GPU shipments up 18.4% on-year, Intel has over 60% of the market

Jon Peddie Research has released its third quarter report on the graphics market, announcing 16.7% sequential increase in shipments to 138.5 million. That's above the 10-year average of 13.9%, but still in line with seasonal expectations as vendors stock up for the holidays. Intel alone witnessed a 28.5% growth in shipments on-quarter and 36.5% on-year, which is almost entirely comprised of the embedded graphics chips inside its latest-generation desktop and mobile processors. The company has maintained its majority share of the graphics market with 60.4% slice -- up 10.1% from the previous quarter and 9.5% on-year.

Although it has experienced a 9.9% growth in shipments -- thanks to its legion of Fusion APUs -- AMD has reportedly lost footing to Intel with a market share of 23%, down 5.9% on-quarter and flat year-over-year. Shipments of AMD's desktop and notebook Fusion chips have increased 58.4% from the last quarter. Given the rise of CPU/GPU combo chips from Intel and AMD, more computers than ever are shipping with two graphics solutions. Almost 92 million PCs shipped worldwide this quarter, up 8.8% sequentially. There were roughly 1.6 GPUs per computer in 2011, which compares to 1.15 GPUs per system a decade earlier.

Company	Mkt Share  This Qtr	Mkt Share   Last Qtr	Unit Change   Qtr-Qtr	Share Change     Qtr-Qtr	Mkt Share   Last Yr
AMD	23.0%	24.4%	9.9%	-5.9%	23.0%
Intel	60.4%	54.8%	28.5%	10.1%	55.1%
Nvidia	16.1%	20.1%	-6.2%	-19.6%	21.0%
Matrox	0.04%	0.0%	0.0%	-14.3%	0.1%
SiS	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
VIA/S3	0.5%	0.6%	-8.9%	-22.0%	0.8%
Total	100.0%	100.0%	16.7%		100.0%

Besides its low powered mobile platforms, Nvidia doesn't have a mass market embedded graphics solution to lean on and its shares slipped even further than AMD's. In the third quarter, Nvidia represented some 16.1% of the market, down 19.6% from the previous quarter and slipping some 23% from the year-ago figures. Nvidia's shipments fell 6.2% on-quarter and while its overall stats may not be as impressive as its rivals', JPR notes that the company is placing more focus on discrete graphics processors. In that realm, Nvidia currently reigns supreme, gaining 30% of the discrete market on-quarter and 10.9% on-year.

PC gaming hardware market to remain strong through 2014

A new report concerning the PC gaming hardware marketindicates that computer-based sales will continue to grow at a rate of 11 percent from now until at least 2014. These figures are primarily based on the fact that over 250 million game-capable PCs will ship in 2011, compared to only 230 million PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 consoles that have shipped since 2005.

Despite the onslaught of competition and the ongoing economic recession, Jon Peddie Research believes the PC gaming hardware market will generate $19 billion in sales in 2011. The research firm estimates that half a billion people regularly play PC games, an increase of about 3 percent in their 2011 forecast.

It’s no secret that PC gaming has seen its share of hard times in the past few years and there are several factors in play that have brought about the current state of computer gaming. Despite the comparatively low numbers mentioned above versus gaming-capable PC shipments, console popularity has exploded in recent years. Online multiplayer gaming has transformed the competitive landscape. More adults and females are gaming than ever before.

New markets like social networking and mobile gaming on tablets and smartphones continue to threaten the PC ‘s gaming reputation, a phenomenon that senior gaming analyst Ted Pollak noted in his research.

"We are starting to see mobile computers dig into the sales of low end PCs a bit. Consequently this has actually increased the average gaming purchase motivation for mainstream desktops and notebooks because some people with very low computing requirements have been taken out of the denominator, and the potential customer base for desktops and notebooks is more concentrated due to their superior performance in graphically intense applications."

Regardless of new markets or trend changes, there’s still plenty of reason to love PC gaming. Even mid-grade computers offer more powerful hardware than current generation consoles, resulting in superior graphics, largely in part to increased resolution capabilities. Some games are also much easier to play with a mouse and keyboard, such as first person shooters.