Graphics card sales hit their lowest level in nearly 20 years

In a new report produced by analyst firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR) it appears that the sale of graphics cards has dropped significantly over the past year, it shows Tom’s hardware who made a collection of numbers. In the third quarter of 2022, AMD, Nvidia and Intel shipped a total of 6.9 million discrete desktop graphics cards, nearly halving from 13.4 million in the first quarter. Compared to the same period last year, the loss is 42%.

A clear downtrend can be deduced when looking at the longer time outlook, but there are a couple of things to take note of. When the numbers from the turn of the decade are looked at, computers depended more on discrete graphics cards, which is not the case today as more computers rely on the more powerful graphics chips built into AMD and Intel processors.

Seen from the shorter time frame, the declining numbers are clear and stand in stark contrast to the increase that began in Q3 2020, in connection with the launch of Nvidia’s Geforce RTX 3000 series and AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series .

Jon Peddie Research notes that the decline in GPU sales in the third quarter marked the largest drop since the 2009 recession. However, for those of us who have been following the discrete desktop GPU market for some time, the situation looks even more dire.

Additionally, Jon Peddie Research’s report states that the decline in sales observed today for discrete graphics cards is comparable to the 2007-2008 financial crisis, when the ensuing recession caused the number of graphics chips shipped to drop. As today’s market has changed dramatically with more widespread use of integrated graphics circuits, there is the potential for even greater loss this time around.

The report also provides an insight into market share between AMD and Nvidia, and now Intel as well, which stepped in as a third player. Nvidia continues to gain market share and went from 75% in Q1 to 86% in Q3. AMD, for its part, dropped significantly from 24 to 10 percent, the lowest figure in decades. Newcomer Intel has surprisingly already managed to achieve a 4% market share.

Sales down despite the increase Nvidia profitability for the third quarter of the year. How the trend plays out for the fourth quarter for various players remains to be seen.