Highlights:

  • In the fourth quarter of 2007, GPU shipments reached an all-time high thanks to the release of Nvidia’s 8800 GT.
  • Nvidia’s market share went up by 10.2%, to 86%, while AMD’s share went down to 10%.

According to new data from industry analyst Jon Peddie Research, demand for graphics processing units hit its lowest point in 20 years in the third quarter of 2022.

The report shows that sales of desktop graphics cards hit their lowest level since 2005 during the third quarter. This is bad news for chipmakers like Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when people stayed home to avoid getting sick, sales of GPUs went through the roof, just like sales of many other products.

But the story has changed because of a slowdown in the world economy, and demand is falling quickly.

The 2022 GPU market summary Q3 report from Peddie was released on Tuesday. It talks about GPUs for desktops and laptops, as well as CPUs with built-in graphics chips.

According to the report, AMD, Nvidia, and Intel Corp. sold just under 6.9 million discrete desktop GPUs in the quarter, which is 47% less than the same time last year.

In contrast, Peddie said that the 2008 recession caused GPU shipments to drop by 46% between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2008.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, GPU shipments reached an all-time high thanks to the release of Nvidia’s 8800 GT.

AMD and Nvidia are by a long shot the two largest companies in the GPU market. The report says that the first was hit much harder than the second. Even though Nvidia’s sales of discrete desktop GPUs dropped by 40% year over year, AMD’s sales dropped by a shocking 74%.

It’s common knowledge that the fortunes of the GPU industry are tied to those of the PC market. With sales of PCs, tablets, and smartphones going down, it was clear that GPU manufacturers would suffer. But a unique thing has made the market for GPUs even worse.

Peddie’s data shows that GPU sales for mining cryptocurrencies dropped dramatically during the quarter. This is likely because the Ethereum merge caused the world’s second-largest decentralized network to switch to a new consensus algorithm that doesn’t require mining.

In the report, Peddie says that Ethereum miners helped drive up GPU sales and prices over the past few years, so their leaving the market has caused a lot of trouble.

Peddie pointed out that both AMD and Nvidia have released new flagship GPUs this year: the Radeon RX 7000 and RTX 4000 series GPUs from AMD and Nvidia, respectively.

These models are high-end GPUs, and in 2023, both companies are expected to release lower-end GPUs, which could boost sales.

This is Intel’s first year in the GPU market. Its entry-level Arc Alchemist series GPUs helped the company get 4% of the market. Nvidia’s market share went up by 10.2%, to 86%, while AMD’s share went down to 10%.