PC sales have been limping lately and that makes it a bit of a surprise that the latest report speak of a rise in graphics circuit sales. During Q2 5.5 percent more circuits were shipped, year-to-year comparison.
In total 126 million graphics circuits shipped out in Q2 2012, which is an increase of 2.5 percent from Q1 and 122 million units The number for Q2 2011 was 118 million. Not surprisingly the biggest increase came in the mobile segment and if we look more closely we see that the numbers of discrete graphics cards have dropped substantially since last year, as both AMD and Nvidia have lost shares to Intel that keeps pumping out processor circuits with integrated graphics processors. The sales of dedicated graphics cirucits for both desktops and notebooks was 0.5 percent from Q1 2012, but compared to Q2 2011 sales was down by 7 percent.
The numbers were presented by Jon Peddie Research and include all forms of graphics circuits for PCs, integrated or not. Also embedded graphics solutions for industrial solutions are included in the numbers. It does not include the vast ARM market, where smartphones and tablets had put the figures on a completely different scale.
Intel is still the largest company thanks to its integrated solutions. The battle between AMD and Nvidia continues and even if AMD, through its APU circuits, have a higher market share than Nvidia it is the green camp that has a positive trend. AMD lost 7.5 percent since Q1 to 22.7 percent. While Nvidia actually gained 0,4 percent to a total share of 14.8 percent, thanks to design wins in the mobile sector.
Sales of graphics cards for desktops continues to go slow for both AMD and Nvidia, where both lost ground comapred to last year and last quarter. This could be a sign for Intel and AMD are starting to dig in to the sales of discrete graphics cards through their more powerful integrated solutions.
