Which cards do gpu makers make the most profit from?

tybert7

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Talking total profit, not profit per unit, or revenue. Take the profit per unit, multiply it by unit sales, and get the total profit for an entire segment of cards.

Is it the cards in the 150 price range? 200? 250? 300? 329? 399? 500? There seem to be a good number of 780ti cards sold, the profits per unit are likely extreme, but is that their bread and butter segment?

I thought the most important segment was around 200 dollars, but maybe that has shifted up to the 300 dollar mark.

EDIT: Part of the reason for the question is that both gpu makers seem to focus on the higher end to mid high end for new gpu launches. nvidia just launched a new flagship at 500 dollars, while the other card came in at 329. The 200-300 dollar cards based on newer tech seem to come much later. Is that because it is less important in terms of total profits gained, or simply because the gpu makers want as many people to go to a higher tier of card to get the latest gpu tech as possible, so they go higher end first?
 
It is the lowend market. <$150 since that is what they sell to OEMs and partners to add to almost every single PC. Now with APUs, they are gobbling up the sales.
 
I'll say low-midrange is the GPU cash cow since APUs are taking all the low end sales.
 
It has to be the low-mid range. The bottom end is being annihilated by APUs and integrated solutions and is practically not worth releasing product in as evidenced by the years old rebrands there, while the high end has fat margins but not nearly enough volume to generate the most revenue and actual profit in.

In other words, AMD and Nvidia can expect to make most of their $$$ in the GPU market in the ~100-200 dollar or equivalent range, with appropriately diminishing revenues as you move away from that range in either direction.
 
are you guys serious? the low end <$150? that's stupid crazy...

Yes...

think Volume, not profit per card...Sure $1000 Titans they likely make good money but only sell 1/1000th of what they sell for low end crap.
 
Yes...

think Volume, not profit per card...Sure $1000 Titans they likely make good money but only sell 1/1000th of what they sell for low end crap.

but no still to say <150$.. I think more probable between 150$ - 200$ range which are still the sweet spot for most gamers... and its where people buy 1 or 2 cards to match the performance or higher priced cards...
 
I think you're grossly overestimating the number of hardware enthusiasts. I'd say for every 1 enthusiast there's at least a dozen average Joe types that just want a working computer and couldn't care less about what was inside. Thus the volume seller will always be the el cheapo cards that are sold en masse to OEMs.
 
I think you're grossly overestimating the number of hardware enthusiasts. I'd say for every 1 enthusiast there's at least a dozen average Joe types that just want a working computer and couldn't care less about what was inside. Thus the volume seller will always be the el cheapo cards that are sold en masse to OEMs.

and there out are literally A LOT of kids who want to play League of Legends, Dota 2 and so on (lot of others games).. with decent graphics.. those cards are between 150-200$ price range...
 
and there out are literally A LOT of kids who want to play League of Legends, Dota 2 and so on (lot of others games).. with decent graphics.. those cards are between 150-200$ price range...

Yes, but consider that 750 Ti could be had for <$150, and will be more than enough for medium settings at 1080p and high on 720p.

Honestly we're grasping at straws here, <$200 cards make up the bulk of the sales volume and I think that settles everything.
 
14 million cards shipped in Q1 2014. nVidia shipped 9.1 million of the 14 million. nVidia's average revenue per a card was < $104. (I just did revenue for FY Q1 2014 / quantity shipped.)
 
Talking total profit, not profit per unit, or revenue. Take the profit per unit, multiply it by unit sales, and get the total profit for an entire segment of cards.

Is it the cards in the 150 price range? 200? 250? 300? 329? 399? 500? There seem to be a good number of 780ti cards sold, the profits per unit are likely extreme, but is that their bread and butter segment?

I thought the most important segment was around 200 dollars, but maybe that has shifted up to the 300 dollar mark.

EDIT: Part of the reason for the question is that both gpu makers seem to focus on the higher end to mid high end for new gpu launches. nvidia just launched a new flagship at 500 dollars, while the other card came in at 329. The 200-300 dollar cards based on newer tech seem to come much later. Is that because it is less important in terms of total profits gained, or simply because the gpu makers want as many people to go to a higher tier of card to get the latest gpu tech as possible, so they go higher end first?

That's because there's competition between Nvidia and AMD. Back when AMD and Intel were competitive with each other in the early 2000s they had gigahertz wars, marketing wars, halo chips were a big deal. Now that AMD can't compete with Intel all Intel does is just slowly march forward in performance and focus mostly on efficiency.
 
I think you're grossly overestimating the number of hardware enthusiasts. I'd say for every 1 enthusiast there's at least a dozen average Joe types that just want a working computer and couldn't care less about what was inside. Thus the volume seller will always be the el cheapo cards that are sold en masse to OEMs.

And even if they were enthusiasts, that doesn't mean that they have the money to plop down for the highest end card. I mean, I'm a relatively new watch nerd, and I have zero plans to plop down for a 20k Patek anytime soon.
 
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and there out are literally A LOT of kids who want to play League of Legends, Dota 2 and so on (lot of others games).. with decent graphics.. those cards are between 150-200$ price range...

you don't need a 150-200 dollar graphics card to max league of legends or dota 2 at 60 fps. you can max league of legends with laptop igps. the kids that play those games are outnumbered 100:1 by the kids that play on shitty 10 year old desktops and laptops at 20 fps.
 
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If APUs are taking all the sales, why doesn't AMD ever make a profit?

Because they used to be able to sell a $100-$150 CPU and a $100-$150 GPU, now they are selling $125-$175 APUs that cost more to make.

Please get some critical thinking skills.
 
I guess that's another interesting question. Does amd/nvidia make more profit off of their desktop gpu division or their notebook gpu division?

AMD probably makes more profit in the notebook segment in total due to their gpus being bundled into every APU on notebooks, but I wonder how a strictly discreet gpu on the mobile front vs gpu on the desktop side would stack up?


I bought a 15" notebook in late 2011 with a discreet gpu, and almost never used it. I tried to play a game on the notebook once, and it worked fine, but compared to my desktop the experience was a pale shadow (tiny screen compared to my 27" achieva shimian, more expanded keyboard, etc etc). The experience made me completely rethink all future notebook purchases. I will not be buying any notebook with a discreet gpu anymore for gaming, unless it is needed for some sort of specific function. An apu would be ok though if they got more competitive on battery life.
 
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