More gamers are playing on Radeon graphics than Intel and Nvidia combined

[Liltrekkie]

An article posted today on Graphic Speak (gfxspeak) dived into the world of GPU graphics and total market share. They go on to talk about the x86 market, and how gamers fall into one of several "camps"

 

Quote

Gamers fall into several camps, device size, main processor type, OS, screen size, budget, time spent, etc. The gaming community is so large; no single demographic can define it.

 

They also say that gamers enjoy their hobby multiple ways, consoles, gaming PC's arcades, etc.

 

Now obviously there are ARM based gaming solutions and other solutions but for this article they are focusing on the x86 platform. They also begin to seperate the market into the three basic tiers that we hear about every day. 

 

Quote

We define the market as consisting of three types of players: Enthusiast, Core gamer, and casual gamer. Included in the enthusiast class would be the professional gamers who play in tournaments for prize money or sponsorship. We do not make any distinction about sex or sexual preference, or do we make any distinction about age, or geographic location. Generally speaking, these categories have to do with the amount time the gamers spends playing computer/video games, and the class or type of games being played.

The equipment a gamer has will depend upon his or her economic situation, so an Enthusiast may only be able to afford entry-level or mainstream equipment, or a last generation console, where a high-end gamer will have the latest PC, graphics add-in board (AIB) and/or the latest console; in between is the midrange equipment.

The hardware tiers are:

Entry-Level (Mainstream)
Mid-range (Performance)
High-End (Enthusiast)

 

They also include a chart which follows the various graphics solutions we see out in the world in both notebooks and desktop environments.

 

 

They also rank gamers into tiers by game time

 

Quote

The tiers for gamer time commitment are:

Light
Moderate (Casual)
Intensive (Core)
Extreme (Enthusiast)

 

So naturally this is where they start to break the numbers down after explaining the market a little. 

 

They will be using the latest generation of consoles, (Wii and Wii U, Sony PS4 and Xbox One), Graphic AIBs and APU's (APU's being AMD's and Intels onboard graphics chips)

 

The article also states that not all AIB's go towards gaming, but all consoles do, so they include a chart which explains how they arrived on when a AIB is used for gaming. 

 

 

 

Quote

Based on Steam user data, we conclude that 16.5% of desktop machines used for gaming are using Intel integrated graphics (Southeast Asia represents about 6.5 percent of Valve’s global Steam gamers). Steam data does not differentiate desktop from notebook integrated graphics. Therefore, we applied the same percentage to Intel for notebooks and based on the AMD to Intel integrated notebook ratio (our quarterly data collection of mobile integrated GPU shipments), normalized AMD’s notebook integrated gamer utilization.

We also used steam data to estimate the market share for AMD and Nvidia mobile discrete GPUs used for gaming based on our quarterly data collection of mobile discrete GPU shipments.

We used company financial reports to arrive at the shipments and installed base of gaming consoles.

 

They state that only 73.8% of graphics AIB's are used in gaming machines, impressive considering I thought it would be a much lower number. 

 

Here's where they break down the marketshare and the numbers. 

 

Quote

For the past seven years, the three major vendors installed base of GPUs for PC gaming declined slowly following the PC’s decline.

 

 

Their point of the major vendors declining in the last seven years does hold up, it's also worth noting that NVIDIA leads in the gaming PC market, but they also point out something interesting about the market. 

 

Quote

With the gaming hardware market being $101 billion dollars in 2015, growing to $110+ billion in 2016 the market opportunity is very large.

 

 

Quote

The gaming industry of players using x86 consoles and PCs has 717 million people participating in 2016, growing to 775 million in 2019. It is no wonder we pay special attention when it comes to the balance of power in gaming. Developers too should do the same as they often make significant business decisions when deciding on the platforms that they are targeting.

So while the major vendors may be declining, the market is actually INCREASING. Very interesting. 

 

Their conclusion? 

 

Quote

Intel is the volume leader in shipping integrated GPUs in the PC, however, only a small portion of them are used in gaming, Nvidia is the leader in discrete GPUs in the PC.

However, when we look at the x86 console and the PC market as a whole, the numbers above tell an interesting story. More gamers are playing on Radeon graphics than Intel and Nvidia combined. AMD’s position in game consoles combined with a strong position in the PC market puts it in unique, market leading position when it comes to gamers. And that is a great position to be in when you think of upcoming gaming possibility of VR coming to market.

 

It's pretty cut and dry that when everything is accounted for, AMD leads the pack by quite a lot. 

 

 

 

TL;DR: consoles bring up AMD's marketshare while in the PC market NVIDIA leads it. 

 

My personal opinion is this isn't surprising in the least. While NVIDIA may lead gaming PC markets they lose in the total market. Which this is good news for AMD, as they gain more cash in the end. What does everyone think?

