Nvidia graphics cards now account for 80% of the PC market

Nvidia GRID server
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia has claimed 80% of the discrete GPU market, Jon Peddie Research reports (via Videocardz). The green team has reportedly claimed another 5% of the GPU market from AMD since the beginning of 2020, which takes it to 80% share overall as we head into the next GPU generation.

It's not that AMD's Radeon sales are on the decline per se, but that Nvidia is outpacing it in discrete GPU sales, the report states. Both Nvidia and AMD are selling through more GPUs than quarter-to-quarter in 2020: AMD shipped off 8.4% more GPUs heading into the summertime period, while Nvidia increased its shipments by 17.8% over that same period. 

The overall PC market reportedly increased by just 0.68% over the first three months of 2020, but even that small increase marks a 12.54% increase over 2019.

The second quarter is not usually peak trading for PC upgrades—we're usually all too busy frolicking in the sunshine and day-drinking in paddling pools. No doubt what we're seeing this year is the impact of the global pandemic, which saw many users consider an upgrade during a period of working from home.

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For most of us thinking about upgrading out machines, the tail-end of September will see the introduction of at least the Nvidia's Ampere generation of RTX 30-series graphics cards, presumably led by the RTX 3090. That may mean that Q3 numbers are a little low in terms of gaming demand, as us lot hold fire until the next generation. 

We'll hear more about Nvidia Ampere over at the GeForce Special Event on September 1, 2020.

AMD RDNA 2 graphics cards are also expected towards the end of this year—we'd guess sometime shortly after Nvidia's announcement and around the launch of the RDNA 2-powered consoles: the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

Jacob Ridley
Senior Hardware Editor

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. Since then he's joined PC Gamer's top staff as senior hardware editor, where he spends his days reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.