Graphics Card Sales Are Down!
Towards the end of 2018, Nvidia released their highly-anticipated 20XX series of graphics cards and, at the time of writing now, I think it’s fair to say that the market is still not entirely convinced about them. Oh, don’t get us wrong! They are excellent in terms of performance and the potential of ray tracing and DLSS is certainly one of the biggest innovations to the market for quite some time.
It would, however, also be fair to say that DLSS and ray tracing may not necessarily be ‘there’ yet. In addition, the price point of the graphics card range leaves a lot to be desired.
In a report via DSOGaming, however, Jon Peddie Research (one of the main trackers of graphics cards sales) has confirmed that sales are not only down significantly on the last quarter, but they are also down as a whole based on ‘year on year’ figures.
Going Into The Specifics
Based on the report, it showed that on a whole, graphics card shipments were down 2.65% in the last quarter. In addition, based on year-on-year figures, shipments are down 3.3%. Some may attribute this to the fall of Bitcoin and the mining craze. Don’t forget, however, that by the end of January 2018, that ‘fad’ was well and truly over.
- AMD shipments decreased by 6.8%
- Nvidia shipments decreased by 7.6%
Buyer Apathy?
Taking this a step further, however, given the tepid response of the 20XX graphics cards and AMD’s failure to capture much attention with their 5XX range, there is little indication that anything in the near future is going to change their fortunes. The 16XX series seems to be being received with the similar apathy the 20XX saw. Albeit, with the ‘budget’ 1650 to be released soon, this could change.
When I consider, however, that I haven’t bought a new graphics card for at least 2 years, I can’t deny that the figures, to me at least, are probably true. They are perhaps reflective of a market willing to keep hold of their current card for a little while longer yet. I know I am.
What do you think? When was the last time you bought a graphics card? In addition, which model do you upgrade from and to? – Let us know in the comments!
