Jon Peddie Research (JPR) reports Q4 2017 GPU shipments are down by -1.5% on a Q-o-Q basis following "normal seasonal shipments," while shipments dropped by -4.8% for the full year 2017.
For overall 2017, desktop graphics shipments are down by -2% and notebooks decreased by -7%. Vendors released 363 new GPU products in 2017. As for the main market drivers, JPR says that while cryptocurrency miners bought over 3 million add-in-boards (AIB) worth $776 million in 2017, gaming remains the primary GPU sales driver.
As such, the analyst predicts demand from crypto-miners will decline, as the use of GPUs for currency mining should eventually become less economical. Further dampening the appeal of GPUs are advanced ASIC manufacturing projects from the likes of Samsung and TSMC. However, as the situation currently stands AMD is making a killing from cryptocurrencies, with Q4 2017 shipments growing by 8.08% Q-o-Q.
On the other hand Nvidia shipments are down by -6% Q-o-Q, while Intel sees a -1.98% Q-o-Q decline.
JPR also points out the Q4 2017 attach rate of GPUs (including integrated and discrete GPUs) to PCs is 134%, a -10.6% drop from Q3 2017. Discrete GPUs are in 36.88% of PCs (a -2.67% Q-o-Q decline), while the amount of desktop AIBs using discrete GPUs decreased by -4.62% Q-o-Q. As for the overall PC market, it is up by 5.93% Q-o-Q (or down by -0.15% Y-o-Y).