Add-On Graphics Market Declined In Q3

New numbers from Job Peddie Research finds that the market for add-in graphics boards declined in the third quarter of 2006 to just under $5 billion.

New numbers from market-watcher Jon Peddie Research finds that the market for add-in graphics boards declined to $4.97 billion during the third quarter of 2006, the third consecutive quarterly decline after a high-water mark of $.588 billion in the first quarter of 2006.

Peddie estimates that almost 22 million PC graphics board shipped from major supplies during the third quarter, which would be an increase of 10.6 percent on a unit basis from the second quarter of 2006, and a year-to-year increase of 7.7 percent over the third quarter of 2005. However, pressures on supplies to drop prices has lowered the overall value of the market—and, ironically, the price drops have made the “value” segment of the market relatively more expensive than products offered to other market segments (performance, workstation, mainstream, and enthusiast, as broken down by Peddie).

Industry giants ATI (now owned by AMD) and Nvidia continued to dominate the market for add-in video boards, with Nvidia gaining market share to account fo 59 percent of the market and 56 percent of the market’s overall value—Nvidia’s advance echoes earlier numbers which saw ATI’s market share declining after its merger with AMD. Outside of ATi and Nvidia, though, other suppliers of add-in graphics boards for PCs account for just 0.6 percent of ther market value. (Unlike integrated graphics, manufacturers like Intel have no presence in the add-in graphics market.)