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Report confirms AMD gains on Nvidia

The competitiveness of AMD's new graphics chips is confirmed by a report.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers

Advanced Micro Devices' new graphics chips are taking market share from Nvidia, a report issued Wednesday confirmed.

"AMD has by all accounts exceeded expectations with its Radeon HD 4000 series," according to report issued by market researcher Jon Peddie Research (JPR).

Aggressive pricing by AMD's ATI graphics unit made the difference, bringing down prices on add-in graphics boards. "Priced aggressively yet delivering solid performance, AMD's new line not only took back some market share--jumping up to 40 percent from 35 percent the quarter prior--it forced Nvidia (and partners) to cut prices on its recently released GTX 200 series product," JPR said.

Prices for graphics boards based on Nvidia GTX 260 and 280 graphics chips were slashed back in July. This happened only a few weeks after Nvidia launched the chips.

"Discounts cut into ASPs (average selling prices), taking a toll on revenue for both Nvidia and the market overall, the latter down 27 percent (year-over-year) to $3.8 billion," JPR said.

Graphics add-in board unit shipments were up sequentially but down year-to-year
Graphics add-in board unit shipments were up sequentially but down year-to-year Jon Peddie Research

The sequential growth for add-in boards tracked the growth in the aggregate market for graphics chips (which also includes motherboard-integrated products). The latter saw an increase (sequentially) in unit shipments of 17.8 percent in the third quarter. Unit shipments for add-in boards increased 11 percent to 21.9 million sequentially but fell 15 percent year-to-year.