low end graphics card demand in decline

[zMeul]

source: http://digitimes.com/news/a20150729PD219.html
 

Graphics card players have recently started turning their focuses to mid-range and high-end graphics cards as related demand from enthusiast gamers continues to rise despite the fact that overall PC sales are still weak, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

Some channel retailers pointed out that overall demand in the PC DIY market has been dropping, but demand for high-end components such as CPUs, motherboards and graphics cards continues to rise, and because of their high gross margins, many players have turned to the market segment, looking to improve their profitability.

Among the graphics card players, Asustek Computer has performed rather well recently and the company's graphics card product line together with the motherboard business has become a stable profit foundation.

In China, Asustek is not able to surpass Colorful and Galaxy in terms of graphics card shipments because of a 17% value-added tax on memory, but still has advantages in the country's high-end graphics market.

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no wonder ...
the low end graphic cards were replaced by AMD's APUs and Intel's CPUs with Integrated Graphics
as I previously noted here, the low-end graphic cards market may be in serious danger of becoming obsolete

[werto165]

About time, paying so little for a GPU is just not worth it any more. 

[JustChilliing]

About time, paying so little for a GPU is just not worth it any more. 

 

Was it ever?

[eelnico09]

Well, decent mid-ranged cards are getting cheaper and cheaper, so it makes sense.

 

 

Was it ever? 

Times where low end dedicated gpus were A LOT BETTER than integrated ones.

[Zeruel]

Good, with AMDs and Intels Integrated/APU Graphics becoming better maybe we will see stronger "low" end cards.

[arronleeds]

you can get mid range cards for amazing prices now, in the uk you can get a gtx 660 for like 60 pounds.

[Nowak]

It was bound to happen with Intel and AMD improving their integrated graphics solutions to the point where low-end GPUs are basically obsolete.

[Maslofski]

the only rational reaction from Nvidia has to be reprice the 970 at 150 euros and onwards

[Lethal Seraph]

I'd rather see a flourish on an integrated gpu than a stand alone low end. That's what makes sense right now, as nobody would pay extra for it.

[zMeul]

the only rational reaction from Nvidia has to be reprice the 970 at 150 euros and onwards

I don't think you understand how nVidia works 

or any other company on that matter

[Trik'Stari]

Maybe now games will catch up to hardware.

 

 

Doubtful though

[escape093]

Low end cards still have their place. In my case, the most I would need is probably an R7 360 (I usually run emulators at downsampled 1440P/4K). The problem with something like Iris graphics is that they have a £170+ CPU attached to them.

[tomas710]

The really low end of the Nvidia side was completely ommited this generation (710,20,30,40 equivalents). Guess integrated graphics are good enough that people that don't game or creat content can get by without discrete graphics. They weren't a segment of the market that made sense anyway.

[tomas710]

Low end cards still have their place. In my case, the most I would need is probably an R7 360 (I usually run emulators at downsampled 1440P/4K). The problem with something like Iris graphics is that they have a £170+ CPU attached to them.

An R7 360 is not that low end. you can go down to the 340 and you still got an entire tier of lower end cards, at least you did in the previous gen

[LOLZpersonok]

When my brother got his new computer, it came with a 3.8GHz AMD FX processor (I don't know the model, but it was a somewhat recent quad core processor) and an absolute joke of a graphics card. Want to know what graphics card it came with? The Radeon R5 230. The 8 year old GPU that was installed in his old computer literally outperformed it in every game he played. Ever since he upgraded to a GTX 750Ti (and even more recently a GTX 970), I got a hold of that Radeon R5 230, and put it in my HP Compaq Pentium 4 machine (because I'm weird that way). Turns out that card is a great fit for Pentium 4 systems. I can actually play Skyrim on that computer, as long as I keep my expectations low (I mean almost completely lowest graphics settings). Mass Effect 2 is even more playable on it.

[bcredeur97]

makes sense. people either get iGPU's or mid-high end GPU's. It's been a long time since ive seen someone with something in-between.

[Misanthrope]

With even igpus capable of decent gaming from both AMD and shortly from intel as well with the iris pro 6200 I expect this trend to continue: there's no reason why anyone should use anything lower than say a 750ti for gaming

[Notional]

Exactly. The interesting thing is to note that these APU's will eat up the graphics cards market from the ground up, slowly removing more and more lines of discrete cards from below. This is also why NVidia is fixated on creating vendor lock in, so their customers cannot financially switch to something cheaper/better, as they risk high switching costs (like replacing gsync monitor).

