Nvidia Increases market share 1.5% for Quarter, 1.1% over prior year. AMD Delivers 1.4% improvement while Intel share decreased 4% over prior period.

The PC market seems to have regained its normal seasonality curve, where Q3 is the peak, Q2 is the trough, Q4 is flat to a little up and Q1 is flat to a little down. For Q4’16 it was flat in unit shipments from the previous quarter and down For Q4'16 from last quarter, it was above the ten-year average of -3.40%.

Overall GPU shipments didn’t change from last quarter, AMD increased 10% Nvidia increased 10% and Intel was down 4%. 

Year-to-year total GPU shipments decreased 1.9%, desktop graphics decreased 3% notebooks decreased 1%.

The Gaming PC segment, where higher-end GPUs are used, was once again the bright spot in the overall PC market for the quarter.

Discrete GPUs gained market over integrated and the attach rate increased in Q4 from last year and is now 141%.

Nvidia did particularly well in Q4’16, following a record quarter in Q3’16. Sales were fueled by their Pascal-based product line and the rash of new AAA graphics-demanding titles.

AMD had the largest unit gain, 10.5%, while Nvidia had the largest share gain 1.5%, AMD was close with 1.4%.

Quick highlights

• AMD’s overall unit shipments increased 10.49% quarter-to-quarter, Intel’s total shipments decreased 4.01% from last quarter, and Nvidia’s increased 9.52%.
• The attach rate of GPUs (includes integrated and discrete GPUs) to PCs for the quarter was 141% which was down 5.52% from last quarter.
• Discrete GPUs were in 35.92% of PCs, which is up 1.23%.
• The overall PC market increased 3.96% quarter-to-quarter, and decreased 3.55% year-to-year.
• Desktop graphics add-in boards (AIBs) that use discrete GPUs increased 5.60% from last quarter.
• Q4'16 saw an increase in tablet shipments from last quarter.

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 and down for Q1’17. 

One thing to note, the Gaming PC segment, where higher-end GPUs are used, continues to deliver growth for PC makers. New gaming content and the promise of Virtual Reality are helping drive the demand for gaming desktops and notebooks.

The report contains the following content:

• Worldwide GPU and PC Shipment Volume, 1994 to 2020.
• Detailed worldwide GPU Shipment Volume, 1Q 2001 to 2Q 2016, and forecast to 2020.
• Major suppliers: Detailed market share data-on the shipments of AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and others.
• Financial results for the leading suppliers: Analysis of the quarterly results of the leading GPU suppliers
• Market Forecasts: You will also be able to download a detailed spreadsheet and supporting charts that project the supplier’s shipments over the period 2001 to 2018. Projections are split into platforms and GPU type.
• GPUs: History, Status, and Analysis.
• Financial History from for the last nine quarter: Based on historic SEC filings, you can see current and historical sales and profit results of the leading suppliers. 
• A Vision of the future: Building upon a solid foundation of facts, data and sober analysis, this section pulls together all of the report's findings and paints a vivid picture of where the PC graphics market is headed. 
• Charts, graphics, tables and more: Included with this report is an Excel workbook. It contains the data we used to create the charts in this report. The workbook has the charts and supplemental information.

Our research finds that global GPU market demand in Q4'16 increased from last quarter, and increased from last year, to 100.30 million units this quarter, the highest it’s been in two years. In recent years, as the gaming ecosystem has expanded, software and hardware developers, as well as information service providers, and even governments have been attempting to unearth market opportunities coming from this new arena. And, global PC shipment volume is forecast to increase (albeit, slowly).

The quarter in general

AMD’s shipments of desktop heterogeneous GPU/CPUs, i.e., APUs, for desktops increased 16.9% from the previous quarter. AMD's APU shipments were up 23.9% in notebooks. Desktop discrete GPUs increased 4.3% from last quarter, and notebook discrete shipments increased 3.2%. AMD’s total PC graphics shipments increased 10.5% from the previous quarter.

Intel’s desktop processor embedded graphics (EPGs) shipments increased from last quarter by 10.7% and notebook processors decreased by 6.7%, and total PC graphics shipments decreased 4.0% from last quarter.

Nvidia’s desktop discrete GPU shipments were up 6.1% from last quarter; and the company’s notebook discrete GPU shipments increased 13.8%, and total PC graphics shipments increased 9.5% from last quarter.

Total discrete GPUs (desktop and notebook) shipments for the industry increased 7.6% from the last quarter, and increased 12.0% from last year. Sales of discrete GPUs fluctuate due to a variety of factors (timing, memory pricing, etc.), new product introductions, and the influence of integrated graphics. Overall, the CAGR from 2014 to 2017 is now -5%.

Ninety nine percent of Intel’s non-server processors have graphics, and over 66% of AMD’s non-server processors contain integrated graphics; AMD still ships integrated graphics chipsets (IGPs).

For those who wish to understand the PC market, an understanding of the highly complex technology and ecosystem that has been built around the GPU is essential to understanding the market’s future directions.

Graphics chips (GPUs) and chips with graphics (IGPs, APUs, and EPGs) GPUs shipments are a leading indicator for the PC market. At least one and often two GPUs are present in every PC shipped. It can take the form of a discrete chip, a GPU integrated in the chipset or embedded in the CPU. The average has grown from 1.2 GPUs per PC in 2001 to1.41 GPUs per PC.

This detailed 56-page report will provide you with all the data, analysis and insight you need to clearly understand where this technology is today and where it's headed.

Our findings include discrete and integrated graphics (CPU and chipset) for Desktops, Notebooks (and Netbooks), and PC-based commercial (i.e. iPad and Android-based Tablets), or ARM-based Servers. It does include x86-based tablets, Chromebooks, and embedded systems.