Since the beginning of the pandemic which saw much of the planet shut itself away from COVID-19 from March 2020 onwards, many people have found more time for gaming, particularly those who were furloughed. However, precisely because of the pandemic, as well as other factors such as cryptominers buying up tech in bulk, gamers have struggled to get hold of any new graphics cards that the likes of Nvidia and AMD have been putting out.

While it's been difficult to procure a new GPU, or pretty much any new hardware for that matter, a recent report suggests that both AMD and Nvidia have been thriving during this tumultuous time. Figures released by JPR, or Jon Peddie Research, found that sales of graphics cards have increased by 35% for the first quarter of 2021, with just a 0.3% decline. This is arguably an anomaly when compared to figures taken from previous years in which sales typically decline by around seven percent in Q1.

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What this suggests is that both tech companies appear to be flourishing and while this seems to be true at a cursory glance, the report claims that Nvidia is likely to be the overall winner. The AMD rival, which recently saw stocks of its latest 3080 Ti card sell out almost immediately, holds a bigger slice of the market.

Chart showng AMD and Nvidia sales for Q1 2021.

The reason for Nvidia coming out on top is possibly down to the company unveiling more new products which it can ship out quicker than AMD, but may also could be down to its range of cryptomining GPUs which are expected to bring in hundreds of millions more. With AMD arguably closing the gap but still a little behind, and Intel only just starting to put its hat into the graphics card ring, the market is looking more favorably towards Nvidia's interests, even if there are still global shortages on tech and gaming hardware.

With people being unable to get hold of new graphics cards, consoles, or other kit, and with the deficit expected to go on until possibly 2023, some may be wondering how sales of AMD and Nvidia GPUs are up by such a huge margin when nobody can purchase any of it. It's important to remember that these are figures from the beginning of the year, and while the shortage has been raging on, it's possible that there have been bursts where stock has been bought out as soon as it arrives, as well as the aforementioned crypto companies buying their fair share of non-gaming cards.

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Source: Extreme Tech