 

People constantly talk about AMD being in financial problems, but really NVidia will be the company that will suffer long term, as they have no CPU business and no console business or APU business. They need to make their own proper console or more gaming paraphernalia. They are on their way, but will also shift them towards complete proprietary platforms, which takes them away from PC business. 

[Misanthrope]

Exactly. The interesting thing is to note that these APU's will eat up the graphics cards market from the ground up, slowly removing more and more lines of discrete cards from below. This is also why NVidia is fixated on creating vendor lock in, so their customers cannot financially switch to something cheaper/better, as they risk high switching costs (like replacing gsync monitor).

 

People constantly talk about AMD being in financial problems, but really NVidia will be the company that will suffer long term, as they have no CPU business and no console business or APU business. They need to make their own proper console or more gaming paraphernalia. They are on their way, but will also shift them towards complete proprietary platforms, which takes them away from PC business. 

 

I imagine that by the point that we get away from silicon and down below 7nm even most medium range cards will be rendered obsolete specially if a CPU switches to HMB for it's cache and vram, making everything simpler and such. 

[Notional]

I imagine that by the point that we get away from silicon and down below 7nm even most medium range cards will be rendered obsolete specially if a CPU switches to HMB for it's cache and vram, making everything simpler and such. 

 

Indeed. What we could also see are bigger APU's. Imagine a 14nm FF APU right now with 4/6 CPU cores and the rest being GPU with HBM, the size of a 2011 18 core XEON, or maybe even bigger than that. It might take an AIO to deal with it, but you could have a stupidly powerful single package chip, that could deal with even mid end GPU's.

[patrickjp93]

Exactly. The interesting thing is to note that these APU's will eat up the graphics cards market from the ground up, slowly removing more and more lines of discrete cards from below. This is also why NVidia is fixated on creating vendor lock in, so their customers cannot financially switch to something cheaper/better, as they risk high switching costs (like replacing gsync monitor).

 

People constantly talk about AMD being in financial problems, but really NVidia will be the company that will suffer long term, as they have no CPU business and no console business or APU business. They need to make their own proper console or more gaming paraphernalia. They are on their way, but will also shift them towards complete proprietary platforms, which takes them away from PC business. 

That will depend on who collapses under who first. If AMD falls before Intel knocks Nvidia out of HPC, Nvidia will be fine. If Nvidia falls first, AMD is a sitting duck.

[Notional]

That will depend on who collapses under who first. If AMD falls before Intel knocks Nvidia out of HPC, Nvidia will be fine. If Nvidia falls first, AMD is a sitting duck.

 

What makes you think the investors would let AMD fall? They may file for chapter 11, if it goes wrong, but thinking that AMD would just disappear is wishful thinking. Remember that some of the biggest investors/share holders of AMD, also co owns Global Foundries (which is one of the reasons it got extracted from AMD to begin with). The underestimation of AMD is not surprising, but indeed an underestimation.

[Guest Strangerbob]

Good. Need to get latest integrated graphics to be on the level of the latest x60 nvidia and x70 amd cards. THEN we are golden.

[RagnarokDel]

you can get mid range cards for amazing prices now, in the uk you can get a gtx 660 for like 60 pounds.

Oh come on, that's used...

[patrickjp93]

What makes you think the investors would let AMD fall? They may file for chapter 11, if it goes wrong, but thinking that AMD would just disappear is wishful thinking. Remember that some of the biggest investors/share holders of AMD, also co owns Global Foundries (which is one of the reasons it got extracted from AMD to begin with). The underestimation of AMD is not surprising, but indeed an underestimation.

Because Chapter 11 is out of reach under the structure of their main debts. If AMd doesn't have 600 million USD in liquid cash in Escrow on Jan 1st 2019, it will cause immediate controlled bankruptcy and likely a dissolution of the company. AMD would likely be split into two pieces, ATI being sold off to the highest bidder (Intel or Apple being the most likely of the North American companies). At that point the AMD investors will be looking for a merger/buyout to recover their money and get off of the AMD crazy train (Nvidia).

 

I'm not underestimating anything. I already took all of that into consideration.