Should NVIDIA be called an AI firm or a consumer GPU firm? The latest compilation by 3DCenter shows that Team Green has held dGPU market dominance for the past two decades, leaving AMD no margin.
Before AI, NVIDIA Was All About Consumer & Professional GPUs; Still Holds The Same Status Yet Dynamics Are Now Different, AMD Share At New Low
When we talk about NVIDIA, especially in the modern day, many of the newcomers in the industry believe that Team Green has been an AI-focused firm since the start, and only real enthusiasts are aware of the tales of NVIDIA and the GPU segment.
What started with NVIDIA's GeForce FX series of desktop GPUs has now turned into a platform that has not only dominated the desktop GPU markets but has also proven to be massive competition for the likes of AMD. Based on data shown by 3DCenter, NVIDIA has managed to dominate the GPU market share since 2002, and the trend continues to be the same.
Looking at the figures over more than 20 years, we can't get into specific numbers, but in general, the trend clearly shows that NVIDIA has maintained its hype since the time it formally entered the markets.
The competition was indeed strict in the initial years, back when AMD introduced the Radeon X100 series, which managed to narrow down the gap in market share due to the debut of technologies such as HDR rendering and CrossFire support, but since then, it's all NVIDIA, and even now, the firm is quite dominant when it comes to consumer adoption, despite putting dGPU as a secondary priority.
The pivotal moment for NVIDIA and its huge market share was during the crypto-mining hype, as we see market share figures soar up to 80% in that timeline.
Since the GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs at that time were in high demand by miners, NVIDIA capitalized on this massively, whilst AMD didn't manage to get the spotlight. Since then, we have seen an uptrend in NVIDIA's market dominance, and by the looks of it, it doesn't seem to get broken for now.
NVIDIA's sole competition, AMD, has now reverted to the mainstream segment to resurrect its Radeon "gaming" business while NVIDIA is on the verge of launching a new generation of enthusiast gaming solutions. Even Intel is mostly going to tackle the mainstream segment with NVIDIA having no competition for years to come.
Well, it won't be wrong to call NVIDIA's business a "Jensen masterstroke", given that in all business domains tapped by the firm, it has dominated it. Whether it be AI, robotics, or even the consumer GPU segment, we have seen NVIDIA's presence as a vital one for the progression of the respective markets, and Team Green's status is certainly equivalent to that of the Cupertino giant Apple, but for the computing markets.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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