GPU shipments increase as notebooks keep growing

Estimated figures for graphics chip shipments and supplier's market share for Q2 10 have been released by market watcher Jon Peddie Research.

According to the analyst, overall graphics chip shipments increased by four percent from Q1 10, despite a 21.4 percent decrease in desktop discrete GPUs. This was possible because of the strong growth in notebooks. The analyst also reported that shipments for 1H 10 are 38.6 percent above the same period last year.

Intel maintained the top position in unit shipments for Q2 10 because of Clarksdale, continued Atom sales for Netbooks, and strong notebook growth. AMD led the market with the biggest gains for both discrete and integrated desktop products in the company's history. On the other hand, Nvidia had double-digit losses in every segment except notebook integrated where they showed a 10 percent gain in units shipments from last quarter.

AMD reported their graphics segment revenue increased 8 percent sequentially and 87 percent y-on-y to $440 million.

Intel reported "revenue from client chipset and other" of $1.68 billion in Q2.

Nvidia's fiscal quarter, straddles the calendar quarters. Their next quarter ends in July 31. Total revenue is now estimated at $800 million to $820 million, compared with the range of $950 million to $970 million provided on May 13, 2010.

The revenue shortfall occurred primarily in the consumer GPU business, resulting from increased memory costs and economic weakness in Europe and China. The increased solution cost of discrete GPUs led to a greater-than-expected shift to lower-priced GPUs and PCs with integrated graphics.