 

Source: http://gfxspeak.com/2016/11/16/balance-power-gaming/?sf42624682=1

[Mr.Meerkat]

too clickbaity title 5 me...

 

6 minutes ago, Liltrekkie said:

consoles bring up AMD's marketshare

And so will the AMD GPUs in Apple's macbook pros so you know...

[Sauron]

Ok, but that doesn't really mean much - consoles use custom made drivers, so what is done on there doesn't have too much impact in favour of either company on PC.

[Hunter259]

"Gamers"

[Notional]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

too clickbaity title 5 me...

 

And so will the AMD GPUs in Apple's macbook pros so you know...

Consoles are used (almost exclusively) for gaming. The only game apple users play is "why is my bank accounts empty?".

[Bouzoo]

You can figure it out from the title alone that they are including consoles. 

 

But it all depends on the profit that AMD makes from their "total leading position", and that is not as much afaik.

[Godlygamer23]

The problem that I have with including consoles is that they're forced to use AMD hardware. Both Sony and Microsoft chose a custom AMD SoC for their consoles, and no console gamer has a choice in the matter, so it's not like they went "I'm going with Sony because they used AMD." There's simply no choice, and I'm not sure that it matters since again, console gamers are forced to use the AMD SoCs in order to use the PS4 and Xbox One.

[Mira Yurizaki]

This is just a statistics game, it doesn't mean anything for AMD.

 

I could claim ARM is the architecture of choice for gamers, considering how many billions of smart phones there are out there and a huge percentage of them have game time.

[Enderman]

Nice clickbait.

Maybe make your next article "there are more computers with no dedicated GPUs than with dedicated GPUs!"

Oh wait, that's completely irrelevant to gamers, who cares if your parents don't have a dedicated GPU in their work PC.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

22 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

The problem that I have with including consoles is that they're forced to use AMD hardware. Both Sony and Microsoft chose a custom AMD SoC for their consoles, and no console gamer has a choice in the matter, so it's not like they went "I'm going with Sony because they used AMD." There's simply no choice, and I'm not sure that it matters since again, console gamers are forced to use the AMD SoCs in order to use the PS4 and Xbox One.

It is what they use, though. So, if the question is what kind graphics chips gamers are using (a question that, for example, a game developer may ask), this is the correct answer. If the question is "what is the most loved brand by gamers?" then yes, console gamers using AMD doesn't mean much.

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, SpaceGhostC2C said:

It is what they use, though. So, if the question is what kind graphics chips gamers are using (a question that, for example, a game developer may ask), this is the correct answer. If the question is "what is the most loved brand by gamers?" then yes, console gamers using AMD doesn't mean much.

But if the market share is primary console gamers, it doesn't mean much if your primary platforms(consoles) are using AMD hardware. That's going to be your focus anyways.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

But if the market share is primary console gamers, it doesn't mean much if your primary platforms(consoles) are using AMD hardware. That's going to be your focus anyways.

It maybe the time of the day, but I'm having a hard time understanding what you are saying there.

Consoles have AMD APUs the way OEMs have Intel CPUs. Gamers don't choose what is within their consoles, employees don't choose what is inside their enterprise PCs, but they all add up to the user count. Knowing the user count will or will not be useful depending on what you are trying to do. OP's source seems to spit a few numbers without really making much out of them, so it's like raw data. If someone wants to use it to argue something else, it may or may not be relevant depending on the argument. That's all I'm saying. 

[Deli]

No sure how many console gamers know or care who makes the hardware inside the machine.

 

Same for how many people know who is the sub-contractor of the air-conditioning in their cars, or software of the engine-management....I don't.

[Centurius]

1 hour ago, Liltrekkie said:

 

My personal opinion is this isn't surprising in the least. While NVIDIA may lead gaming PC markets they lose in the total market. Which this is good news for AMD, as they gain more cash in the end. What does everyone think?

 

Source: http://gfxspeak.com/2016/11/16/balance-power-gaming/?sf42624682=1

It actually doesn't. In the PC market the manufacturers are relatively few and they are dealing with millions of potential buyers which allows them to include a margin as even if they don't sell to a few they will sell to others. In the console market there are only 2 to 3 consumers who can demand lower prices or threaten to go to the competitor. Marketshare alone does not give any indication of revenue or profit, as can be seen by AMD's finances the past few years despite being in consoles for a while already.

[Liltrekkie]

2 hours ago, Enderman said:

Nice clickbait.

Maybe make your next article "there are more computers with no dedicated GPUs than with dedicated GPUs!"

Oh wait, that's completely irrelevant to gamers, who cares if your parents don't have a dedicated GPU in their work PC.

