- GPU shipments reached a 4-year high in Q2 2026, despite the abnormally high prices.
- The demand is still massive, and fans are rushing in to avoid even higher prices.
- Nvidia remained the market leader, having 90% of the overall shipment share.
This year has been disastrous for gaming hardware. Surging demand from AI data centers has led to huge supply issues, which have caused a memory shortage that has directly impacted RAM, storage, and graphics card prices.
Initially, it was just memory and storage that were majorly impacted, but with time, graphics card prices have slipped beyond expectations too. Despite this, GPU shipments have hit a record 4-year high in 2026.
Why it matters: The prices are high, but the demand hasn’t been low either. Additionally, there are reports that prices might surge even higher, so it’s possible that consumers are rushing in to avoid a greater catastrophe.
John Peddie Research has revealed that graphics card shipments were at their highest in Q2 2026, since Q1 2022, over 4 years ago. They’ve reached this number despite selling well above their MSRPs.
There were 12.5 million GPU units shipped this quarter, and Nvidia led the market with a whopping 90% share. Interestingly, Team Green’s GPUs have received the biggest hikes since this unfortunate scenario.
The budget RTX 5060 Ti was announced at just $429. Now you can’t find it anywhere for less than $750, and it’s even topping $800 for certain variants. The top-end RTX 5090, too, has had huge hikes and costs at least $5,000.
AMD provides much better value, and people are adopting it too, but stats show that Nvidia is still the market leader and will keep its position. Anyhow, the demand isn’t slowing down, but prices are expected to shoot even higher.
What are your thoughts on GPU shipments hitting a 4-year record high despite the high prices? Let us know your opinions in the comments or join the discussion at the official Tech4Gamers Forum.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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