Shipments of standalone GPUs for desktop PCs increased slightly in the final quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter but declined by over a million units compared to the same quarter in 2023, according to Jon Peddie Research. However, the market for graphics add-in boards (AIBs) for desktops rebounded quite significantly in 2024 compared to the previous year. While AMD managed to grab a chunk of Nvidia's market share in Q4 2024, sales of its standalone GPUs for desktops dropped to a historic low for the whole year.
A modest quarter
The industry shipped 8.4 million discrete graphics boards for desktop PCs in Q4 2024, up from 8.1 million in the previous quarter but down from 9.5 million units, according to JPR. Nvidia allegedly reallocated some of its production capacity from client GPUs to datacenter GPUs, which is why its shipments contracted both sequentially and year over year to around 6.89 million units in the fourth quarter. By contrast, AMD managed to increase sales of its Radeon graphics cards for desktops to 1.43 million units, its strongest result of 2024. However, it was still lower than the 1.81 million shipped in Q4 2023.
As a result of constrained production capacity, Nvidia lost around 8% of the discrete desktop GPU market in the final quarter of 2024, while AMD gained approximately 7% and Intel gained around 1.2%, according to Jon Peddie Research. Nvidia still dominated the market with an 82% share, but AMD commanded 17% of shipments, which was a positive outcome for the company.
As demand for graphics cards exceeded supply in the fourth quarter, and because both AMD and Nvidia delayed the volume ramp-up of their latest products to 2025, suppliers ended the quarter with a solid queue of pending orders heading into the first quarter of 2025, setting the stage for an unusually strong shipment volume during that period, according to Jon Peddie Research. However, with new tariffs set to take effect in the second quarter, the usual seasonal decline in desktop AIB shipments in Q2 could be even steeper unless some of the backlog carries over.
A good year (but not for AMD)
While the fourth quarter of 2024 was modest for standalone graphics AIBs for desktops due both to Nvidia supply constraints and the postponed ramp-up of the GeForce RTX 50 and Radeon RX 9000 series to 2025, the entire year 2024 was rather good for discrete desktop GPUs.
The industry shipped 34.7 million graphics AIBs for desktops in 2024, up from around 31 million in 2023 but down from nearly 38 million in 2022, according to JPR. However, keep in mind that there were no major product launches last year, and only Nvidia refreshed its lineup with several GeForce RTX 40 Super models.
For the whole year, Nvidia shipped 30.2 million discrete GPUs for desktops, which was a significant increase from 2023 and aligned with its results in 2022, based on data from Jon Peddie Research. By contrast, AMD shipped 4.42 million standalone graphics processors for desktop PCs, marking the company's worst result ever.
Given continued constraints of Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series shipments in the first quarter of 2023, it remains to be seen whether AMD manages to sustain its market share and increase its shipments compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.
