GPU shipments jumped 42% in Q2 as AMD's market share declined

In a nutshell: Given that the chip shortage is dominating headlines, one might expect the GPU and CPU markets to have shrunk, but the opposite is true. GPU shipments in Q2 2021 increased a massive 37% year-on-year and 3.4% sequentially. Out of the three graphics companies, Nvidia and Intel gained more of the pie, while AMD's market share declined.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR) writes that 123 million GPUs shipped during the second quarter. It was also a good Q2 for CPUs, which experienced a 42% YoY increase in shipments. The company writes that the install base of GPUs will grow at an annual rate of 3.5% over the next four years, reaching 3,318 million units by 2025. Discrete GPUs, meanwhile, will grow to reach a level of 25%.

Looking at market shares, which include integrated GPUs, Intel continues to lead with 68.29% (up 0.1%). It's followed by AMD on 16.48% (down -0.2%) then Nvidia with 15.23% (up 0.06%). In terms of shipments, however, all companies saw sequential increases: AMD shipments increased 2.3%, Intel's shipments rose 3.6%, and Nvidia's shipments increased 3.8%.

JPR notes that overall GPU shipments in Q2 are usually down compared to the previous quarter, but they increased by 3.4% QoQ this year.

It's a different picture in the world of dedicated GPUs, of course. Nvidia now takes 83% of that market, up 2%, while AMD has fallen to 17%. Both companies have struggled to meet demand since their respective new graphics cards arrived, but team green has coped a lot better than its rival---as reflected in the most recent Steam survey.

PC dGPU shipment market shares

Intel recently announced that the first product in its Arc consumer discrete graphics brand, Alchemist, would arrive in the first quarter of 2022, so Chipzilla should eventually join Nvidia and AMD on the dGPU list.

Here are some of the report's other highlights:

• The GPU's overall attach rate (which includes integrated and discrete GPUs, desktop, notebook, and workstations) to PCs for the quarter was 117%, down -0.1% from last quarter.
• Desktop graphics add-in boards (AIBs that use discrete GPUs) decreased by -2.9% from the last quarter.
• This quarter saw a 3.4% rise in tablet shipments from last quarter.

"Covid has distorted every forecasting model in the universe---even Moore's Law has been disrupted. Predictions based on short-term conditions have created conflicting and distorted estimates from some quarters that will be proven wrong and embarrassing," said JPR president Jon Peddie.

As for when the graphics card market will start to see a return to normality for consumers, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently warned that the current supply issues would last the vast majority of 2022. We've also heard that chip delivery times had reached record levels of 20 weeks.