GPU shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013 were in the green. Shipments were up 2 percent year-on-year and 1.6 percent sequentially. However, AMD did not have a stellar quarter. According to Jon Peddie Research, AMD’s overall unit shipments were down 10.4 percent last quarter. Intel gained 5.1 percent, while Nvidia was up 3.4 percent.

The attach rate was 137 percent and 34 percent of all PC’s sold in Q4 featured discrete graphics, while 66 percent relied solely on embedded graphics. The research firm pointed out that the overall PC market grew 1.8 percent quarter-on-quarter, but it was still down 8.5 percent compared to a year ago.

“The one bright spot in the PC market has been the growth of gaming PCs where discrete GPUs play a significant role. The CAGR for total PC graphics from 2013 to 2017 is -1.3% in 2013, 446 million GPUs were shipped and the forecast for 2017 is 422 million,” Jon Peddie Research said.

AMD’s shipments of desktop APUs were up 15 percent sequentially, but they dropped 26.7 percent in notebooks. AMD’s discrete desktop shipments increased 1.8 percent, while discrete notebook shipments were down 6.7 percent. Overall AMD’s PC graphics shipments were down 10.4 percent.

“Notebook build cycles are specific, and AMD was late with its new parts,” the researchers pointed out.

Nvidia’s desktop shipments were up 3.6 percent quarter-on-quarter and its notebook discrete shipments increased 3.2 percent. Overall Nvidia’s PC GPU shipments were up 3.4 percent.