It's been a challenging couple of years for the GPU industry, with it hitting a not-so-great milestone recently: a new report from JPR says that in Q3 of this year, GPU shipments dropped 10.3% from the previous quarter.
Year-to-year, overall shipments on GPUs are down about 25%, which includes standalone GPUs as well as those shipped inside desktops and laptops. That's the biggest drop in GPU shipments since the 2009 recession.
"The third quarter is usually the high point of the year for the GPU and PC suppliers, said John Peddie, president of JPR. "Even though the suppliers had guided down in Q2, the results came much below their expectations."
On top of that, GPU attach rates are down 6% from last quarter, which means fewer people are buying systems (laptops and desktops) that come with a discrete or integrated video card. The report notes that AMD's overall GPU market share fell 8.5% while Nvidia lost about 2% of its market share, with Intel going up 10%, taking its rivals' piece of the pie, presumably with its integrated GPUs. It's the only one of the big three with a positive increase in GPU shipments since Q2, with a rise of 4.7%.
There are plenty of reasons why GPU shipments are down: The report points to the decline of GPU crypto mining, US sanctions against China, and Covid-related supply chain issues as some of the leading factors. Right now, the market is flooded with older graphics cards, so much so that Nvidia has reportedly halted production on the RTX 2060 and three other budget GPUs.
Despite these lower-than-expected numbers, Peddie sees a silver lining for Q4, stating, "Generally, the feeling is Q4 shipments will be down, but ASPs [average selling price] will be up, supply will be fine, and everyone will have a happy holiday."
