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Discrete GPU shipments grow amid high prices — AMD gains market share as notebook graphics carry the market
Sales of discrete graphics processors for consumer PCs were up both sequentially and year-over-year in the second quarter despite soaring prices caused by component shortages, according to a newly released report by Jon Peddie Research. Although PC CPU shipments dropped in Q2 2026 year-over-year amid seasonality and shortages, sales of standalone graphics processors for consumer computers were up 12.2% sequentially and 14.1% YoY, the best market dynamics in some time.
Sales of graphics processing units for consumer PCs — which include integrated and standalone GPUs for desktops and laptops — totaled 75.5 million in the second quarter of 2026, up 10.4% quarter-over-quarter and 1.1% year-over-year, primarily driven by notebooks. This happened as the consumer CPU market contracted by 1.1% YoY amid a massive sequential drop in desktop CPU shipments and a significant rise in mobile CPUs shipments. Desktop GPU shipments declined by 4% quarter-over-quarter, while notebook GPU shipments surged by 16.8%, JPR claims.
But despite declining desktop PC unit shipments and modest growth in notebooks, unit shipments of discrete GPUs increased by 12.2% sequentially and 14.1% year-over-year in Q2 2026, according to JPR data. Jon Peddie Research does not publish absolute numbers of standalone graphics processors shipped in the second quarter, but our estimate is that around 20 million discrete GPUs were sold by AMD, Intel, and Nvidia in Q2, based on attach rates and Nvidia's market share and dynamics.
The results indicate that demand for PCs with discrete graphics remained remarkably resilient despite soaring component prices and slowing demand for desktop PCs. However, JPR's shipment data does not reveal whether the increase was primarily driven by gamers buying graphics cards, stronger demand for gaming notebooks, or other factors.
"The second quarter is typically down compared to the previous quarter," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research. "This quarter, discrete GPUs increased by 12.2%, even while a global memory crisis sent component prices soaring, driven by a mix of supply-side positioning, artificial demand shocks, and localized market dynamics."
Jon Peddie Research has yet to publish its complete desktop AIB report, which is expected later this month and will include market shares for AMD, Intel, and Nvidia; yet it is safe to say that the latter has maintained its undisputed leadership.
(Image credit: Jon Peddie Research)
As for the overall consumer PC GPU market, Intel retained its leadership with a 56% market share as it increased shipments of consumer CPUs in Q2 2026. Nvidia came second with 23%, which is not bad at all considering that it only ships discrete GPUs. AMD came third with 21% share, up significantly from 14% in the same quarter a year ago, as it managed to gain seven percentage points of the consumer GPU market YoY amid growing sales of its consumer CPUs.
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Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
I would say more that this is the somewhat typical lifecycle of hardware. PC sales increased a lot during the pandemic, and now those machines will generally be in need of replacement.
"Desktop GPU shipments declined by 4% quarter-over-quarter, while notebook GPU shipments surged by 16.8%" These numbers are just showing every company putting AI GPU processing units in every single new laptop being made because AI is the next big thing. Desktop GPU sales dropped. It's all a distortion of the market based on what is being sold. Small GPU's on tiny laptops. Oh look its a discreet GPU sales increase so the market is increasing. Yea sure.
"Desktop GPU shipments declined by 4% quarter-over-quarter, while notebook GPU shipments surged by 16.8%" These numbers are just showing every company putting AI GPU processing units in every single new laptop being made because AI is the next big thing. Desktop GPU sales dropped. It's all a distortion of the market based on what is being sold. Small GPU's on tiny laptops. Oh look its a discreet GPU sales increase so the market is increasing. Yea sure.
I don't think many people buy a laptop with a dGPU because of AI. The cheapest laptops on the market tend to not have a dGPU at all, and likely have an NPU for AI if they aren't using old silicon (e.g. Mendocino).
I assume "notebook GPU shipments" means laptops with dGPUs. Panther Lake with 12 Xe3 cores has dGPU-like performance.
All I'm seeing here is a continuation of the trend of laptops increasing their share of the PC market, with desktops in decline, particularly during a time of bad RAM and GPU pricing. Laptop pricing is also awful, but they are what the majority of people want.
That total PC GPU marketshare graph HAS to include iGPU's, because that's the ONLY way it makes any sense... In the discrete GPU market Intel only has a mere ~1-2% marketshare. 🤷
(Which will slowly shrink to nothing as Intel cans their discrete gaming GPU efforts in favor of Nvidia GPU's through their recent partnership. Discrete Celestial ARC is already confirmed dead, and IMO Druid's not gonna happen either. 🤷
Say what you want about Tom from Moore's Law is Dead, but he was COMPLETELY right about Intel canning discrete ARC. But even he didn't think it would happen THIS fast though... He was expecting at least a single mainstream Celestial GPU before it was over.)
I could have sworn I read an article here last week or so declaring the exact opposite.
Not only that, it mentioned that sales of both PCs and GPUs are down by a certain percentage. What happened during that 1 week?
They're still down it's laptops which are holding things up. It makes sense as everything is skyrocketing in price, but some laptops that have been on the market since before prices soared are still passable deals. This boost is likely driven by people who are seeing the writing on the wall. Some PTL laptops genuinely launched at $1400-1600, but I don't believe any can be found for under $2000 right now. Meanwhile some laptops with 5070 Tis can still be bought for under $2000.
