Add-in Board Sales Doing Well!

This is really impressive.  Recognizing that the sale of discrete graphics cards (also known as add-in boards or AIBs) is very seasonal, this year’s Q3 showed a 29.1% sales increase over the previous quarter (Q2).  This is nearly double the ten year seasonal average increase of 14.4%.  What makes this even more impressive is that PC sales dropped by 8.9% during the same period.

Factors that contributed to this GPU sales boon include cryptocurrency (e.g. Etherium), gaming, and eSports.  According to JPR, the impact of cryptocurrency is still too difficult to reliably predict, but the influence is there.  Virtual Reality sales have yet to significantly impact AIB sales patterns.

Something else which is good to see is JPR describing the PC gaming space as “vibrant”.  Their report points to supporting evidence include AMD and Intel releasing or announcing new hardcore gaming CPUs, all OEM’s investing in the gaming space, and the fact that gaming PCs are no longer dwarfed by general-purpose machines.

Check out the report brief here.