After two strong years of the pandemic, sales of desktop graphics cards have been at their lowest level in recent months. Despite two new GPU generations, sales in the third quarter of 2022 reach the lowest level since at least 2005.
The data comes from the consulting company Jon Peddie Research, which have been providing information about the situation in the graphics card market for several years. According to this, the manufacturers AMD, Nvidia and Intel could have sold just 6.896 million discrete graphics cards between July and September.
This value is even below the previous low since data collection began in 2005. Because even in the previous bottom, Q2 2019, 7.4 million cards could still be traded.
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But that’s not all. The US colleagues from Tom’s Hardware also assume that the value will also beat all values not included in the survey up to 2002 – and thus certify this quarter to be the worst for at least 20 years.
It actually looked like the graphics card market would regain strength. Because while sales have been declining since at least 2009, the market has seen sales pick up again since the pandemic began. However, since the second quarter of 2022 at the latest, this seems to have disappeared again.
Not a small chart: Jon Peddie has been collecting quarterly GPU sales since 2005. (Image source: Jon Peddie Research)
Nvidia dominates the market
At the same time, the market has become more monopolized in recent months. Although a third competitor, Intel, entered the market this year, Nvidia was able to achieve a new record in terms of market share. 86 percent of all graphics cards sold in the third quarter came from Team Grün.
AMD in particular had to make cuts, whose market share more than halved compared to the previous year. Only ten percent of all discrete cards were sold by Team Red.
However, none of the manufacturers should be patting themselves on the back at the moment, because in addition to AMD, Nvidia also had to lose a lot of feathers in terms of actual sales. And Intel’s entry can rightly be described as bumpy.
Nvidia is more dominant than ever when it comes to market shares. (Image source: Jon Peddie Research)
Editor’s opinion
Alana Friedrichs: It’s really no wonder that graphics card sales have fallen in recent months. And the manufacturers can do nothing for many of the factors responsible for this. After several years of the pandemic, during which people spent more time in front of the computer, people are finally enjoying being outside and socializing again.
The switch from Ethereum to the proof-of-stake process and the resulting end of crypto mining on graphics cards did the rest. And the fact that desktop graphics cards have been increasingly being replaced by notebook GPUs for years is no longer news.
Nevertheless, this historic low is of course also partly a home-grown problem. At a time when many people’s belts are tighter, the prices for graphics cards have not fallen; on the contrary, they have skyrocketed to unprecedented heights.
The mood is unanimous on social media and in your comments: As long as the prices are so high, the new tickets will not be bought. The fact that even older cards only drop in price slowly, if at all, does the rest.
So if manufacturers want to turn things around, it’s not enough to wait for better times. Instead, they must also become active themselves and finally offer attractive offers for the end customer again. Otherwise, the next low could already be waiting in the next quarter.
Unfortunately, initial indications of the release prices of the upcoming RTX 4070 Ti suggest exactly the opposite.
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What do you all mean? Is the low sales in recent months mainly self-inflicted or are the manufacturers just a plaything of higher powers? And do you think that the situation for Nvidia, AMD and Intel will improve again soon? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
