Rising memory and component prices are major factors behind a sluggish Q1 for the PC segment as GPU and CPU shipments decline.
Both CPU & GPU Shipments Were Down In Q1 2026, But Intel Got A Tiny Slice of The Discrete GPU Market Share
The latest market statistics for the first quarter of 2026 are out from Jon Peddie Research. As per the latest data, the discrete graphics card segment reached 11.8 million units in Q1 2026 while desktop CPUs fell to 15.7 million units.
This quarter, the GPU AIB shipments declined by -0.6% versus the previous quarter, with a compound annual growth rate of -3.3% from 2024 to 2029. During this period, the installed base will reach 183 million units, and AIB GPUs will penetrate 129% of the desktop PC market.
Despite the market going through a decline in consumer interest, things were still stable enough in Q1 2026 and not as bad as the crypto cycle of 2018-2019 or the COVID-19 cycle of 2022-2023. But the PC market only started witnessing price hikes and shortages in the first quarter of 2026, and since then, things have gotten out of reach for the vast majority, so we can see the PC segment do even worse in the coming quarters.
Looking at the AIB GPU market share breakdown, NVIDIA retains its 90% market share with AMD sitting at second place with 8% and Intel at 1% market share. Both NVIDIA and AMD shipments declined in Q1; however, Intel saw a small uptick.
- The AIB overall attach rate in desktop PCs for the quarter increased to 76%, up 33.2% from last quarter.
- The desktop PC CPU market decreased -25% year to year and decreased -24% quarter to quarter.
Neither GPU maker released a big lineup during Q1 2026. The expected launches were moved forward. NVIDIA is relaunching older GPUs for mainstream segments while trying to keep up with demand for its latest products. AMD introduced the Radeon RX 9070 GRE this month, while Intel's Arc Pro series got two new additions.
Currently, it is expected that next-gen GPU launches will occur around 2027-2028 with the RTX SUPER series back in action. There are no concrete timelines set yet, as memory availability will be the ultimate factor in whether new GPUs are to be greenlit or further pushed back.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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