It’s been a funny few months for Nvidia. They were so high on the launch of their 900-series, that the sudden discovery of the cost-cutting memory design on the GTX 970 seemingly came out of nowhere. They’ve escaped relatively unscathed for now, but a new lawsuit against them threatens to derail that in a big way. But why would Nvidia really care when they have this much dominance over the market?
Market share figures for both AMD and Nvidia have been collected by research firm Jon Peddie Research, and it shows just how much grip the green team has over the entire GPU market. The results paint a picture over the 2014 calendar year, with Nvidia continuing their dominant reign over AMD. By the end of Q4 2013, AMD had gained some ground with a 35% market share, while Nvidia claimed 64.9% (the other smaller percentages going to S3 and Matrox). It’s a very different story looking at the end of 2014 though, as Nvidia have climbed 11.1% to a total of 76% market share, while AMD fell by a similar margin to just 24%.
The launch of the 900-series is undoubtedly the catalyst of the growth, but it could also be Nvidia’s unrivalled hold on the mobile market that is giving them the edge they need. According to Jon Peddie, the research conducted ranged from the mobile market all the way up to massive server installations, where Nvidia also stakes a mighty claim.
JPR’s AIB Report tracks computer add-in graphics boards, which carry discrete graphics chips. AIBs used in desktop PCs, workstations, servers, and other devices such as scientific instruments.
The study also showed that the PC market is gaining even more momentum, with sales and adoptions increasing year-on-year.
However, in spite of the overall decline, somewhat due to tablets and embedded graphics, the PC gaming momentum continues to build and is the bright spot in the AIB market.
Nvidia will always be the dominant force in the GPU market, especially since they’re involved in a lot more than just gaming desktop cards. But to see the launch of one line have such a massive impact on AMD’s market share must scare them, and they’ll be praying that the upcoming R300-series is enough to win a few people back over to the red side of life.
Still, Nvidia can enjoy their moment for now. The 900-series is a fantastic line and will probably stay as such for the foreseeable future.
Last Updated: February 24, 2015
GalacticLordCaptainAwesomeness
February 24, 2015 at 08:06
Red Team till I Die…..
Admiral Chief
February 24, 2015 at 08:10
Same here brother, same here
Socius
February 24, 2015 at 16:18
There was a time when AMD made great CPUs and great GPUs. That time has long gone. Hopefully they’ll pick it up and put out a real challenge to Nvidia as that would be best for us consumers. But blind loyalty to a company who doesn’t make the better product, is kind of…”ignant.”
FSR
February 24, 2015 at 08:21
little sad that 3.5gb of ram still outbenches the ‘true 4gb’ though?
Pariah
February 24, 2015 at 08:27
Funny thing is that it’s still 4GB. Only that 500MB of it doesn’t perform as well.
GalacticLordCaptainAwesomeness
February 24, 2015 at 08:32
Sure, if you don’t mind playing on 1080p.
the price is much of a muchness, and true with the higher memory clock speed, up to 1440p it mostly outperforms the 290.
once we get to 4K gaming, then the 970 hits the asthma wall, and chokes, like the proteas…
FSR
February 24, 2015 at 08:34
but lets be realistic, if you’re gaming at 4K you’re either going R9 290X or GTX 980, or multi-card. If you can afford a 4k monitor, you can afford top end cards.
Lothy
February 24, 2015 at 08:58
Well in actual fact it doesn’t. When both cards are pushed to the resolutions required to use the 4gb of memory, Nvidia crash and burn horribly. So regardless of whether you will never play at those high resolutions or not, the fact is u don’t at least have that option. For all we know 4k monitors could plummet in the coming months and then u will be screwed. Look if AMD did the same, I would be saying the same thing.
FSR
February 24, 2015 at 09:02
sigh, see my above comment regarding 4k. It’s a silly argument to make.
Lothy
February 24, 2015 at 09:28
But it isn’t, this isn’t an argument. You cant argue fact…
Fact is, the moment you go above 3.5gb memory bracket, you card from an Aston Martin to clapped out beetle.
So even if you never get a 4k screen or use software that might use all 4gb. The problem is you will NEVER have that choice.
Admiral Chief
February 24, 2015 at 09:30
“clapped out beetle”
I laughed WAY to hard at this
FSR
February 24, 2015 at 09:36
I agree, there is no argument. The 970 out benches the 290 up to 2k. I’ll say again, if you can afford to game at 4k, you are looking at 290X and 980 and possibly multiple cards.
Fact is, not many people here is SA game at 4k, it’s not affordable. If you can name me a real-world, practical application that is limited at a normal resolution (1080 or 1440), i’m all ears.
Ranting Raptor
February 24, 2015 at 10:17
1) None of the cards in that price bracket can do 4K well enough to be viable. The performance of those cards is nowhere near where it should be to be playable.
2) The performance knock the nVidia takes is not that much below the other AMD cards in the same price bracket.
3) If you ever want the choice of 4GB, what are you doing with anything less than the top range flagship of either AMD or nVidia? Seriously? You cannot do 4K properly with anything less. Heck even the 980 and R9290x suffer in 4K resolutions in single card modes. Easily dropping to well below the 60FPS sweetspot gamers want. Heck even dipping below the 30FPS mark in most new games at 4K.
