Jon Peddie Research (JPR) reports that shipments of integrated and standalone GPUs exceeded 251 million units in 2024, marking a 6% year-over-year rise. This growth continues to outpace the shipment figures for client CPUs, given that most desktop and laptop processors include built-in graphics, and that leading suppliers such as AMD and NVIDIA also provide tens of millions of discrete GPUs annually. Thanks to some earlier per-quarter data, we find that in the desktop segment, JPR shows that manufacturers shipped about 18.2 million discrete graphics cards in the first half of 2024—a 46% increase compared to the same period in 2023. However, shipments slowed in the third quarter, falling to 8.1 million units, down from 8.9 million units in Q3 2023.

Analysts partly attribute this dip to inventory adjustments at AMD, along with the end of product cycles for Ada Lovelace and RDNA 3 GPUs. Typically, the fourth quarter sees a boost in discrete GPU purchases as gamers gear up for new software releases. Yet it is not entirely clear whether that trend held through late 2024. Early indications suggest that total graphics card shipments for the year lightly exceed the totals from 2023, thanks primarily to strong demand in the first half. We still need data from Q4 of 2024 to see the trend in its final months of the year, despite knowing that the year-over-year growth is 6%. Nonetheless, current levels appear unlikely to approach the elevated peaks observed in 2021 or 2022.