Desktop graphics card shipments hit 12.5 million units in Q2 2026, the highest quarterly total since Q1 2022, according to new data from Jon Peddie Research. That's a 5.9% jump from the previous quarter and a 7.8% increase year over year, despite GPU prices climbing for months. For the first half of 2026, desktop AIB shipments reached 24.3 million units, up from 20.8 million over the same stretch last year.

This spike is interesting partly because of the timing, since the industry is facing a severe memory crisis. VRAM costs have been rising steadily, and GPU makers have already pushed through several rounds of price increases on entry-level and high-end cards alike.

Jon Peddie, president of JPR, thinks that the price hikes are actually feeding the shipment growth rather than slowing it. Common sense dictates that rising prices will adversely affect sales, as gamers will tend to stick with their existing GPUs rather than spending big on a new upgrade. However, Jon's theory is that gamers are buying now because they expect prices to climb further, especially as GDDR7 costs keep rising. Apparently, the fear of missing a better price is doing more to move units right now than the higher prices are doing to scare buyers away.