What do you think is the major processor cause for decreasing dGPU sales in recent years?

[Dribble]

Obviously the arrival of igp's meaning you don't need a discrete card has had the biggest impact on low end discrete gpu sales but most of those people weren't going to game anyway. Beyond that there's a whole host of reasons e.g.
-the general shift away from x86 to mobile devices. This might not be just for gaming but does mean less gaming machines.
-consolisation meaning you don't need to buy a new gpu as the one you've got still runs everything you want to play well enough.
-games consoles, the xbox360 was the first to do online play well and has pulled online gamers away from the pc.

 

[cbn]

Consoles have always been a direct competitor to PC, but this may end after Project Scorpio:

https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/17/microsoft-aaron-greenberg-qa-project-scorpio-vr/

"The future of Xbox looks a lot like PC gaming." That's what Engadget editor Nathan Ingraham wrote after speaking with Phil Spencer earlier this year. Spencer spoke about wanting to see a steady stream of hardware innovation rather than seven-year gaps between consoles, citing the smartphone market as inspiration. Greenberg went one step further. In his opinion, this is the last console generation. "We think the future is without console generations," he said, explaining that Project Scorpio was a "big bet" that gamers will embrace that notion.

And this probably already coming to an end (to some degree) with the current Xbox via the ability to share certain titles with Windows 10:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/windows-10

Now when you own an Xbox Play Anywhere digital title, it’s yours to play on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC at no additional cost. Play a game and pick up where you left off on another Xbox One or PC, bringing all your saves, game add-ons, and achievements with you. Anywhere is a great place to play.

With this mentioned, I think there a lot of good reasons not to overlook Linux gaming. (And my belief is that an AMD hardware environment that increases Radeon will result in a greater amount of Linux development)

 

[cbn]

The same reason why Intel and NV's ASPs keep rising: the appeal of new low end/midrange offerings is decreasing and those who still want to spend money on PCs would rather spend more to move up the ladder than get stuck on the lower end.

Actually the midrange GPUs (RX470 4GB and GTX 1060 3GB) have the best performance per dollar.

But to make use of these (for all games) a user will need more than a Core i3 6100.

Some testing from AtenRA using Core i3 6300 and HD7950 @ 1000 Mhz:

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/60-minutes-–-cpu-performance-and-energy-consumption-in-gaming-atenra.2459963/#post-37949265

Core i3 6300 - The lack of CPU Cores/Threads on the Core i3 6300 is evident even when Mantle is used. There is a lot of stuttering and fps performance is lower than even the Bulldozer FX-8150. The Core i3 6300 is not a good CPU if you have a 120Hz monitor and fast GPU since this game in Multiplayer mode needs a lot of Cores/Threads.

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/60-minutes-–-cpu-performance-and-energy-consumption-in-gaming-atenra.2459963/#post-37949269

Core i3 6300 – Although not that bad the Skylake Core i3 6300 does have high stuttering moments during the 60 minutes gameplay. That makes the gameplay a little bumpy and a lot of times it feels sluggish. Fps performance is fine and on par with the other CPUs.

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/60-minutes-–-cpu-performance-and-energy-consumption-in-gaming-atenra.2459963/#post-37949273

Core i3 6300 – There is a lot of stuttering with the dual Core Skylake although fps is on par with the rest of the CPUs. Even with graphics settings that make the game extremely GPU bound, the lack or real cores make the Core i3 6300 to stutter heavily making the game very choppy at times. Upgrading to a faster graphics card will only make things worse.

Notice the last sentence in the last quote: "Upgrading to a faster graphics card will only make things worse"

 

[TheELF]

Yeah you can really kill off performance on skylake with sub standard ddr3 mem
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-core-i3-6100-review
from atenra's posts,ddr3 mem at 1866 really is NOT the way to go.

2133MHz Kingston Genesis (1866MHz at 9-9-9 1.5V)

 

[ElFenix]

gaming went mobile, along with most of the rest of the computer industry. people play league on their laptops. igp works ok for that, and absent a couple external pcie boxes, you're not upgrading the gpu for your laptop.

i'm going to guess that "dgpu" as used in the title, does not include laptop dgpu sales (though those are almost certainly not enough to make up for the fall in desktop dgpu sales) .

