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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Short answer: NVIDIA’s dominance is real, but “88%” is a dated and narrowly defined statistic. The figure refers to roughly 88% of desktop add-in-board (AIB) shipments in the second quarter of 2024. JPR-based reporting for the fourth quarter of 2025 put the split near 94% NVIDIA, 5% AMD and 1% Intel. Those figures cover newly shipped standalone desktop graphics cards—not every PC GPU, laptop, console, integrated GPU or gamer-owned card.
What the 88% figure actually measures
Market-share percentages are meaningful only when their denominator is clear. A desktop AIB shipment share counts standalone graphics cards sold for desktop PCs during a particular quarter. It is the most relevant measure for direct GeForce-versus-Radeon-versus-Arc board competition, but it is not a universal measure of “the GPU market.”
| Measure | What it counts | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop AIB shipments | New discrete graphics boards shipped for desktop PCs | Best measure of board-vendor competition; excludes integrated graphics and most notebooks |
| All PC GPU shipments | Integrated, discrete, desktop, notebook and related PC graphics units | Produces a materially different vendor picture |
| Installed base | GPUs already in users’ systems | Includes older cards sold years earlier |
| Steam hardware share | Hardware reported by participating Steam users | Not a global shipment audit; includes laptops and integrated graphics |
| Revenue share | Sales value rather than unit volume | High-end cards weigh more than entry-level cards |
The approximately 88% NVIDIA and 12% AMD result belongs to Jon Peddie Research’s second-quarter 2024 desktop AIB estimate: the cited filing reproduces that historical shipment snapshot. It should not be presented as NVIDIA’s current share of all graphics hardware.
Is NVIDIA still at 88%?
No—not on the latest publicly described AIB evidence. JPR’s fourth-quarter 2025 AIB release, published March 5, 2026, reported approximately 11.48 million board shipments. NVIDIA gained 1.6 percentage points sequentially, AMD lost 1.6 points and Intel was roughly flat. The free release describes the changes but does not print the complete vendor table: JPR’s Q4 2025 release.
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Contemporary coverage based on that JPR data described the quarter as approximately 94% NVIDIA, 5% AMD and 1% Intel. Those exact percentages should be treated as a reported reconstruction of JPR’s data, rather than numbers plainly displayed in JPR’s public text: PC Gamer’s report and Tom’s Hardware’s coverage.
The AIB market was not simply booming while NVIDIA gained share. JPR said Q4 shipments were up 36% year over year but down sequentially, with memory costs and tariffs adding pressure. It forecast an almost 10% AIB-market decline in 2026 under unstable conditions. A shrinking market can make a supplier’s percentage rise even when total unit demand is weak.
What the broader PC-GPU numbers show
JPR’s first-quarter 2026 PC-GPU report counted 70.3 million PC-based GPU units. Desktop graphics shipments were up 11% year over year while notebook graphics shipments fell 1.5%: JPR’s Q1 2026 report. That total is not interchangeable with the 94/5/1 desktop AIB estimate because it includes categories such as integrated and notebook graphics.
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Why NVIDIA’s share became so large
Broad product coverage and channel reach
NVIDIA has maintained GeForce products across mainstream and enthusiast price bands, with extensive board-partner, retailer and system-builder availability. A buyer can usually find a GeForce option in a prebuilt system or a component list, reinforcing the brand’s visibility.
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The buying decision is not only about conventional rasterized frame rates. NVIDIA’s ecosystem includes DLSS upscaling and frame generation, ray-tracing features, NVENC and NVDEC media engines, CUDA, and support in creator, rendering, AI and productivity applications. Its RTX 50-series launch messaging centered on Blackwell, DLSS 4, Multi Frame Generation and Reflex 2, illustrating the platform approach: NVIDIA’s fiscal 2025 release.
Familiarity and switching costs
A large installed base makes GeForce model names familiar to consumers and reviewers. Developers and software vendors often prioritize features that reach the largest audience. PC builders can recommend a known ecosystem with less perceived compatibility risk, while existing NVIDIA owners may prefer to retain established settings and applications.
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Timing, supply and purchasing cycles
Quarterly share can be distorted by a new-generation launch, production allocation, tariffs, memory pricing, board-partner inventory and upgrade delays. A rival can lose shipments because its replacement product is late or unavailable, not solely because its architecture is technically inferior.
