Jon Peddie Research has just published its latest study on the graphics card and CPU market. According to the analyst, the market is in decline, and the trade war between the Americans and the Chinese is not providing fertile ground for a healthy market. Just imagine, with import-export rules constantly changing, it’s hard to project yourself… And since China is such a huge market, the impact is inevitably felt!
Graphics card, shipments down in the first quarter of 2025!
In broad terms, JPR’s study shows that in the first quarter of 2025, shipments of graphics cards reached 68.8 million units. A substantial figure, to be sure, but still down on the previous period. In fact, compared with Q4 2024, this fall still amounts to 12%, which is still significant. On the other hand, the period also seems to want this, since year-on-year, the drop is 1.6%. On the other hand, the beginning of the year is rarely a good time to sell, especially after the festive season. Q1 2025 was also the occasion for AMD and NVIDIA to release their new graphics cards, and the rather disastrous conditions in which the market is evolving may also explain this drop. As mentioned above, China and the USA are at loggerheads, and the rules governing GPU exports are constantly changing. As we have seen, successive US administrations have not hesitated to tighten export conditions on a regular basis. In particular, this has forced NVIDIA to offer a new B30 compliant with the new rules, while the current RTX 5090D has borne the brunt of this new policy.
AMD continues to lose share?
Secondly, we learn that AMD continues to lose market share to NVIDIA. Indeed, in Q1 2025, the reds recorded 17% share, compared with 18% in Q4 2024. However, we note a slight increase compared with Q1 2024, when the company posted 16%. In any case, the chameleon’s share fell to 63% from 65% in Q4 2024. The one who comes out on top here is Intel, whose share rises from 16% to 20%, again according to the analyst. These are figures we didn’t expect, since AMD launched its RX 9000 with some success. As we’ve seen, the cards seem to be selling well, so we’re surprised that the company is losing share… Unless, that is, the cards have rescued the company from a near-catastrophic situation, and these good results will only be felt in the following quarter. To be continued.
