The global GPU market is appears to be stabilizing, even as shipment numbers fell between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022.
According to new research from Jon Peddie Research (JPR) and reported on by Windows Central, total GPU shipments from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia fell by 6.2% from Q4 2021 to Q1 2022 with a total number of 96 million units shipped during that time period.
AMD shipments decreased by 1.5%, Intel’s by 8.7%, but Nvidia’s shipments actually increased by 3.2%. The JPR report attributed the drop in shipments to various factors such as the political situations in China and Ukraine. While a descrease in shipments might sound like negative news, the decline is far less than the normal decline typically seen during the same period; the report points out that the 10-year median decline during this period is 10.2%.
The JPR report also predicts a compound annual growth rate of 6.3% between 2022-2026 as it forecasts solid growth later in the year.
Analysis: How is the GPU market faring?
This year has been a complicated one for GPU manufacturers in general, as prices have sharply declined while . Going by German retailer 3D Center sales data, graphics card prices have dipped on average by 13%.
AMD and Nvidia’s best graphics cards were selling at an 83% and 87% premium, respectively, over their official retail prices back in December 2021. Now the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 series is at about 19% over MSRP, while AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series is now 12% over MSRP.
Despite this, it seems that Team Green is holding its lead over Team Red according to retailer Newegg’s top ten sellers. The list shows that all ten slots are taken up by Nvidia GPUs; in fact the top 20 list is flush with Nvidia Ampere cards with one lone exception: the MSI Mech Radeon RX 6600, coming in at number 20.
So it seems that there are signs of a general decline in revenue but despite this, Nvidia is maintaining its strong lead against archrival AMD and we don’t expect that to change anytime soon. Better still, the decline in prices is a sign that the supply of graphics cards is increasing, which makes us more hopeful about the upcoming launch of the Nvidia Lovelace cards later this year.