Is AMD actually losing everywhere?
No. AMD is losing severely in the standalone desktop AIB category, but that category is only one part of its graphics and gaming business. Radeon desktop cards, Ryzen integrated graphics, semi-custom console chips, handheld APUs, professional products and Instinct data-center accelerators are separate businesses with different customers.
AMD reported $34.6 billion in full-year 2025 revenue and $3.9 billion in Gaming revenue, alongside strong Radeon demand: AMD’s results release. Those company-wide figures cannot be converted into desktop Radeon share, but they show why a 5% AIB estimate should not be described as AMD’s total graphics position.
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Are AMD and Intel credible desktop alternatives?
AMD Radeon
AMD’s RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 launched with suggested prices of $599 and $549, respectively, and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. AMD positioned the cards around RDNA 4 and FSR 4: AMD’s launch announcement. Those are launch suggested prices, not guaranteed August 2026 retail prices.
Radeon can be a sensible choice when conventional gaming performance, memory capacity, open standards or the actual street price matter most. The decision becomes less favorable when a buyer depends on CUDA, a particular creator application, NVIDIA-specific ray tracing or DLSS features. Compare the exact card, current price, power, noise, drivers and target games rather than relying on AMD’s aggregate share.
Intel Arc
Intel remains a small discrete supplier, not an equal rival to NVIDIA. Arc can still influence entry-level pricing and offers notable media capabilities, including AV1 encoding and decoding, while driver improvements have made the platform more viable. It is a weaker fit for buyers who need the safest high-end choice or CUDA-dependent software. Intel’s much larger integrated-graphics presence is a separate market from AIB boards.
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What Steam’s survey does—and does not—prove
Steam’s June 2026 video-card survey lists many NVIDIA models among its most prevalent individual GPUs, including the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, RTX 3060, RTX 4060, RTX 5070, RTX 3050, RTX 5060, GTX 1650, RTX 5060 Laptop GPU, RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti. The Radeon RX 9070 XT also appears as a measurable model: Steam’s survey.
Steam reflects participating users’ installed hardware, not worldwide shipments. It includes laptops, integrated graphics and older cards that remain in service. A model’s percentage can change because it sold well, because older cards persist or because the survey population changes. Adding individual Steam model percentages cannot produce a global desktop AIB share.
Does concentration mean NVIDIA is technically superior?
Not automatically. Share is an outcome of performance, features, pricing, availability, brand, software, OEM relationships, launch timing and supply. NVIDIA may offer the strongest overall proposition for many buyers while still losing a particular price segment or rasterized-performance comparison. Conversely, a technically attractive rival can struggle if buyers cannot find it at the intended price.
Is competition “dead” for consumers?
A reported 94%-versus-5%-versus-1% shipment split would indicate extreme concentration in desktop AIB boards. It does not, by itself, prove an illegal monopoly or an antitrust violation. The practical concern is whether weak rivals reduce price pressure, interoperability, software support and supply resilience.
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Dominance can bring benefits: a large ecosystem may receive broader application support, predictable drivers and rapid feature adoption. It can also give the leading vendor more room to charge for proprietary features or leave buyers with fewer meaningful alternatives. AMD and Intel still ship competing products, but their scale is not currently strong enough to act as a reliable market-wide counterweight.
How to use the market-share data when buying a GPU
- Define the workload. Separate gaming, ray tracing, streaming, video editing, AI, professional rendering and general desktop use.
- Check software requirements. CUDA, DLSS, FSR, AV1, Linux support and application-specific acceleration can matter more than a brand percentage.
- Compare the exact cards. Use current street price, measured performance, VRAM, power draw, cooler noise, warranty and availability.
- Verify compatibility. Check the power supply, case clearance, monitor outputs and CPU balance.
- Use market data as context, not a verdict. A dominant vendor is not automatically the best value, and a small vendor is not automatically unusable.
Bottom line
The “88%” headline is a historical Q2 2024 snapshot of desktop AIB shipments. Later JPR-based reporting put NVIDIA near 94% in Q4 2025, while AMD and Intel retained small but real positions. NVIDIA has not eliminated competition, but desktop add-in-board competition is dangerously concentrated. For buyers, the rational response is to compare current cards and software needs—not to treat either market share or brand loyalty as a substitute for a use-case-specific decision.
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