[Digitimes] AMD expected to reach 40% GPU share in 6 months

[wand3r3r]

AMD expected to reach global GPU market share of 40% in 6 months

AMD's global market share for GPUs is on the rise since the launch of its Radeon R7 and R9 series and is expected to increase to 40% over the next half year, according to Taiwan-based graphics card makers.
AMD announced net profits of US$48 million for the third quarter with notebook-related shipments dropping significantly and revenues from GPUs also declining. However, the company's sales from customized products and stable desktop shipments helped the company to turn profitable.
Although most market watchers are conservative about AMD's performance in the fourth quarter, some expect the company's graphics card business to be able to prop up its profit performance for the quarter.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20131030PD207.html?mod=2

 

[ams23]

LOL, AMD's discrete graphics market share is already about 38% (compared to 62% for NVIDIA), so that's not saying much. And with NVIDIA's recent aggressive price cuts, I don't think that AMD will be able to gain any significant share. Wait six months and we will find out.

 

[Genx87]

So AMD is about to reach the status quo for the past decade in 6 months?

 

[blackened23]

Honestly, who cares. I think AMD truly wanted to gain market share, they should focus more on end-user experience and software rather than just performance. AMD GPUs are fantastic hardware wise, you won't find me saying anything bad about the 290X in terms of performance. But, I don't know man. AMD needs to focus more on complete balanced package. Software makes hardware all the better - having used Nv for some time now, and being accustomed to the options that I can get in nvidia inspector and the NV CP, i'd have a hard time going back to AMD. And then the user experience in terms of the reference blower which is well documented around here.

But hey , competition is good. The 290X certainly made NV take notice and that's exactly why NV users get the 3 game bundle along with price drops. I really, really wish AMD would focus more on the "small" things that NV does. That's what NV has always excelled at, the little tiny details that improve user experience in terms of software. I do think the 290X and especially 290 non X will sell rather well as it is a great performing product, which is good for all users NV and AMD alike. AMD selling a lot of cards, more competition, is a good thing. But I can't help but think that AMD has a lot of opportunity lost in terms of not always creating the most well rounded products; they could get 50% market share if they focused on stuff like that IMHO. That's what happened when the 5870 was released, most users considered it a superior overall experience as opposed to the GTX 480 - AMD had a 50% dGPU market share at that time. The tides have turned, though.

 

[MrK6]

AMD needs brand recognition, that's it. Most PC gamers know jack about hardware and only buy what their friends are buying or what someone tells them to buy. Probably the smartest thing AMD did was be as aggressive as they were in securing all the console contracts. Now they need to promote their brand and, as blackened23 mentioned with a complete package including great software.

 

[Attic]

AMD needs brand recognition, that's it. Most PC gamers know jack about hardware and only buy what their friends are buying or what someone tells them to buy. Probably the smartest thing AMD did was be as aggressive as they were in securing all the console contracts. Now they need to promote their brand and, as blackened23 mentioned with a complete package including great software.

Yep. They are running in AMD hardware in the next gen consoles and it's likely the brand recognition will benefit from that alone.

Mantle is a wild card, could be big.

 

[Slomo4shO]

The dance continues...

 

[Erenhardt]

I know they mean discrete cards marketshare (apu excluded), but that is not clear from the article.

AMD's global market share for GPUs is on the rise since the launch of its Radeon R7 and R9 series and is expected to increase to 40% over the next half year, according to Taiwan-based graphics card makers.

So, that is expected R 200 Series impact on the marketshare. Can we assume new graphics cards (20nm) are 6 month from now? Or is it just a part of the series lifetime?

I think AMD truly wanted to gain market share, they should focus more on end-user experience and software rather than just performance.

True, that is why TrueAudio seems like a perfect idea that is way too often forgot. It is still very fresh and there are no software implementations yet, which will change soon.

