A new study from Jon Peddie Research acts as a thermometer, in this case for the graphics card sector. According to the firm, dedicated GPU shipments were down again in the first quarter of 2023.
-38.2% fewer shipments year-on-year!
All in all, the graphics card market is not in the best of health. In fact, according to JPR, year-on-year (Q1 2022 vs. Q1 2023), AIBs have seen their board shipments drop by 38.2%! Quarter-on-quarter, this decline amounts to 12.6%, compared with Q4 2022. In terms of figures, the number of CGs shipped was 6.3 million units in this first part of 2023, compared with 7.16 million in Q1 2022.
In detail, AMD is less affected than NVIDIA. Indeed, shipments on the red side fell by 7.5%, compared with 15.2% quarter-on-quarter on the chameleon’s side.
On the other hand, despite a greater drop in shipments on the green side than on the red, NVIDIA is still the clear leader. The company still has 84% market share, compared with 12% for AMD and 4% for Intel. What’s more, it’s interesting to note that AMD is treading water, while Intel is progressing and NVIDIA is declining. Indeed, in the fourth quarter of 2022, Intel accounted for 2% of market share, compared with 12% for AMD and 86% for NVIDIA.
Any hope?
If Jon Peddie Research is to be believed, it’s not impossible that we’re at the bottom of the wave. According to the firm, the second half of the year would be more favorable for the market. They point out that, by then, stores will have more affordable solutions for the home user. Logically, NVIDIA will have launched its RTX 4060 (and perhaps its RTX 4050), further expanding the card offering in the sector favored by consumers.
However, we also have our doubts. The latest launches from NVIDIA and AMD are not the most convincing. On the green side, we remember the Day-1 promotions on the 4060 Ti, or the late-night stores with no customers in Japan. In reality, if the 4060 Ti and RX 7600 are the most affordable models, they still need to be convincing. The performance gain for the asking price is far from dazzling. We wouldn’t be surprised if end-users preferred to wait for better alternatives before changing cards… Or turn to Intel, which offers one of the best performance/price ratios in the €200 – €250 sector. In fact, if we look at the evolution of blue shares, that’s what seems to be happening.