According to the latest data from research firm Jon Peddie Research, the consumer discrete GPU market experienced a rare off-season boom in the second quarter of 2026, with total sales hitting a four-year high.
In his report, JPR President Dr. Jon Peddie pointed out that while the second quarter is traditionally a slow season for PC hardware sales, this year's Q2 saw discrete GPUs buck the seasonal trend despite global memory chip supply crises and soaring component costs.
In terms of specific shipment figures, total global consumer PC graphics processor shipments (including discrete and integrated GPUs for both desktops and laptops) reached 75.5 million units in the second quarter.
This figure represents a 10.4% increase from the previous quarter and a slight 1.1% rise compared to the same period last year.
Notably, the consumer CPU market contracted by 1.1% year-over-year during the same period, with desktop CPU shipments seeing a significant quarter-over-quarter decline, while mobile CPU shipments rose substantially.
Breaking it down by platform, desktop GPU shipments fell 4% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter, while laptop GPU shipments surged by 16.8%.
Thanks to strong demand in the mobile laptop market, total discrete GPU shipments rose 12.2% quarter-over-quarter and 14.1% year-over-year in the second quarter.
Based on estimates combining NVIDIA's market share and the overall penetration rate of discrete GPUs in PCs, total discrete GPU sales from the three major chip manufacturers reached approximately 20 million units in the second quarter.
More importantly, AMD gained more market share during this surge in laptop GPU shipments, becoming a key driver behind the overall increase in sales.
