You might find it hard to buy a graphics card right now, but that doesn't mean AIB shipments haven't slowed down in the last 12 months... in the biggest GPU shortage in history (and no, it's not because of miners).
According to Jon Peddie Research, total AIB shipments were 25.7% higher in Q3 2021 than they were in Q2 2021 -- with 12.7 million graphics cards shipped, up from 11.47 million cards shipped in the previous quarter. The way AIB (add-in boards) work is that they use discrete GPUs (dGPU) with dedicated memory (a graphics card essentially).
AIBs are used in desktop PCs, workstations, servers, rendering and mining farms (see, but not all GPUs are pushed into mining farms like these companies really want you to believe), and scientific instruments. You as a consumer, or a company, would buy AIBs from a reseller (Amazon) or an OEM (ASUS for example).
Quick Highlights
- AIB shipments during the quarter increased from the last quarter by 10.9%, which is below the ten-year average of 17.1% but outpaced CPU shipments by nearly 3%.
- Total AIB shipments increased by 25.7% this quarter from last year to 12.7 million units and were up from 11.47 million units last quarter.
- AMD's quarter-to-quarter total desktop AIB unit shipments increased 17.7% and increased 20.8% from last year.
- NVIDIA's quarter-to-quarter unit shipments increased 9.3% and increased 27.1% from last year.
- AIB shipments from year to year increased by 25.7% compared to last year.
Dr. Jon Peddie, President of JPR, said: "Intel is poised to enter the AIB market in 2022. It is unknown if the company will sell add-in-boards as AMD and NVIDIA do, or just offer chips. The company is entering the market at a high point and may be surprised when the hangover of Covid and Cybermining falls off. The big question most people are asking is how much market share will the company take?"
