News AMD's discrete desktop GPU market share hits all-time low as Nvidia extends its lead

Let's just hope that AMD doesn't get discouraged and bail on the GPU market and leave a 100% monopoly to Nvidia. However Steve Burke has called out AMD many times for their gross mismanagement and GPU strategy.

As GN pointed out in the past (lowering price before release of the 7 series), that AMD doesn't seem to believe in its own products. That could be the case again that AMD didn't make enough product to meet demand because they thought it wouldn't be as popular as an Nvidia product. I remember after the 9070XT post release that some at AMD were surprised at the demand and now they had to scurry to come up with more product to meet demand.

AMD seems to be its own worse enemy.
 
I'm just not sure how AMD could have expected any other result. They basically lost market share selling every 9070 XT they could churn out. If they can't produce a lot more, they can't beat Nvidia on price, and if they can't beat Nvidia on price and availability, then they can't beat Nvidia. I have a 5070 Ti, but I would have been very happy to go AMD with my current GPU. But I couldn't get one at $600, $700, or even $800, so $830 for a 5070 Ti didn't seem all that bad, relatively speaking.
 
Historically speaking, nVidia has always produced an order of magnitude more GPUs than AMD. And this time, I wouldn't be surprised it is two orders of magnitude, considering nVidia has the China market cornered (they're effectively a monopoly there).

Also, the usual reminder: the DYI is very vocal, but a minority still. Most of the sales are combined laptop, OEMs, SIs and DYI, out of which, I'd be surprised if it's single digits even.

On the other hand: as long as AMD is selling everything they're producing in the markets they're targeting, they'll grow. The thing is: long term, nVidia may not be worried about AMD outselling them in DYI*, but they'll be scared and start worrying if they encrouch in the bigger markets like OEM (think Dell, HP, etc) and Laptop. SIs, while not much bigger than DYI, AMD at least has a decent presence there.

Well, those are my thoughts.

Regards.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sluggotg
I wouldn't be surprises to learn that it's a wafer + yield problem : AMD are selling as many chips as they can churn out, true - they're also fully active chips running at a high voltage (they all undervolt quite massively).
I wouldn't be surprised to see the market flooded with non-XT and/or GRE models in the next few months, all using cut-down chips because AMD are actually scraping the bottom of the bins... Samsung and/or TSMC have limited production capabilities, and the highest bidder gets most of them.
Currently, that means nVidia.
 
And this is what happens when you don’t have a Halo product and you don’t have a better product. Simply build a better GPU than Nvidia if you can, and people will buy AMD. Then again Nvidias lead is not just GPU but all the foundational software around it including CUDA that had led to their lead.
 
Let's just hope that AMD doesn't get discouraged and bail on the GPU market and leave a 100% monopoly to Nvidia. However Steve Burke has called out AMD many times for their gross mismanagement and GPU strategy.

As GN pointed out in the past (lowering price before release of the 7 series), that AMD doesn't seem to believe in its own products. That could be the case again that AMD didn't make enough product to meet demand because they thought it wouldn't be as popular as an Nvidia product. I remember after the 9070XT post release that some at AMD were surprised at the demand and now they had to scurry to come up with more product to meet demand.

AMD seems to be its own worse enemy.
The market doesn’t believe in AmDs GPUs some bargain hunters do, but that’s not where the money is today. But because Nvidia can always match AmD in price in any segment it doesn’t matter. AMd needs to simply build a much better.GPU and capture mind share. Simply put it doesn’t matter what segment it is people think Nvidia is better and performance results support it. There is no formula, or magic strategy be better. The beat out Intel because they started producing better products than Intel, it’s that simple. One can only hope this is AmDs Bulldozer moment until their UDNA based GPUs come along. The answer is simple.
 
Last edited:
I've wanted an AMD GPU for months now. I check pricing and availability almost daily. I either can't find anything I want, or they're priced far above MSRP. Granted I'm a pretty lazy buyer and somewhat willing to wait, but in the meantime scalpers just buy most everything in sight and sell it for a profit. AMD probably makes far less than the scalper market because they don't produce enough product. The other big problem is probably nearly 100% of their cards are made in China and we all know much of that product is harder to move to the US right now at a decent price. Making almost everything in China isn't working out so well. Yes I would pay more, but not 60%+, which is what some scalpers are selling some cards for, or more.
 
I wouldn't be surprises to learn that it's a wafer + yield problem : AMD are selling as many chips as they can churn out, true - they're also fully active chips running at a high voltage (they all undervolt quite massively).
I wouldn't be surprised to see the market flooded with non-XT and/or GRE models in the next few months, all using cut-down chips because AMD are actually scraping the bottom of the bins... Samsung and/or TSMC have limited production capabilities, and the highest bidder gets most of them.
Currently, that means nVidia.
gamers are a small segment of the GPU market, gamers really don’t comprehend that GPUs serve a much much larger use case than playing games today, and AMd is still losing because Nvidia still sells more to the gaming market and there is really nothing to discuss in the datacenter/AI and enterprise market. The GPU market is growing as GPUs are used for far more use cases today and Nvidia gets the lions share of every use case in terms of sales.
 
