Weakening Demand Could Pitch AMD, Nvidia And Intel Into Price War

According to a DigiTimes report, a looming price war could break out among processor and graphics chip products as demand among end users are unlikely to pick up in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Intel Corporation INTC, NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD have all introduced new products, some of which have already seen price cuts.

For example, the DigiTimes report noted that Intel cut the prices of some of its previous-generation processors including Core i7-6950X and G328 while Nvidia lowered its GTX 1080 graphics cards to $499 from a previous $699.

DigiTimes added that although AMD has already prepped its Ryzen 5-series processors, the new product is unlikely to significantly contribute to AMD's bottom line given its limited market share.

Some Optimism For Q3

Sources close to the matter told DigiTimes that while motherboard/graphics card players' overall shipments and revenue will be poor in the first half of 2017, at least two firms, Asustek and Gigabyte could see declines that are not as steep as the market's average due to stronger demand from the gaming market.

In addition, the PC do-it-yourself market could also rise in the third quarter due to seasonality factors, partially aided by Intel's launch of the top-end Skylake-X and Kay Lake-X processors and X299 chipsets, along with AMD's Ryzen 3 series processors.

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