Friday, September 11th 2026
Gamers Buy More GPUs Than Ever in Q2 2026, Even as Prices Keep Climbing
Desktop graphics card shipments hit 12.5 million units in Q2 2026, the highest quarterly total since Q1 2022, according to new data from Jon Peddie Research. That's a 5.9% jump from the previous quarter and a 7.8% increase year over year, despite GPU prices climbing for months. For the first half of 2026, desktop AIB shipments reached 24.3 million units, up from 20.8 million over the same stretch last year. This spike is interesting partly because of the timing, since the industry is facing a severe memory crisis. VRAM costs have been rising steadily, and GPU makers have already pushed through several rounds of price increases on entry-level and high-end cards alike.
Jon Peddie, president of JPR, thinks that the price hikes are actually feeding the shipment growth rather than slowing it. Common sense dictates that rising prices will adversely affect sales, as gamers will tend to stick with their existing GPUs rather than spending big on a new upgrade. However, Jon's theory is that gamers are buying now because they expect prices to climb further, especially as GDDR7 costs keep rising. Apparently, the fear of missing a better price is doing more to move units right now than the higher prices are doing to scare buyers away.
NVIDIA still dominates the desktop discrete GPU market, shipping around 11.25 million units for roughly 90% share. AMD held about 8% share on a million units shipped, while Intel edged up to 2%. None of the three saw much quarter-over-quarter movement in share. The interesting part, however, is that GPU demand keeps holding up in a market that's getting pricier by the week.
Source:
Jon Peddie Research
Jon Peddie, president of JPR, thinks that the price hikes are actually feeding the shipment growth rather than slowing it. Common sense dictates that rising prices will adversely affect sales, as gamers will tend to stick with their existing GPUs rather than spending big on a new upgrade. However, Jon's theory is that gamers are buying now because they expect prices to climb further, especially as GDDR7 costs keep rising. Apparently, the fear of missing a better price is doing more to move units right now than the higher prices are doing to scare buyers away.
181 Comments on Gamers Buy More GPUs Than Ever in Q2 2026, Even as Prices Keep Climbing
Why we accept issues as the norm instead of something to do something about is beyond me.
Short of not buying, there is literally nothing an individual can do. Very simple.
The current price difference between AMD's top of the line vs 5070 TI is more than $350, and that is a pretty big Nvidia tax
It certainly doesn't help when people keep buying these things anyway, much less calling anyone who appreciates price/performance "penny pinchers". The price differentiation between a 9070XT and a 5070Ti is massive, a nice 9070XT can be had for $300-400 less than the cheapest 5070Ti.I'm not sure that not buying would do anything either, gamers are a tiny fraction of the market for any of these companies involved in AI. I wonder if any of them would drop out of the consumer market as Micron did, it would be a very shortsighted decision however the suits in charge only care about quarterly profits.
Unless somebody decides to regulate AI, force AI companies to pay for their own infrastructure, and put a stop to the big 3 memory makers colluding in price fixing, things will probably get worse before or if they get any better.
Edit: By "luxury product", I don't mean "as opposed to bare necessities". I mean something reserved for people with deeper pockets than brains. Luxury is something with a value that isn't determined by usefulness.
- Mother boards are down or the same as 8 months ago.
- PSUs are down or the same as 8 months ago.
- HDD manufacturers are definitely taking advantage - some models are the same, some down, and about half have doubled in price over 8 months - and mostly lagging the RAM ridiculousness by only a few weeks. 🙄
- Mice and KBs are down or the same.
- Monitors are down or the same - a few slight increases here and there.
- Fans are down or the same.
- AMD GPUs are close to the same or only 20% increase when not.
- NVidia GPUs (in Japan) have doubled or tripled in 8 months.
- Intel GPUs are a mixed bag some are down, some up - but if up, only by 20 to 30% over 8 months ago.
- Cases are down or the same as 8 months ago.
And then for all these that are down or the same, some retailers and resellers are trying very hard to hitch a ride and jack up prices for no apparent reason other than trying to take advantage and make more profit from customer ignorance.I'm saying "8 months ago" so much because that's when RAM began to shoot up. My graphs show almost all them suddenly doubling in January 2026 - of course with many bumps after that till now - and still going up.
By definition nvidia should be removed like a malignant tumor if you really are true PC enthusiast.
Also: not everyone is buying 5090s and sub-5090 cards were reasonably priced (for the current times) for much of Q2.