AMD GPU Shipments up 22.6% In Q4’19

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The latest quarterly report put out by Jon Peddie Research has revealed that AMD GPU shipments went up 22.6% in Q4 of 2019. On the other side of things NVIDIA’s shipments actually went down. It really is not surprise to see AMD GPU shipments increase as their cards are affordable and they have pretty much every segment coverage except 4K gaming. This increase is thanks to AMD’s 7nm Navi GPUs which were announced back in late 2019.

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NVIDIA’s shipments were down 1.9%, which is likely to the Turing lineup being expensive and only affordable up-to the RTX series. Below are some of the highlights from the report…

– AMD’s overall unit shipments increased 22.6% quarter-to-quarter, Intel’s total shipments increased 0.2% from last quarter, and Nvidia’s decreased -1.9%
– The overall attach rate of GPUs (includes integrated and discrete GPUs) to PCs for the quarter was 130% which was up 1.8% from last quarter
– Discrete GPUs were in 31.9% of PCs, which is down -0.19% from last quarter
– The overall PC market increased by 1.99% quarter-to-quarter and increased by 3.54% year-to-year
– Desktop graphics add-in boards (AIBs) that use discrete GPUs increased 12.17% from last quarter
– Q4’19 saw an increase in tablet shipments from last quarter
– Fourth-quarter GPU shipments are typically flat to up compared to the previous quarter, Q4 2020 saw an increase in shipments.

Jon Peddie, President of JPR, notes “This is the third consecutive quarter of increased GPU shipments, However, Q1 which is seasonally flat to down may show an unusual dip because of supply chain interruptions from China due to the Coronavirus epidemic. 2020 is going to be a game-changer with Intel’s entry into the discrete GPU market and a possible fourth entry by an IP company.”

GPUs are traditionally a leading indicator of the market since a GPU goes into every system before the suppliers’ ships the PC, most of the semiconductor vendors are guiding down for next quarter, by an average of -9%. Some that guidance is based on normal seasonality, but there is also a factor for the Coronavirus impact.

A total of 93 million units were shipped in Q4’19 which decreased by one million units from the same quarter a year ago indicating the market is down on a year-to-year basis. However, this is the third quarter in a row of increased GPU shipments incrementally.

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 optimistically for next quarter. Their estimates average to a 7% increase.