 

[wand3r3r]

The duopoly has probably agreed to the market share when they divided the price tiers.
/conspiracy

 

[Dribble]

AMD needs brand recognition, that's it. Most PC gamers know jack about hardware and only buy what their friends are buying or what someone tells them to buy. Probably the smartest thing AMD did was be as aggressive as they were in securing all the console contracts. Now they need to promote their brand and, as blackened23 mentioned with a complete package including great software.

The consoles won't have "AMD inside" printed all over them - they won't want to dilute their console brands to sell AMD cpu's/gpu's. Hence those gamers that know jack about hardware will still know jack about AMD even if they own and xbone/ps4.

 

[piesquared]

The consoles won't have "AMD inside" printed all over them - they won't want to dilute their console brands to sell AMD cpu's/gpu's. Hence those gamers that know jack about hardware will still know jack about AMD even if they own and xbone/ps4.

They will when the game loads.

 

[AtenRa]

I really like to see $100 and up desktop market share numbers.

 

[Ventanni]

Honestly, who cares. I think AMD truly wanted to gain market share, they should focus more on end-user experience and software rather than just performance. AMD GPUs are fantastic hardware wise, you won't find me saying anything bad about the 290X in terms of performance. But, I don't know man. AMD needs to focus more on complete balanced package. Software makes hardware all the better - having used Nv for some time now, and being accustomed to the options that I can get in nvidia inspector and the NV CP, i'd have a hard time going back to AMD. And then the user experience in terms of the reference blower which is well documented around here..

I'm not disagreeing with your software/driver quality argument; this been one of the greatest strengths of Nvidia since the first Detonator drivers, but sometimes I wonder if AMD's past reputation is perpetuated by hearsay rather than actual facts. I've been using ATI/AMD products for years, and to be fair, I've never really had any problems with them. Now, that doesn't mean those bugs don't exist, but when I ask individuals about their poor experiences with AMD software, very few can actually give me any specific answers. Just as an example, my brother swears up and down by Nvidia, which is fine, but when he starts commenting on why he doesn't use AMD products and how poor AMD's drivers are in comparison to Nvidia, I feel like all I get is a made-up story. Whenever I've ever talked to anyone in person, all I ever seem to hear is someone's friend's experiences, or about something they read online; never anyone's own, personal experience.

So I have to wonder just based on my own observation, are some of these issues people are having with AMD simply just, well, fabricated?

 

[blackened23]

True, that is why TrueAudio seems like a perfect idea that is way too often forgot. It is still very fresh and there are no software implementations yet, which will change soon.

True Audio is a waste of time and is the LAST thing needed on a GPU. IMHO. If that junk cost money in the final BOM of the 290X, which it probably did, it was a waste of time and effort.

 

[Slomo4shO]

True Audio is a waste of time and is the LAST thing needed on a GPU. IMHO. If that junk cost money in the final BOM of the 290X, which it probably did, it was a waste of time and effort.

It is also an available feature on the new Kaveri APUs so I am betting it wasn't very cost prohibitive to included it in the discrete GPUs.

 

[blackened23]

I'm not disagreeing with your software/driver quality argument; this been one of the greatest strengths of Nvidia since the first Detonator drivers, but sometimes I wonder if AMD's past reputation is perpetuated by hearsay rather than actual facts. I've been using ATI/AMD products for years, and to be fair, I've never really had any problems with them. Now, that doesn't mean those bugs don't exist, but when I ask individuals about their poor experiences with AMD software, very few can actually give me any specific answers. Just as an example, my brother swears up and down by Nvidia, which is fine, but when he starts commenting on why he doesn't use AMD products and how poor AMD's drivers are in comparison to Nvidia, I feel like all I get is a made-up story. Whenever I've ever talked to anyone in person, all I ever seem to hear is someone's friend's experiences, or about something they read online; never anyone's own, personal experience.

So I have to wonder just based on my own observation, are some of these issues people are having with AMD simply just, well, fabricated?

