Raja Koduri - SVP and Chief Architect, Radeon Technologies Group - showing off the RX 480 earlier this year
Jon Peddie Research's 3rd Quarter 2016 report on the state of the GPU market is in, and it has underlined the dramatic reversal of fortunes demonstrated by AMD in the past year as part of the discrete GPU market. Where this time last year concerns were raised over a diminishing 18% market share to NVIDIA's overwhelming 82%, AMD have now posted two quarters in a row above 29% share amid a market which has experienced distinct growth in the past three months.
AMD's strategy of targeting their Polaris class GPUs at a mainstream gaming audience was always going to be a risky one. NVIDIA's debut of Pascal-class GPUs at a premium price point has always been perceived to be the safest option for a multitude of reasons, not least of which being a clear performance win over the previous generation of cards from both brands. By eschewing this approach AMD could in theory appeal to a significantly larger audience, offering performance unmatched at that lower price point; for now at least it appears to be working.
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When viewed through the narrow lens of quarter-by-quarter performance the figures could be seen as disappointing: 2nd Quarter 2016 (APR-JUN) figures pegged AMD at 29.8% share, NVIDIA at 70.2%; the latest numbers see AMD slip a little to 29.1%, but still a sea-change from Q1's 22% share. Yet year-on-year double-digit improvements in share are the headline-grabbers, all the more important as the GPU market itself reverses downward trends in units shipped thanks to robust AIB figures.
AIB shipments during the quarter increased from the last quarter 38.2%, which is which is above the ten-year average of 14.3%. On a year-to-year basis, we found that total AIB shipments during the quarter rose 9.2%, which is greater than desktop PCs, which fell -17.1%.
(I)n spite of the overall PC churn, somewhat due to tablets and embedded graphics, the PC gaming momentum continues to build and is the bright spot in the AIB market.
The gaming PC (system) market is as vibrant as the stand alone AIB market. All OEMs are investing in Gaming space because demand for Gaming PCs is robust. Intel also validated this on their earnings call., and the recent announcement of a new Enthusiast CPU. However, it won’t show in the overall market numbers, because like gaming GPUs, the gaming PCs are dwarfed by the general-purpose machines.
- Jon Peddie Research
(I)n spite of the overall PC churn, somewhat due to tablets and embedded graphics, the PC gaming momentum continues to build and is the bright spot in the AIB market.
The gaming PC (system) market is as vibrant as the stand alone AIB market. All OEMs are investing in Gaming space because demand for Gaming PCs is robust. Intel also validated this on their earnings call., and the recent announcement of a new Enthusiast CPU. However, it won’t show in the overall market numbers, because like gaming GPUs, the gaming PCs are dwarfed by the general-purpose machines.
- Jon Peddie Research
The Q3 figures are especially important as AMD didn't have it all their own way in the mainstream segment. Whilst they launched the $200 Radeon RX 480 and followed up with the RX 470 & 460, NVIDIA launched their own price/perf. contender in the form of the $250 GeForce GTX 1060. NVIDIA's recent release of the GTX 1050/1050Ti will make the Q4 figures ones to look out for.
To be clear, the forecast for 2017 is not all clear skies and smooth sailing. AMD still have their work cut out to compete in the premium gaming segment with Vega, not to mention enterprise and emerging GPGPU segments which NVIDIA continues to dominate. However they could have been absolutely blown away by Pascal and yet, despite 2015's prophesied doom and gloom, AMD are still here and shouldn't be counted out.
SOURCE: Jon Peddie Research Q3 2016 GPU Market Share Summary
