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ASUS branded graphics cards were the best sellers of 2014

by Mark Tyson on 26 January 2015, 13:05

Tags: ASUSTeK (TPE:2357), Gigabyte (TPE:2376), MSI, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacobr

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Taiwan's Asustek sold five million graphics cards during 2014. DigiTimes reports that, despite an industry graphics card sales slump of around 10 per cent last year, ASUS managed to maintain this 5m sales figure, identical to what it reported the year previously.

The recently released ASUS Strix GTX 960 DirectCU II

Industry sources speaking to DigiTimes said that 2014's downturn in sales could be largely attributed to Bitcoin miners ceasing to use graphics cards to mine the virtual currency as more economical mining solutions, not involving high-end graphics cards, became popular.

So ASUS managed to make it through 2014 practically unscathed – in terms of shipping volume – what about the other graphics card vendors? Gigabyte was second place in sales last year with about 3.6 million units shipped. Compared to a year earlier this number represents a reduction in sales volume of around 200,000 units, says DigiTimes. Another favourite in the west, MSI, shipped 2.8-3 million graphics cards in 2014. According to previous figures it seems like MSI's share has dipped most significantly, as it was placed above Gigabyte in sales rankings the last time we heard about graphics card sales volumes, in the spring of 2013.

Gigabyte and MSI came in second and third

Above we can see how the add-in-board (AiB) hardware partners are performing comparatively but what the balance between AMD and Nvidia, Red and Green teams? A report late last week, again on DigiTimes, says that in H2 2014 AMD graphics card demand weakened and AiB partners shifted focus somewhat towards making and selling Nvidia graphics cards – to avoid inventory build-up.

However with AMD expected to be launching its next-generation 300 Series of GPUs paired with HBM, before summer is over this year, it has every chance of regaining its market share.



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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I'm surprised about MSI, as reading reviews and news about last years cards they seemed to be doing everything right. I bought an MSI gtx 970 myself and it's a great card plus the cooler not only looks good but performs fantastically.
Are Asus offering good gpu warranties these days? Or is it just that their cards are setup the best? Or both? I've been quite keen on Gigabyte cards in recent years. Their coolers are great. And they actually have a repair service for out of warranty cards as well. Which was £50 last time I checked, but there was no guarantee of a repair for the 50 quid. Still, it's nice to know that if you buy a secondhand Gigabyte card, you have a chance they can fix it for you, should it have issues.
Odd, over the years I think I've only ever owned an Asus GA card one and we are talking about GeForce2 days….

Normally buy Gigabyte WindForce or MSI Frozrs.
I'm happy with my MSI 780 Lightning.

However, if I were currently in the market, I'd definitely get an Asus Strix 980 - I watched a friend overclock it and he was pushing 2000 on Heaven 4 within five minutes (excluding time spent oogling it) of taking it out the box!
These are only the top 3 as they make both AMD and Nvidia cards.
I'd rate Sapphire or EVGA over any of them, but MSI looks very strong.
After I had 2 ASUS HD7970's the CUii, normal and TOP versions.
Both had really bad aftifacts, I sent one back that crashed using MSI Kombustor.
The replacement I put down to driver issues with BF4, but as soon as I got my R9 290 it was fine again.
Love ASUS for motherboards, but I never have another GPU off them.