The GPU market has returned, and it's surprising'market observers who have been predicting the doom of its market for decades'

Since a while, there have been few developments in the discrete graphics card market. The most exciting developments were in integrated solutions, such as those found on AMD Strix Point laptops. It's surprising to learn that the discrete graphic card market performed well in the last quarter.

Jon Peddie Research's (JPR) research shows that the graphics add-in boards (AIB) market has seen an increase in shipments compared to last year and Q2 2024. We're talking about a 9.4% rise compared to Q1 as well as a 47.9% year-on-year increase.

The analyst firm explains that "AMD's quarterly total desktop AIB unit shipment increased 9%, and increased 3% over last year." Nvidia’s quarter-toquarter unit shipments have increased 9.7%, and increased 61.9% over last year. They continue to hold a dominating market share of 88%.

It does however point out that Intel has "remained flat" as it has not gained significant traction on the add-in boards market. This isn't surprising, given the waning interest in Intel's discrete Arc A750 or A770 graphics cards.

Jon Peddie is the president of JPR. While he points out that "overall shipments were down compared to the two years ago," this is still a good indication that graphics card shipments are on the rise. As Peddie notes, graphics card shipments have been on the rise for most of the past year.

According to JPR's chart Q2 2024 shipments are similar to Q4 2023. However, fourth quarter sales, and especially Black Friday, are typically higher than other quarters. A Q2 that matches a Q4 can be good news.

There's also been a sharp increase in the "attach rate", which is the proportion of graphics cards "attached to" desktop desktop CPU shipments. Other words, graphics cards shipments have increased proportionally and not just in absolute terms to desktop CPU shipments.

It's not like the increased graphics cards shipments are due to more PC systems sold in general. Graphics card shipments have increased despite less desktop CPU shipments. This research shows that the interest in having discrete graphics cards in one's computer has risen steeply since 2024, and had been steadily increasing before that, since Q3 of 2022.

C. Robert Dow of JPR attributes the surge in sales to "the release in Q1 of new AIBs and a slight decrease in prices on the market". "New AIBs" probably refers to the RTX Super cards of the 40-series, which have significantly increased the value proposition for the 40-series. These cards are now found in some of today's best gaming PCs, and they are among the best graphics card overall.

I can't stop wondering about other possible influencing factors. The booming AI market, with all its hype, could have played a role, as discrete graphic cards are the best option for home users who want to power the AI workloads which are now being incorporated into more and ordinary applications.

It's good for us gamers, because more demand leads to more supply and lower prices... Okay, so I won't get too carried away with the price front, since it's mainly Nvidia that we're discussing here.

Even so, good news is still good news. As Peddie puts it, "The add in board market continues surprising and astonishing market watchers who had predicted its doom since decades." Take that, naysayers. Let's hope that the next-gen Nvidia RDNA 4 and AMD Blackwell graphics cards don't fail and that this chart continues to point upwards.