Desktop GPU Shipments Surge To 4-Year High In Rush To Beat Price Hikes

Typically in the second quarter, desktop graphics card sales almost always experience a slump as summer approaches. According to Jon Peddie Research's latest report, however, add-in board (AIB) shipments defied seasonal expectations in Q2, jumping 10% sequentially and 6.6% year-over-year to hit 12.5 million units. Looking at JPR's past reports, that quarterly figure marks a four-year high for the desktop GPU market.

The last time quarterly AIB shipments were higher was in the first quarter of 2022 when they peaked at around 13.4 million units. Since then, the high point (until now) was 12.02 million, achieved in the third quarter of 2025.

Q2's surge comes amidst climbing retail prices and tight supplies from a flurry of data centers buildouts in the emerging AI era. This AI-driven surge in demand for key components, especially memory chips, evidently prompted a preemptive buying rush. As JPR President Dr. Jon Peddie noted, sales of high-end graphics cards actually spiked alongside price increases as consumers scrambled to secure hardware upgrades before broader price hikes took hold.

"The reversal of a declining AIB market in 2025 raised hope and expectations, only to be whiplashed by war, memory shortage, and tariff flip-flops," Dr. Jon Peddie, president of JPR, said in a statement. "But then, defying common wisdom, high-end AIB sales spiked as prices increased. Our theory is consumers rushed to buy AIBs before the prices went any higher, as the war in Iran is driving prices up in all segments."

What also makes the Q2 GPU shipment bump interesting is that it occurred during a notable slump in the broader desktop PC market. Desktop CPU shipments went the other direction, tumbling 10.5% sequentially down to 14 million units. The numbers suggest that builders and gamers are opting to upgrade existing rigs rather than purchase complete new systems, though it will be interesting to see if that trend continues. We've seen some hot deals on desktops (and laptops), whereas GPU prices appear anything but stable these days. 

As far as vendor market share goes, there was not much movement. Intel picked up a slight 0.3% bump in market share, while AMD slipped by 0.16% and NVIDIA dipped by 0.1%. In other words, the breakdown is about the same as it was last quarter, according to JPR's latest report.