Jon Peddie Research (JPR), a research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, has announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers’ market share for 2013 4Q. The quarter was the second quarter in a row to show a gain in shipments, up 1.6% quarter-to-quarter, and up 2% compared to the same quarter last year.

AMD’s overall unit shipments decreased 10.4%, quarter-to-quarter, Intel’s total shipments increased 5.1% from last quarter, and Nvidia’s increased 3.4%. The attach rate of GPUs to PCs [personal computers] for the quarter was 137% and 34% of PCs had discrete GPUs that means 66% of the PCs are using embedded graphics. The overall PC market increased 1.8% quarter-to-quarter, but declined 8.5% year-to-year.

The popularity of tablets and the persistent economic slowness are the most often mentioned reasons for the decline in the PC market, according to JPR (www.jonpeddie.com). The one bright spot in the PC market has been the growth of gaming PCs where discrete GPUs play a significant role. The CAGR for total PC graphics from 2013 to 2017 is -1.3% in 2013, 446 million GPUs were shipped and the forecast for 2017 is 422 million.

The ten-year average change for graphics shipments for quarter-to-quarter is -2 %. This quarter is 1.6% suggesting the market may have bottomed out and is slowly recovering.

Graphics chips (GPUs) and chips with graphics (IGPs, APUs, and EPGs) are a leading indicator for the PC market. At least one and often two GPUs are present in every PC shipped. It can take the form of a discrete chip, a GPU integrated in the chipset or embedded in the CPU. The average has grown from 1.2 GPUs per PC in 2001 to almost 1.4 GPUs per PC.