Core graphics, once 'tasteless', are rejuvenating in the PC market?

After experiencing multiple consecutive quarters of decline in shipments, the PC market has finally ushered in a wave of recovery. According to data released by Canalys, in the fourth quarter of 2023, global PC shipments increased by 3% year-on-year, ending seven consecutive quarters of year-on-year decline.

The overall recovery of the PC market has naturally driven the CPU market. According to the latest report released by market research agency Jon Peddie Research, global PC client CPU shipments reached 67.25 million units in the fourth quarter of 2023. , a month-on-month growth of 9% and a year-on-year growth of 24%, far exceeding market expectations.

(Image source: Jon Peddie Research)

in the report A set of data aroused Xiaolei's interest: iGPU (core display) shipments increased by 8% month-on-month and 18% year-on-year, reaching 60 million units, and the penetration rate will increase to 98% in the next five years. When Xiao Lei saw this set of data for the first time, it was hard to believe. After all, in the eyes of some PC players, a CPU with a core display does not mean much, because the host will also be equipped with an independent graphics card. If you buy it without a core, The obvious CPU saves money.

But if you think about it carefully, today's core display is no longer as bad as it used to be. After reaping the process dividends, it is no longer a simple "bright card", but a productivity tool. Role.

But as core graphics become more and more powerful and coverage becomes higher and higher, will the entire PC market, especially the independent graphics card market, be affected?

The core advantage of nuclear graphics is "low price but practical"

In the PC field, the performance of the graphics card determines the graphics processing capabilities of your computer. This is in play Especially important in gaming and video/image processing.

Graphics cards are mainly divided into core graphics and independent graphics. The former is directly integrated on the CPU. The performance release is average but better than "one dollar can do two things". The latter The latter is independent of the CPU and has higher performance release efficiency, which is enough to support various 3A masterpieces and professional video editing. Often when we discuss graphics cards, we refer to independent graphics rather than core graphics.

Why?

The early core graphics are actually not very popular on the market. Even strictly speaking, core graphics is not a graphics card. Its video memory comes from the computer's memory, and its heat dissipation and power consumption are shared with the CPU. , the upper limit is extremely low. Even some older core displays do not even have the ability to play 4K native videos, and there will be various freezes when watching live broadcasts.

(Picture source: AMD official)

It can be said that the early nuclear display can not only be used under special circumstances Apart from serving as a "brightening card", it has almost no advantages other than price.

(Photo source: ASUS official)

So, so unbearable Why can China's core graphics still occupy most of the entire computer market? There are three main reasons:

1. In the notebook market, especially the thin and light category, they are basically not equipped with independent graphics. The main selling points of this type of products are battery life, thinness, low heat generation and reasonable price. It just meets all the needs;

2. In fact, the demand of the office PC market has not declined as fast as that of personal PCs. There has even been an upward trend in the past two years. Generally speaking, office computer configuration requirements are not high, as long as it can process some simple documents and pictures. Corporate procurement does not pay too much attention to needs other than productivity. Many small and medium-sized enterprises often purchase office PCs "as long as they can be used." In the past two years, companies have also launched a "rental PC" trend in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Many office PC configurations In fact, they are very outdated. A PC with a core display can basically meet common office tasks. Take today's popular production task "making short videos" as an example: a CPU with a core display can basically complete simple video editing and production. Therefore, the office crowd has become the target user of nuclear display;

3. High cost performance. Not all consumers are computer enthusiasts. For them, the computer may be just a computer for querying information, working, and studying. Ordinary tools do not have so many extreme demands, so affordable nuclear displays naturally become a good choice. Generally speaking, laptops with only core graphics are generally more affordable and more likely to be accepted by the market. According to data released by JPR, nearly 70% of computers in the world do not have independent graphics cards. In other words, core graphics are the real big market.

(Photo source: Jon Peddie Research)

What’s more, it would be a pity to abandon the nuclear manifested food as tasteless The era of has long passed.

Nuclear graphics performance is getting stronger and stronger, first use low-end independent graphics cards?

AMD and Intel began to enhance the core display performance of their own CPUs early. Intel launched iris very early, and even equipped it with an edram cache in an extremely luxurious manner; AMD is even more simple and crude, using it directly The self-developed Radeon Vega independent graphics core has allowed AMD to maintain its title as the most powerful core graphics for a long time.

With the mutual cooperation between these two manufacturers, in 2024 we can see many core displays with performance comparable to some independent graphics.

(Picture source: ASUS official)

Take Intel’s latest Core Ultra 7 155H processor as an example , its Ruixuan core display has 8 GPU cores, 128 Vector Engines (vector engines), 8 ray tracing units, and 8 hardware ray tracing units, which greatly improves the geometric rendering capabilities. And it also integrates all the core features of high-performance independent graphics, including support for DX12U, AV1 codec, DP4A artificial intelligence acceleration engine and Intel XeSS. Intel officials also stated that the gaming performance of Ruixuan core display is 2 times higher than that of the previous Ruijie Xe core display. It is a product that is enough to make a bucket of water.

(Picture source: Intel official)

Then, increasingly powerful core graphics will impact NVIDIA, AMD and Intel’s high-end graphics card market? of course not.

(Picture source: Intel official)

Even if AMD and Intel are really capable of creating a CPU with extremely strong graphics performance, then the market and Consumers won’t buy it either. Because the core display is stronger, it means that the scale and power consumption will increase. Unlike independent graphics, which can schedule work according to the current tasks of the computer, core graphics need to work all the time. Under the dual pressure of core graphics and CPU, the battery life performance of laptops must be reduced by at least half. What's more, as mentioned earlier, the video memory of the core display comes from the memory. Even the low-power and high-frequency LPDDR5T cannot meet the needs of high-performance core display in terms of bandwidth speed.

Rather than endure this kind of "four different" products, why not just buy an all-round office notebook?

(Picture source: Lenovo official)

The rapid progress of nuclear graphics will indeed bring great benefits to the entry-level graphics card market. A certain amount of pressure has come, and AMD has been hit the hardest.

In 2023, some media broke the news that AMD would gradually abandon its high-end graphics card product line and shift its focus to the mid-to-low-end market. However, the problem is that AMD has almost no achievements in this market. On the mobile side, Nvidia was beaten hard, and it could only rely on its own Ryzen processor to barely regain some share. If today's core graphics can achieve about 60% of entry-level graphics cards in some basic entertainment and productivity attributes, at less than half the price, it will definitely have a devastating impact on entry-level graphics cards, and AMD is no exception. . Therefore, how AMD chooses between the two depends on Su's decision.

Nuclear graphics is no longer "tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away"

Back to our question: Will nuclear graphics affect the layout of the entire graphics card market? Judging from the current development trends, the answer is yes.

Although the performance of nuclear graphics is relatively weak, with the continuous advancement of technology, the performance of nuclear graphics is gradually improving. This allows some applications that originally require independent graphics cards, such as light games, image processing, etc., to be completed with the support of core graphics. This will undoubtedly reduce the market demand for independent graphics cards, thus affecting the layout of the entire graphics card market.

As the performance gap between core graphics and independent graphics cards gradually narrows, many manufacturers have begun to adjust their product positioning. On the one hand, high-end independent graphics cards continue to pursue higher performance to meet the needs of professional users; on the other hand, mid- and low-end independent graphics cards are beginning to develop in a more cost-effective direction to cope with the impact of core graphics and attract more consumers. consumer. This change in product positioning will undoubtedly have a certain impact on the graphics card market.

And with the continuous iteration of technology, core graphics, which we once looked down upon, may really become the "next form" of independent graphics cards.

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