As part of its ongoing research on the PC graphics market, Jon Peddie Research (JPR) has released its “Market Watch” report for the third quarter of 2020. Before 2020, the PC market was showing signs of improvement and settling into a new normal. The pandemic has distorted all models and predictions. JPR’s “Market Watch” report confirms that trend for the third quarter of 2020, but with mixed results for this very unusual year.
AMD's market share from last quarter increased 1.3%, Intel's decreased by -1.4%, and Nvidia's market share increased 0.09%, as indicated in the chart above.
Overall GPU shipments increased by 10.3% from last quarter, AMD shipments increased 18.7%, Intel's shipments rose 7.8%, and Nvidia's shipments increased 10.8%.
Highlights of the report found:
* The GPU's overall attach rate (which includes integrated and discrete GPUs, desktop, notebook, and workstations) to PCs for the quarter was 122%, up 0.6% from last quarter.
* The overall PC market increased by 9.75% quarter-to-quarter and increased 9.47% year-to-year.
* Desktop graphics add-in boards (AIBs that use discrete GPUs) increased by 13.44% from the last quarter.
* Q3'20 saw an increase in tablet shipments from last quarter.
The third quarter is typically the strongest compared to the previous quarter. Q3'2020 was no exception, showing healthy growth.
GPUs are traditionally a leading indicator of the market since a GPU goes into every system before the suppliers ship the PC.
The third quarter behaved seasonally as it has in the past, with the quarter-to-quarter change of 10.3%, Q3’2020 outperformed the ten-year average growth for graphics shipments of 9.7%.
The quarter saw shifts in market shares from the previous quarter and year-to-year. This quarter AMD and Nvidia showed outstanding results, with Intel remaining steady.
Jon Peddie, President of JPR, notes, “Factors influencing the robust sales of AIBs in the past two quarters have clearly been increasing growth in gaming, and the need to outfit home offices due to COVID. There has been speculation that there might be a renewal in demand for AIBs due to crypto mining. Anything is possible, but the power consumption of AIBs greatly diminishes the payoff for crypto-mining. Ethereum, the best-suited coin for GPUs, will fork into version 2.0 very soon, making GPUs obsolete. A person would be very foolish to invest in a high-end, power-consuming AIB for crypto-mining today.”
Most of the semiconductor vendors are guiding up for the next quarter by an average of 1.25%. Some of that guidance is based on normal seasonality, but there is also a Coronavirus impact factor.
JPR’s “Market Watch” is now available and sells for $2,750. This report includes an Excel workbook with the data used to create the charts, the charts themselves, and supplemental information. The annual subscription price for JPR’s “Market Watch” is $5,500 and includes four quarterly issues. Full subscribers to JPR services receive “TechWatch” (the company’s bi-weekly report) and a copy of Market Watch as part of their subscription.