Yes it’s fact that the card wasn’t made for true 4k gaming… But lets face it. The target market of the 970 is NOT the 4K market. Everyone knew the 4K bench results way before they knew why the 4K results were what they were. Anyone who bough the 970 wanting 4K gaming really didn’t do their research at all
FSR
February 24, 2015 at 10:26
This. +1
Lothy
February 24, 2015 at 13:19
Sigh… Lets put it this way. Lets say a year from now u want to do a little upgrade, now probably the cheapest option would be to go SLI on ur card instead of shelling out for the new latest and greatest. K so now u got urself 2x970GTX, awesome so perhaps for the 1st time u can start upping to those fabled resolutions. But wait as u hit 3.6gb suddenly u hearing backfiring noises coming out ur machine and it shudders to a halt.
So…again… my point is due to the issue with the card, u can NEVER attempt any form of gaming or application where the images rendered (due to higher resolutions or just that render pack is large) require memory higher than 3.5gb. Whether in SLI or just normally. We don’t know if some new “skyrim” or “crisis” will come out that will use more memory for rendering larger, more detailed images.
Ranting Raptor
February 24, 2015 at 13:51
I can guarantee you that in 2 or 3 years simply doing an SLI won’t allow you to suddenly play in the awesome 4K res area.
But let’s take your example. You forget that memory stacking is the next step with SLI with both companies looking at allowing memory stacking in SLI. So when you finally can upgrade you can stack 2x 3.5GB to give you 7GB. So you overcome the 4GB problem right there.
Even if memory stacking doesn’t become a reality, if you purchased the 970 in hopes of being able to 4K in the future then you again, didn’t do your research about SLI and see that SLI doesn’t magically double your power. It’s not going to magically allow 4K when you eventually upgrade in the future.
I understand what you are saying. I really am. But again it comes down to research and knowing what you are getting in to.
You are also grossly overstating how bad the 970 performs in 4K. It still performs as well as many other cards in the same price bracket.
The reason it isn’t beating other cards in the same price bracket at 4K is because it’s been gimped in VRAM and ROPS. Hence why it beats the crap out of everything sub 4K and performs roughly the same as every other card in the same price range at 4K. Instead of beating the pants of the others like one would expect. So SLI in future will still be the same as other cards of the same price range in SLI/Crossfire with 4K res.
Moonchild
February 25, 2015 at 06:10
Memory stacking will probably work with new models only
Ranting Raptor
February 25, 2015 at 11:56
according to reports it will be across some older gen stuff too. Talk of Fermi and up. So 400 series Geforce cards and up
Socius
February 24, 2015 at 16:29
In a year from now, buying a second gtx 970 would be a stupid idea. SLI doesn’t give proper scaling, and doesn’t work with all games. It also only has a 256 bit bus. And 4GB VRAM is not enough for 4K regardless…Anyway, since this is a cheapo $300 card, you’d be better off selling the card for $150 or whatever it goes for, and buying the next gen architecture on 16nm with at least 8GB VRAM.
SLI isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I have 3 Titans in SLI. And if I could trade them in for a single card that performed as well as 2 GTX Titans, I’d be down in a minute.
And don’t overdo it with the performance drop and your exaggerations. The difference in performance was shown to be 1-3%. You buy a $300 card, you’re buying it for 1080p. If you have the money for a 4K monitor, then you have the money for a higher end card.
Socius
February 24, 2015 at 16:21
What’s more important, is that this discrepancy only applies to games that use “3.6GB to 4.0GB” of VRAM. Anything below that is fine. Anything that requires more than that would be hitting a much much bigger wall than the 1-3% performance drop associated with that last 0.5GB.
Lothy
February 25, 2015 at 07:07
“What’s more important, is that this discrepancy only applies to games that use “3.6GB to 4.0GB” of VRAM. ”
But this is my whole argument, right here and you said it! Skyrim which came out something like 3 years ago was using upwards of 2gb memory without any gfx packs. Who’s to say that the next game wont easily use more. Look my point still stands and honestly it doesn’t matter how u cut it. Nvidia dropped the ball in epic fashion. Will it effect them in the long run? probably not. Could this court case hurt them? it could. Will AMD make the same mistake at some point? Im sure they will. If I owned a 970 right now, I would send it back.
Socius
February 25, 2015 at 07:22
I agree it was a bad decision or mistake on their part. However, where I disagree with you is this. send it back and get what? It is still the best bang for buck you can get from either company. Even if it were only a 3.5gb card it would still outperform similarly priced 4gb cards from AMD. And nvidia has already told major resellers that they will accept returns on the cards for an extended period of time due to this issue. So they’re not dodging responsibility for whatever you choose to call this. But again…this is still by far the best option out there in that price range. Even if that slow 0.5GB was completely disabled.
Lothy
February 25, 2015 at 07:24
Ye I understand, there really isn’t anything else to buy at that range for now. Might be worth while to see what the new AMD R300 series is like. It is a tough call…
Wyzak
February 24, 2015 at 10:24
The 970 will only be able to get about 30 FPS on 4k, not decent enough. Even the 980 isn’t good enough for 4k.
