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Despite Intel, AMD and Nvidia having all launched new processor or graphics chip products for the first quarter, motherboard players continue to suffer decreased shipments in the quarter and demand is also unlikely to pick up in the second, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

Intel released several Kaby Lake-based processors and 200 series chipsets including the Z270 in January. AMD's 8-core Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X and 1700 were launched in early March and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1080 Ti also hit store shelves in March.

Intel also cut the prices for several of its previous-generation processors including Core i7-6950X and G328. Nvidia's GTX 1080 graphics cards also saw pricing drop from US$699 to US$499.

Because of weak graphics card demand especially from China, players have already started cutting prices for their GTX 1060 (starting US$249) and GTX 1070 (starting US$379) graphics card to stimulate demand.

Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology are expected to ship less than four million motherboards each in the first quarter, the lowest quarterly record in the past few years, while second- to third-tier players are expected to have even worse performances.

Although AMD has already prepared new Ryzen 5 series processors, Polaris-based RX500 series GPUs and next-generation Vega series GPUs for the second quarter, the sources believe these products are unlikely to have a significantly contribution overall because AMD only has a limited market share currently.

The sources pointed out that motherboard/graphics card players' overall shipments and revenues will see significant drops in the first half, but Asustek and Gigabyte are expected to see declines not as steep as the market's average thanks to demand from the gaming market.

But the sources expect demand from the PC DIY market to have a good chance to rise in the third quarter due to seasonality, as well as Intel's launch of its top-end Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X processors and X299 chipsets, and AMD's release of its Ryzen 3 series processors for inexpensive mainstream sector and mass shipments of its Vega series GPUs.