For decades, the market for desktop graphics cards has had two players: AMD (formerly ATI) and Nvidia. Intel has decided to enter the hotly contested waters in 2022 with its Arc series of GPUs along with dedicated offerings for laptops. According to a report on the graphics card market share, Intel managed to capture 9 percent of dedicated desktop GPU sales by the end of the 2022 calendar year — the same market value that AMD has in same timeframe.
The numbers come from Jon Peddie Research, which paints a bleak picture for the current GPU market, following trends in PC sales in general. The same report said desktop graphics card sales as a whole fell 24 percent, the biggest decline in more than a decade. And 9 percent market share isn’t exactly something you parade in front of shareholders, especially when Nvidia continues to dominate with a near monopoly of 82 percent.
Jon Peddie Research
But taken in the context of a new competitor in an entrenched market segment, even one with the vast resources of a company like Intel, it’s a surprising achievement. Arc desktop chips have been maligned and delayed to the point where some industry analysts are wondering if Intel is considering scrapping the entire multi-billion-dollar project. And the company is not yet ready to compete in the GPU high end, where the biggest chunk of profit is made. But entering the space and grabbing a tie for the number two spot in less than a calendar year, by focusing on budget cards and specific performance targets, can only be considered which is a victory.
For example, the Arc A750 — which just got an official price cut from $290 to $250 — is our pick for the best 1080p GPU for ray tracing. It’s not the kind of blistering, benchmark-busting performance that gets you a YouTuber’s $10,000 fantasy PC build, but it is the the kind of value that sells a hell of a lot of cards to people who want to play PC games on a budget.
On PCWorld’s The Full Nerd podcast, Intel’s Arc spokesman Tom Petersen told us, “When you think about it, we’re one of the few companies in the world that can enter such a big market as discrete graphics… The Nvidia may continue to ignore us, but AMD will not ignore us. And it will become more competitive over the years as we become stronger. (25:20 in the video below.) It is worth noting that the last work Petersen is Nvidia’s Director of Technical Marketing.
Arc’s increase in budget space is, in fact, impossible to ignore. It remains to be seen if Intel will be able to use the momentum to a more dominant space in the high-end part of the GPU market and if it has the will to enter that fight.