According to a DigiTimes report today, Intel will reportedly cut CPU shipments to the PC building sector by 2 million units in Q4 2018. The supply shortage could also lead to a significant decline in motherboard shipments by Taiwanese manufacturers that quarter, the publication's unnamed sources said.
According to DigiTimes’ "industry sources," Intel had to reduce shipments of desktop CPUs in order to prioritize the server and notebook market. The company will reportedly cut the shipments of desktop processors to only 6 million, down from an initially expected 8 million units.
Intel has previously blamed the 14nm CPU shortage on increased demand, even though all signs point to Intel not being able to meet even regular demand due to the all the issues it's been having with its much-delayed 10nm process node. The new report seems to confirm that Intel’s problem wasn’t one of having significantly more demand for its chips, but one of not being able to make as many chips as it originally planned.
Motherboard Makers Will Also Suffer
DigiTimes also reported that Taiwanese motherboard makers will suffer a significant decline in shipments of 10 to 20 percent, thanks to Intel’s CPU shortage.
Tul, a Taiwanese motherboard vendor, is expected to suffer operating losses in Q4.
Gigabyte shipments for the quarter are also "expected to drop to the levels seen before the emergence of the cryptomining craze that peaked in the first quarter of 2018," the publication said.
It believes Asus' revenues will remain flat in Q4, but the company has already seen operational visibility for the quarter drop.
MSI is expected to be the only Taiwanese motherboard maker to see strong revenue performance, DigiTimes said, mainly because of strong demand for gaming motherboards and graphics cards.
The publication also pointed to Nvidia’s RTX GPU platform's failure to bring a large enough boost in price-versus-performance over previous cards as playing a role in low expectations for motherboard shipments in Q4.