 

[cbn]

Yeah you can really kill off performance on skylake with sub standard ddr3 mem
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-core-i3-6100-review
from atenra's posts,ddr3 mem at 1866 really is NOT the way to go.

While DDR4 2133 would be faster than DDR3 1866 remember only the Z170 boards can use the DDR4 2666 RAM used in that test.

Now if someone were to combine Core i3 6100, Z170 and DDR4 2666 would it be enough for a RX 470 4GB or GTX 1060 3GB (both of which are faster than the HD7950 @ 1000 Mhz which stuttered with the Core i3-6300 and DDR3 1866)? I don't think it would be....because those GPUs are that much faster.

 

[cbn]

i'm going to guess that "dgpu" as used in the title, does not include laptop dgpu sales (though those are almost certainly not enough to make up for the fall in desktop dgpu sales) .

Yes, I was thinking solely of desktop dGPU sales when I made the thread title.

However, with that mentioned AMD's partners still use the 384sp dGPU with 15W laptop APUs. This ironically rather than a 35W APU by itself. (See example below)

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Bristo...0-9600P-Against-the-Competition.168477.0.html

We found the dedicated Radeon R7 M440 GPU of our test laptop relatively disappointing. It rarely performed faster than the integrated Radeon R5 and, when it did, the IGP was suffering performance drops due to its limiting TDP. Instead, HP should have installed the higher-performance A10-9630P (35-watt). This would have boosted CPU and GPU performance. This statement is supported by the fact that the CrossFire setup did not produce higher frame rates in none of the games we tested.

Performance Consistency - Sustaining High CPU and GPU Loads

In games, the TDP limit is temporarily exceeded. However, after a maximum of two minutes (depending on the previous load and temperatures of the laptop), the 15-watt limit strikes back, dropping clock speeds. For example, in Diablo III, the CPU and GPU clock speeds start at 1800 and 550 MHz respectively. As the game runs, the speeds drop to 1100 to 1200 (CPU) and 380 to 420 MHz (GPU). The frame rates drop in parallel in our static gaming scene from 72 to 49 fps.

We want to praise the AMD IGP. Once again, the manufacturer steals the performance crown in the 15-watt segment. The only Intel IGP capable of surpassing the AMD competitor is the Iris Graphics 540, which is very expensive. We hope that many manufacturers will install Bristol Ridge without a dedicated graphics card and thus make good use of this strong advantage. Dual Graphics can only create a large lead over the competition in synthetic benchmarks. When running demanding applications, such as games, the setup does not offer much better performance.

 

[Triloby]

The iGPU, of course.

Most people back then had no choice but to get a discrete GPU for desktops, because it was the only way to drive their own monitor for even the most basic of tasks like: web browsing, emails, word processing, etc. AMD's APU's and Intel's HD Graphics have, more or less, eliminated the need for a discrete GPU for those people who don't do anything graphically intensive like gaming or rendering. And those people make up a huge chunk of the PC market. Why bother spending extra money on something you don't really need when the CPU already provides it for you?

Unfortunately, it also seems to have had a negative effect on low-profile discrete GPU's for desktops as well. I hope Nvidia sells a LP version of the 1050 or 1050 Ti, but I'm not getting my hopes up on that ever happening....

 

[2is]

It's a combination of the IGP being plenty powerful enough for the vast majority of people and the cost of higher end dgpu's moving higher and higher.

 

[cbn]

Looking back on CPU progress at X price point from Q3 2006 to Q3 2009 (ie, the pre-iGPU era):

E6600 (Q3, 2006, MSRP $316) = 2C/2T Conroe with 2.4 Ghz base and no turbo

i7 860 (Q3, 2009, MSRP $284) = 4C/8T Lynnfield with 2.8 Ghz base and 3.46 Ghz turbo

Pretty amazing CPU gain per dollar during those three years!