 

I was actually in a rush to write this and didn't have time to choose a better title. So my bad there. 

 

(I also don't feel like quoting absolutely everyone else so here's my argument to everyones SoC point)

 

But it does point to good things though. Microsoft and Sony could have used ANY SoC in the world. They weren't forced to choose AMD. They willingly chose AMD. 

 

And AMD does need all the cash it can get, there is probably huge margins for AMD too, but their income has been so lack luster that all their profits they do get with this are overshadowed by the debt. 

 

Bottom line is, the consoles are good for AMD's bottom line.

[Sakkura]

14 minutes ago, Liltrekkie said:

And AMD does need all the cash it can get, there is probably huge margins for AMD too, but their income has been so lack luster that all their profits they do get with this are overshadowed by the debt.

Console hardware does not have huge margins.

[AresKrieger]

This is mostly the same info I saw on a wccftech article though this one has an even more clickbait title anyway this part is important

As is this

AMD Discrete GPU Shipments Up 34.7%

and this

NVIDIA Pascal Lineup Boosts Green Team’s Graphics Market Share in Q3 2016 – PC Graphics Shipment Increase by 39.3%

 

 

Summary: Both AMD and Nvidia are up for the year in the GPU market with Nvida gaining quite a bit this quarter and AMD gaining a lot on the year, for the discrete gpu market AMD has seen good gains in shipments this quarter as has Nvidia with Nvidia getting slightly higher shipment increases for this quarter.

[themctipers]

6 hours ago, Liltrekkie said:

 

cough cough rx 4xx series,

[Commodus]

6 hours ago, Deli said:

No sure how many console gamers know or care who makes the hardware inside the machine.

 

Same for how many people know who is the sub-contractor of the air-conditioning in their cars, or software of the engine-management....I don't.

Most don't, and they shouldn't have to.

 

This is more an indication of how the GPU market is healthier than it looks, and that NVIDIA isn't the all-conquering giant it looks like if you're a PC-focused gamer.  And that kind of competition is great for everyone... imagine if NVIDIA didn't have to worry that AMD would roll technology from consoles into PC chipsets, or vice versa.  You wouldn't see it continuing to push boundaries as much as it does now.  Heck, we might not see a potentially innovative console like the Nintendo Switch (which revolves around NVIDIA) if it weren't for that competitive pressure.

[Mr.Undeniable]

welp

[Mira Yurizaki]

17 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Most don't, and they shouldn't have to.

 

This is more an indication of how the GPU market is healthier than it looks, and that NVIDIA isn't the all-conquering giant it looks like if you're a PC-focused gamer.  And that kind of competition is great for everyone... imagine if NVIDIA didn't have to worry that AMD would roll technology from consoles into PC chipsets, or vice versa.  You wouldn't see it continuing to push boundaries as much as it does now.  Heck, we might not see a potentially innovative console like the Nintendo Switch (which revolves around NVIDIA) if it weren't for that competitive pressure.

NVIDIA has been trying to push into the mobile space for a long time and it so happens Nintendo liked the Tegra X2 or whatever it's going to be called.

 

I don't really think it had anything to do with AMD having a practical monopoly on all of the consoles this generation.

[LAwLz]

You know, when you make up your own definitions like this you can come to any conclusion you want.

[PocketNerd]

Let's be brutally honest here, people who play on consoles are likely to not care or not even know who made the GPU for their device. They're the type that wants a device that plays games with little to no fuss. Plus once a console gets made, there is no way to change the manufacturer of the card. If the manufacturer of the GPU was a major deciding factor in the purchase of a console then MAYBE it would be worth considering in statistical analysis.

What I would imagine is the almighty stat is who is top on the Steam Hardware Survey... and with 57.83% (as of writing) Nvidia wins. Not only are they winning, but their gap is widening.

[ThreePinkApples]

This looks like something they created just to convince shareholder really

[Misanthrope]

Quote

Based on Steam user data, we conclude that 16.5% of desktop machines used for gaming are using Intel integrated graphics (Southeast Asia represents about 6.5 percent of Valve’s global Steam gamers). Steam data does not differentiate desktop from notebook integrated graphics. Therefore, we applied the same percentage to Intel for notebooks and based on the AMD to Intel integrated notebook ratio (our quarterly data collection of mobile integrated GPU shipments), normalized AMD’s notebook integrated gamer utilization.

We also used steam data to estimate the market share for AMD and Nvidia mobile discrete GPUs used for gaming based on our quarterly data collection of mobile discrete GPU shipments.

We used company financial reports to arrive at the shipments and installed base of gaming consoles

This part might as well read "This is where our fancy numbers guy flatout made up fucking bullshit!"

 

Meanwhile in reality land:

 

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

 

Edited November 17, 2016 by Misanthrope