The market for graphics add-in boards (AIBs) showed some signs of positivity in the second quarter, although sales still were down year on year.
That’s according to a report from Jon Peddie Research. It claims that Q2 showed some “much needed firmness” with demand bottoming and a recovery on the way.
In the second quarter, 16.81 million graphics card shipped, sequentially up from Q1 2009, but down 15 percent year on year.
Inventories in Q4 2009 and Q1 2009 were hard hit by the “shock and awe” factor, said the report. Inventories couldn’t get very much lower. That meant that AIB sales had to track consumption. And there’s evidence people are beginning to spend money again.
However, in Q2 2009 the market for integrated graphics on motherboards did better than for add-in boards. AMD’s unit share of the market rose from 31 percent in the first quarter of this year to 35 percent in the second quarter, while Nvidia fell four points to 64 percent. Growth in the table below is year on year, units are in millions.
| AIB mkt | Q4 07 | Q1 08 | Q2 08 | Q3 08 | Q4 08 | Q1 09 | Q2 09 |
| Units | 26.51 | 24.40 | 19.78 | 21.92 | 15.20 | 16.32 | 16.81 |
| Growth% | 25.9 | 18.1 | -6.7 | -15.2 | -42.7 | -33.1 | -15.0 |
