The drama of graphics cards: the news coming from China is a setback for manufacturers

These are bad times for manufacturers of GPUs and graphics cards. The rise of cryptocurrency mining caused that during 2019, 2020 and 2021 these companies sell all the graphics hardware that they were able to make. In addition, this situation placed them in a favorable position that has led to a very significant increase in prices and speculation. And, meanwhile, users have been left unprotected and at the mercy of an unusually aggressive market.

This is where we came from, but the landscape is changing. And he’s doing it at full speed. The drastic increase in the price of energy and the crisis that cryptocurrencies are going through as a result of the fall in the price of the main digital currencies and the doubts that their stability casts have made mining cryptocurrencies unprofitable. Miners are no longer interested in hogging graphics cards, and not only that; many of them have flooded the market by selling the GPUs they used to mine.

The lurch that the graphics card market has given began to accentuate during the third quarter of 2022. In fact, the figures collected by the consulting firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR) are chilling. The most impressive data of all reflects that during the third quarter of last year the distribution of graphics cards contracted by 42% compared to the same period of 2021. It is outrageous. And since then the picture has not improved despite the fact that NVIDIA and AMD have launched their new generation of graphics solutions.

In China, sales have fallen by 42% and the West will probably follow

The figures do not leave the slightest loophole through which doubts can enter: the graphics card market is experiencing its worst moment since 2008. However, this wound is not affecting the three big companies equally. Intel’s market share, again according to JPR, has increased by 10.3%, while that of AMD has decreased by 8.5%, and that of NVIDIA has decreased by a more timid 1.87%. Of course, Intel’s position in this market is favored by its dominance in the field of integrated graphics, especially in the field of laptops. This is what explains these figures.

In any case, to curl the loop even more and consolidate a trend that must undoubtedly be worrying GPU and graphics card manufacturers a lot, the news coming from China reflects that this crisis is getting worse. And it is that the figures that the Asian publication has collected My Drivers defend that the distribution of graphics cards in this country of continental proportions during the month of January 2023 has contracted by 42% if we compare it with that of the same period of 2022. It is evident that it is a very abrupt drop that reveals the delicate moment that goes through this industry.

Interestingly, the sale of graphics hardware in China increased 9% in January 2023 compared to December 2022, but it is still too early to tell if we are seeing a change in trend, or, more likely, a brief rebound like consequence of the arrival of the new graphics cards that have been placed in AMD and NVIDIA stores. In any case, the Chinese market is large enough for us to consider it a reflection of what is happening in the West. In April it will be interesting to see how this market has evolved during the first quarter of the year. In any case, the best thing that can happen to users is that prices moderate as soon as possible. Cross our fingers.

More information: My Drivers