I've wanted an AMD GPU for months now. I check pricing and availability almost daily. I either can't find anything I want, or they're priced far above MSRP. Granted I'm a pretty lazy buyer and somewhat willing to wait, but in the meantime scalpers just buy most everything in sight and sell it for a profit. AMD probably makes far less than the scalper market because they don't produce enough product. The other big problem is probably nearly 100% of their cards are made in China and we all know much of that product is harder to move to the US right now at a decent price. Making almost everything in China isn't working out so well. Yes I would pay more, but not 60%+, which is what some scalpers are selling some cards for, or more.
There is plenty of product … getting it at MSRP I doubt … because in general the GPU market pricing is at an all time high.
 
The charts go as far as Q1 '25. RDNA 4 became available to buy in the last month of that quarter.

We are now in the last month of the 2nd quarter. I'll be curious to see those charts again for 2nd quarter, when available.
Thanks for pointing this out.

When "news" isn't actually news 🙄

On the topic, I do wish AMD put a ceiling on price markup for 'OC' versions. No reason to spend even $50 more for a "special" card.
 
This is not shocking at all. Both AMD and Nvidia are fabless and both are paying TSMC for their production. Nvidia makes a lot more money with their AI gear and can pay a premium for more production capacity. AMD has to choose between making high margin CPUs with their contracted wafers or make moderate margin GPU chips. The CPUs have much smaller dies so they will make as many of them as they think they can sell and the remainder of production will be GPUs. They didn't think Nvidia would screw up their launch so they didn't pay big money for excess capacity to make a lot of 9070 chips for fear of a repeat of two years ago. AMD is losing market share, but also making a lot more money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mitch074
I mean ... I guess that is one way to put it.

Here is another way, desktop GPU market grew faster then AMD's production did.

If AMD is selling out every GPU it's making and it's making more then previously, then it's a big win for them. Nvidia is also selling out GPUs but they've cut back production. What this report is saying that is every backroom pallet of GPU's is being sold even at high prices. Market demand is far outstripping supply. Remember people this isn't a zero sum market, they grow.
 
I just don’t get it…A few months before the 9000 series launch, the head of graphics at AMD emphasized that this generation they are focusing on gaining market share. And then they launch it without the required volume to actually do what they say they want to achieve??? This is not a good look when your “marketing spin” for not making a flagship GPU is completely unfounded. Get your heads in the game AMD!!! Stop crippling yourself at every opportunity
 
I just don’t get it…A few months before the 9000 series launch, the head of graphics at AMD emphasized that this generation they are focusing on gaining market share. And then they launch it without the required volume to actually do what they say they want to achieve??? This is not a good look when your “marketing spin” for not making a flagship GPU is completely unfounded. Get your heads in the game AMD!!! Stop crippling yourself at every opportunity

Nvidia practically dropping out of the market combined with the market growing suddenly caught them by surprise. The GPU market is not a zero sum game, so the "market share" numbers are misleading. AMD is selling GPU's left and right, they are flying off shelves faster then they can be produced, this is a very good sign.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jlake3
Nvidia practically dropping out of the market combined with the market growing suddenly caught them by surprise. The GPU market is not a zero sum game, so the "market share" numbers are misleading. AMD is selling GPU's left and right, they are flying off shelves faster then they can be produced, this is a very good sign.
This article, while stating the proportional percentage to nvidia, is based on actual sales numbers.
750,000 out of 9.2 million.
And I don't follow the market that well to know if 750k is good sales for amd or not but it is dwarfed by what nvidia sells.
Discrete GPU shipments for desktop PCs increased significantly both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year in Q1 2025 and totaled 9.2 million units. However, as both AMD and Nvidia rolled out their new-generation graphics cards in the first quarter, Nvidia managed to sell millions of its new GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs and capture its highest market share, while AMD struggled to sell even 750,000 add-in-boards, which is why its share dropped to a historical low.
 
Nvidia practically dropping out of the market combined with the market growing suddenly caught them by surprise. The GPU market is not a zero sum game, so the "market share" numbers are misleading. AMD is selling GPU's left and right, they are flying off shelves faster then they can be produced, this is a very good sign.
I’m sorry, but no, companies have entire divisions dedicated to predicting market size. AMD clearly was not looking to gain market-share, they hedged their bets and allocated a conservative amount of wafers because they didn’t think they would be as competitive as they turned out to be. This is the opposite of intent to gain market share.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sluggotg
I’m sorry, but no, companies have entire divisions dedicated to predicting market size. AMD clearly was not looking to gain market-share, they hedged their bets and allocated a conservative amount of wafers because they didn’t think they would be as competitive as they turned out to be. This is the opposite of intent to gain market share.

TSMC only has so much capacity, and AMD was probably forced to make a decision based on that. AMD makes a bulk of its money in datacenter, so I would not be surprised if that is where most of the wafer allocation has went. Nvidia is the same in that regard, with GeForce taking a back seat to more lucrative profits to be had elsewhere. The 9000 series has been a surprising hit. The price/performance vs Nvidia has been great, and Nvidia keeps creating one PR disasters after another. Melty connectors still being a thing, and the 50 series drivers being a total mess, the 5070 as fast as a 4090 lie, the 5060 and 5060ti review blocks, and trying to strong arm creators on how they do their reviews of said cards. It's a perfect storm that probably nobody could have predicted.
 
  • Like
Reactions: palladin9479