If you’re holding off on that graphics card upgrade because you want to see how the next generation of GPUs fares, it seems you’re not alone. Thanks to a report from Jon Peddie Research, it’s clear that gaming GPU sales dropped in the third quarter. We’re betting that people are holding off their upgrades until the next generations from AMD and Nvidia arrive.
GPU shipments dropped in the third quarter. As Tom’s Hardware notes, GPUs dropped by 14.5 percent in the third quarter of 2024, compared to Q2. JPR also expects graphics add-in boards (discrete graphics cards) to have a -6.0 percent compound annual growth rate from 2024 to 2028 if the U.S. follows through with the tariffs planned by the next administration.
As for market share, it barely budged. AMD’s share dropped by 2 percent and Nvidia’s rose by 2 percent, according to JPR, but the firm was unimpressed. “These slight flips of market share in a down quarter don’t mean much except to the winner,” it said in a brief note about the research. “The overall market dynamics haven’t changed.”
AMD and Nvidia have new generations of GPUs on the near horizon. Intel, which is taking a serious stab at the midrange gaming GPU market with its Arc series, just launched the second generation, known as Battlemage. The Intel Arc B580 is set to go on sale Friday, though some retailers apparently missed the memo and shipped cards to lucky customers a few days early. Intel appears to have competition for Nvidia’s RTX 4060 on its hands, but we’ll need to see more benchmark numbers. Intel indicated that its own Arc B580 Limited Edition would be priced at $249, but the Gunnir B580 cards we’re seeing on Amazon are closer to $400. We’ll have to see how pricing works out when the cards are available at the end of the week, but with gamers hungry for mid-range options (and $400 somehow being a mid-range price these days), the inflated prices might hold. We hope they’re lower.
Nvidia GPU
Credit: Nvidia
Not long after AMD confirmed that it was focusing on scale instead of the niche high-end gaming GPU market, apparent leaks gave us a look at the chipmaker’s upcoming RDNA 4 series. Apparent references to the RX 8800 and RX 8600 appeared in AMD’s ROCm code. That GPU series will likely be launched at CES, as well.
Meanwhile, Nvidia’s upcoming RTX 5000 series GPUs should launch at CES. The GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 are on deck, but we’re hearing the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti could show up around the same time. When the dust settles on CES, gamers should have plenty of new hardware to be excited about.