Kikmi
February 24, 2015 at 09:09
<3
Hammersteyn
February 24, 2015 at 08:25
Yis!
Admiral Chief
February 24, 2015 at 08:11
That just means more people are silly
XD
Hammersteyn
February 24, 2015 at 08:25
Right. I mean we have a party winning an election by roughly 64.9% because silly people are silly
Admiral Chief
February 24, 2015 at 08:28
So very true. And a perfect example
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 24, 2015 at 08:29
lol. BOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOooooooooOOOOOOOOOM!
GalacticLordCaptainAwesomeness
February 24, 2015 at 08:49
Same reason so many people keep buying VW’s… Or Intel CPU’s
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
February 24, 2015 at 10:39
I buy VW cause even in a complete apocalypse the car will run for about 5 years longer than any other car. VW in terms of service is the damn Duracell bunny.
HouwGobz
February 24, 2015 at 08:15
It’s that v in their name. It makes them sound awesome and EXXXTREME. AMD just sounds way too grown up.
LOGIC!
My mate called me poor over my AMD card yesterday 🙁 Privileged yuppie spawn
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 24, 2015 at 08:20
Meh. Some people don’t enjoy auto-erotic asphyxiation. #redsquadron
Hammersteyn
February 24, 2015 at 08:24
*chokes
Admiral Chief
February 24, 2015 at 08:24
*brings the defibrillator
Hammersteyn
February 24, 2015 at 08:26
He’s dead Jim
Admiral Chief
February 24, 2015 at 08:29
NOT ON MY WATCH!
“CLEAR”
Hammersteyn
February 24, 2015 at 08:33
http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100318190230/southpark/images/d/d5/SexualHealing21.jpg
Admiral Chief
February 24, 2015 at 08:38
O_O
GalacticLordCaptainAwesomeness
February 24, 2015 at 08:48
..
Hammersteyn
February 24, 2015 at 08:50
Loooooool
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 24, 2015 at 10:31
OMG THEY KILLED DARRYN! YOU BASTARDS!
Hammersteyn
February 24, 2015 at 10:34
rofl!
HvR
February 24, 2015 at 09:40
The bigger problem for AMD is that they are loosing the tech war against Intel and Nvidia.
They are effectively 2 generations behind Intel; unlike Nvidia they could not stop gap the fab tech delays and will be a generation behind Nvidia if they MEET THEIR GOALS. If they miss their goals again the first half 2015 they are 2 generations behind.
They are bleeding money by sacrificing profits to keep up, if they fail this year again they will need to fire another 1000 or so employees and probably be out of the PC market.
Chris
February 24, 2015 at 09:54
I’ve been a big nVidia fan for the last 7 or 8 years.
Three of my LAN friends are big ATI guys, the rest are big into nVidia too.
What’s interesting is that for the longest time our performance was on par with each other, very little between it, but the nVidia guys seemed to have much more stable and reliable rigs. Far fewer crashes and lower hardware failure rate too.
If this new world-beating 900 series can maintain that stability, then ATI could get cleaned out if they aren’t careful. Good thing they have AMD.
That all said – competition is always great, it’s what keeps these guys pushing the envelope so hard.
HvR
February 24, 2015 at 10:42
Well other way around AMD bought out ATi (and discontinued the name/brand).
AMD’s PC division on both fronts (they restructured into Graphics and CPU departments last year) is in serious trouble falling behind the competition; they fired 1000 people in Dec; AMD is still struggling to get 20nm tech off the ground where Intel 18nm platforms is already matured and they will coming out with 14nm prototypes this year and already busy with 11nm. Nvidia will probably launch their 16nm this year.
Chris
February 24, 2015 at 11:50
Thanks for the correction and the update. Interesting how Intel and AMD used to be in close competition years ago and how Intel has managed to pull ahead so far.
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
February 24, 2015 at 10:43
Many many years ago AMD had stability issues. Nowdays I see 3 Nvidia cards sent in for warranty replacements for every 1 AMD going in. I think we need to get some stats from Rectron or some other major importer so we can have a look at how the failure rate is.
Chris
February 24, 2015 at 11:49
That would be really useful – I’d also say stats from Frontosa as well because they’ve also been supplying a large portion of the enthusiast market.
Ranting Raptor
February 24, 2015 at 10:12
Here’s the thing though. The first out the door gets the sales.
nVidia launched the 900 series and everyone ran and upgraded. To win back market share those that upgraded first need to have their cards become “obsolete” so to speak. That will take at least 3 years. If AMD were smart, in 3 years they should release a killer performance vs price card. That way they can capitalise on nVidia’s winning Q4 2014 sales. That’s if they play their cards right anyway
Simon Flynn
February 25, 2015 at 11:57
the ultimate punishment will be when all 970 owners realize they can get a full refund and upgrade to an AMD 390x
I should think for most owners there is little brand loyalty and that that upgrade will be too good to miss.
AMD could help by offering an incentive for them too, maybe a little discount.