Why are sales of GPUs continuing to fall?

Global desktop GPU shipments decreased six per cent year-on-year in Q1 2016, according to new data from Jon Peddie Research (JPR).

Notebook GPU shipments fell 22 per cent while overal GPU shipments decreased 16 per cent.

This follows a similar GPU sales fall posted in Q4 2015.

Quarter-on-quarter, GPU shipments fell 15 per cent, with AMD’s shipments down five per cent, Nvidia’s down 15 per cent and Intel’s down 17 per cent.

JPR explained in a statement: "The GPU market and the PC market in general continued to slide as users and corporations have stretched out their refresh rates. The first quarter is typically flat to down in the seasonality cycles of the past. 

"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 cautiously for Q2 2016. The PC gaming segment, where higher-end GPUs are used, was a bright spot in the market in the quarter, but not enough to lift sales significantly.

"The decline in the Chinese economy and the oil glut have also been blamed for the sluggishness of the PC market this quarter, but it is also the continuation of a long trend. Mobile phones and tablet sales were also off."

The attach rate of GPUs (including integrated and discrete GPUs) to PCs for the quarter was 139 per cent, which was down 0.22 per cent from the last quarter – effectively flat.

Discrete GPUs were in 32.8 per cent of PCs in Q1 2016, which is up 1.51 per cent. Desktop graphics add-in boards (AIBs) that use discrete GPUs increased 4.9 per cent from last quarter.

The following table and graph shows how each vendor’s market share has changed:

The full Jon Peddie Research’s Market Watch report is now available. More info can be found over at http://www.jonpeddie.com.