The following is quoted from a newsletter that i get from them
Quote:



TIBURON, CA-February 27, 2012-Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics Add-in Board (AIB) shipments and sales' market share for Q4'11. The JPR AIB Report tracks computer graphics boards, which carry discrete graphics chips. They are used in desktop PCs, workstations, servers, and some other devices such as scientific instruments. They may be sold as after-market products directly to customers or they may be factory installed. In all cases, they represent the higher-end of the graphics industry as discrete chips rather than integrated processors.



Overall shipments of graphics AIBs for the quarter came in above the last quarter at 16.1 million units compared to 17.2 million for Q3'11.


The evolution of the graphics market has resulted in two camps-suppliers of graphics AIBs: those which carry Nvidia graphics chips and those which carry AMD chips. Nvidia GPU-based boards increased by 3.7% from Q3 while AMD-based boards decreased 3.6% for the same period. Sales of AIB products have been directly impacted by the rise in economic growth in the BRIC countries, and in particular in China where there is a strong preference for discrete graphics AIBs.






Shipments during the fourth quarter of 2011 behaved according to past years with regard to seasonality but were lower on a year-to-year comparison for the quarter. Q4'11 was down from the previous quarter by 6.5%, and the ten year average for the quarter is -4.78%.



Our forecast for the coming years has been modified since the last report, and has been less aggressive on add-in boards (AIBs) due to the prolonged worldwide recession.



The quarter in general
In terms of market share, market leader Nvidia gained market share by 3.7% from Q3, 2011, while AMD's market share shrank 3.6% for the same period. On a year-to-year basis AMD lost market share by 2.7% while Nvidia gained 2.9% of market share. Obviously, these are not huge moves in the market and Nvidia still leads in unit shipments.

Over 16 million AIBs shipped in Q4 2011. Nvidia was the leader in unit shipments for the quarter, elevated by double attach and GPU-compute/CUDA sales.



The AIB market is fueled at the high-end by the enthusiast gamer, small in volume (~3m a year) but high in dollars (average spend for an AIB ~$300). The AIB shipment volume comes from the Performance and Mainstream segments. GPU-compute is adding to sales on the high end. The Workstation Market is smaller in unit sales than the enthusiast segment but characterized by even higher average selling prices (ASPs).



For the year, the AIB market reached $14.9 billion, down 0.4% from 2010 due to a pull back by consumers and a gradual decline in ASP.



The JPR AIB report covers seven regions and reports on the value of AIB sales and units in those regions.



The death of AIBs has been reported and predicted for over 10 years, and this quarter's decline will no doubt give reassurances to the nay sayers that their prognostications are correct. However, they should note that overall graphics chips are down 10.4% for the quarter whereas AIBs are only down 6.5% in a down quarter.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... tions-from

In related news, Nvidia continues to gain market share over AMD, and total graphics cards shipments exceeded 68,000,000 last year. The industry might be flat, but with only two companies competing, there is plenty of growth oppotunity for the company that can make the better GPU's and aggressively promote it. When the hard drive market recovers, I think the GPU market will recover too. That, coupled with 28nm hitting this year and consoles growing older and older, I think GPU shipments will do well in 2012.

Here is the actual article

http://gfxspeak.com/2012/03/09/graphics ... h-quarter/


Graphics Add-In Board market shares over time. (Source: Jon Peddie Research)



and much more

wow.

whats up with all these off balance forums then? the places Nvidia is getting blasted. Its like 8(amd) vs 2(nvidia). This obviously isnt the norm. What could be up with that?

Look at it this way. Regarding graphics, AMD has about 10,000 employees that are completely free to post whatever they want on tech forums without any disclosure about job affiliation. In contrast, Nvidia has about 2 employees that post on forums and 3 or 4 Focus Group members that must declare affiliation.

Once that fact is factored in, the rest is pretty clear as to what is happening

The desktop pc is a dying breed. I expect this trend to continue.

The desktop isn't a dying breed. I don't see motherboard, PSU and case makers falling over themselves to exit the market before it bankrupts them.

What is happening is that people are purchasing laptops and phones tablets as well as desktops, and the percentage share of those seems to be rising faster than desktops.

It seems to be a slow death and it will continue at this pace barring anything unforeseen.

One day someone will invent a tablet so powerful and useful that it will kill the desktop pc forever. It will be the death blow.

That's ridiculous - barring the transition suddenly to Quantum computers

The desktop will always be faster than the mobile PCs. Where is a point where something is "fast enough"?
--there is no such point in sight.

We have long passed that point for 99% of usage patterns.