and people with multiple accounts; that's why I didn't mention the reported amount of active users in Steam.

I get that you said last gen but you used that as evidence to make a point about how many gamers there are currently.

 

[EEatGDL]

Having said that, I doubt that any significant numbers of Fury/Fury X have been shipped - or will be shipped. Even if AMD shoved 30,000 out the door in the last six months of the year, it would be a drop in the bucket out of the ~ 25 million discrete cards that will be sold during that time.

Yep, I know, I don't expect the trend to change as things are. Just that I think the article is kind of sensationalist; probably next quarter AMD stays flat in market share.

It's quite alright, I did the same thing when I was new until other members pointed it out to me. If you feel that you will be a long term member of the community it would be in your best interest to learn more about the "forum mode" posting system.

Done, I didn't realize I did consecutive posts twice. I knew about the forum mode, but didn't take the time to check the posts done before.

 

[yRaz]

Done, I didn't realize I did consecutive posts twice. I knew about the forum mode, but didn't take the time to check the posts done before.

Cool, I look forward to seeing your future posts. I have to go do more important things now like drink.

 

[Evernessince]

AMD did drop the ball but this article beats the hell out of them for the wrong reasons.

"With so few on the market and so little difference between HBM1 and GDDR5 technology, incentive to buy AMD over Nvidia is marginal, at least presently, perhaps explaining the colossal split in market share."

I don't really see how this supports Nvidia's market share numbers. HBM1 was never mean't to give a huge performance boost out of the gate (although higher resolutions are very promising). Moreover, HBM1 being on the flagship has always mean't it is going to have minimal impact on Market share numbers. How could you possibly expect something targeted at the 1% to effect the big picture? The Titan X, 980 Ti, and Fury X are all in the same boat. They all have limited production numbers but that's fine because these cards were never meant to be sold on a massive scale.

"On top of that, the Fury X's AIO cooler occupies an obtrusive amount of space in the chassis and provides little benefit to justify its inclusion."

Providing a subjective ( and one likely from someone who doesn't have much experience with a Fury X) opinion does nothing but add worthless chatter. As others have stated, the Cooler isn't not intrusive. The Fury and Fury X are both quite compact cards. This is just shameless bashing.

The quoted "next-gen" Nvidia numbers are nothing but speculation and only serve as filler. In reality, Nvidia and AMD aren't too far off. Nvidia has a slightly better architecture that's now been propagated down to the lower end while AMD only has a new tech at the very top. Maxwell is really only competing against tuned GCN 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 cards. In addition to that, Nvidia has a much larger marketing department.

To be honest, I've see Nvidia's marketing department on quite a few tech shows. They always go on about how they are "for gamers, by gamers" but to me they just seem like EA. If they were really gamers, they wouldn't lie about GPU specs, limit GPU options, or cripple games for a large portion of users.

 

[Julio Franco]

Agreed with some of the comments though the article in itself is not factually wrong, though presents facts in light of the huge widening gap in add-in graphics card sales between Nvidia and AMD which I'd say is even worrying.

Also, as noted in the article, we've edited the original story to remove a negative comment about the Fury X's cooler which is not our official stance, as published in our full review of the AMD Radeon Fury X.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I wonder if anyone has done a "trickle-down" study on GPUs...

That is, does overall market share in any way reflect what is happening at the top end?

IE: If FuryX was outselling Titan/980Ti, would we see a corresponding boost in the rest of their cards?

I ask this because while everyone seems to be focusing on the FuryX/980, clearly the vast majority of cards being sold are the "baby brothers" of these cards...

 

[hahahanoobs]

AMD needs to step the bleep up and lead instead of follow. They are all out of excuses.