Fabricated? Highly doubt it. Besides which, I'm not even talking functionality. It's all about user experience - I'm talking features such as AO, Adaptive vsync, the plethora of options in NVidia CP / NVidia inspector, versatile custom profiles (more versatile than AMD's), so on and so forth. The software is more fully featured by a mile. Meanwhile, vsync forced still doesn't work in CCC from what I've read. It didn't work for sure in DX11 when I had 7970s.... Seriously, I think some folks used to AMD's CCC need to have a look through nvidia inspector. The functionality it offers is downright absurd, you can customize your graphics to the extreme using it. Meanwhile, CCC is very limited in comparison.

What we know is that AMD can make well performing GPUs. The 290X performs insanely well if you pump the fan speed high (uber mode, I mean). But the software isn't as complete or well rounded as NV's, IMO, and it needs to be - this is what AMD needs to focus on if they want to improve consumer experience and GAIN market share as they did with the 5870. When the 5870 was released, people considered it a better experience than the GTX 480 - and it was cheaper on top of that. Now? The tides have somewhat turned, NV is offering a better user experience in many respects due to software and cooling versatility, etc. I would like for this to change - I had high hopes for the 290X and while it doesn't disappoint in performance at all, I find some of AMD's decisions with the 290X to be questionable at best.

Basically, my line of thinking is why people tend to buy NV when price performance is similar. I think this is why. User experience and the little minor touches that NV does to create a good experience. I would like AMD to replicate this - I wanted to like the 290X and like I said, in some areas it is insanely good. But I cannot believe they used that 7-11 blower cooler and the software could use some touching. AMD has gotten better on software, to be completely fair. Not quite up to NV quality, though, and like I said - I would like for AMD to match NV in this area.

 

[Erenhardt]

True Audio is a waste of time and is the LAST thing needed on a GPU. IMHO. If that junk cost money in the final BOM of the 290X, which it probably did, it was a waste of time and effort.

You almost convinced me...

 

[OCGuy]

Yikes, that is actually a sad article if you read it.

 

[Slomo4shO]

Yikes, that is actually a sad article if you read it.

What's to read? It's like five sentences...

 

[Lonyo]

The dance continues...

Some of those graphs are ridiculously dumb... why would you do a share split 100% graph and then not start it at 0. It means you end up not showing what the whole point of the graph is to show. Utterly stupid.
(Mainly the Intel ones where it starts at 40% so it looks like Intel has around 4x the marketshare of AMD rather than 7x)

 

[Elfear]

Seriously, I think some folks used to AMD's CCC need to have a look through nvidia inspector. The functionality it offers is downright absurd, you can customize your graphics to the extreme using it. Meanwhile, CCC is very limited in comparison.

Blackened, isn't Nvidia Inspector a third-party download that integrates with the CP? Doesn't RadeonPro offer similar functionality on the AMD side except without the CP integration? I may be wrong about that but it seems like they're comparable.

I'm hoping AMD can increase their market share if for nothing else than to keep some fierce competition in the GPU world.

 

[3DVagabond]

True Audio is a waste of time and is the LAST thing needed on a GPU. IMHO. If that junk cost money in the final BOM of the 290X, which it probably did, it was a waste of time and effort.

Don't you think you should experience it before you say that? Some of us actually want improved audio realism and immersion without having to spend heaps extra in additional hardware to get it on our PC. I really think you are going to be proven wrong once people experience it.

 

[Subyman]

Yup, once the PS4 and Xone come out, it will tip them over the 40% mark for sure

 

[thilanliyan]

Blackened, isn't Nvidia Inspector a third-party download that integrates with the CP? Doesn't RadeonPro offer similar functionality on the AMD side except without the CP integration? I may be wrong about that but it seems like they're comparable.

That's what I thought as well. IIRC, nv inspector isn't directly from nVidia.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Unfortunately AMD's PR department is a disaster, so even if they put out excellent cards over and over, I have a hard time believing they will catch up to Nvidia any time soon

Just take that recent press conference for the R290X as an example... They completely left out any performance previews which is actually the best part of the card, wtf?
One does not simply say "TrueAudio" at a video card conference and expect people to give a damn

Its a pity because they have launched great cards all the way since the 4870, always with highly competitive pricing, but their marketing really makes me cringe