Jon Peddie Research (JPR) has released its latest report on the state of the discrete graphics card market. According to the company, overall graphics card shipments had a 29.1% quarterly increase in Q3 2017, over double the ten-year average increase of 14% when comparing Q3 to the preceeding quarter. That increase in graphics card sales reportedly outpaced the 21.2% quarterly increase in PC shipments, too.

The analyst firm thinks that gaming is the driving force behind the graphics card sales, and says that the popularity of eSports and gaming PCs are major contributors. JPR also says that crypto-currency mining doesn't appear to have been a big factor for the rise. The research firm does note, however, that "crypto-currency mining (especially Ethereum) is still a factor in the market, and still just as impossible to accurately measure."

Meanwhile in the discrete graphics card arena, Nvidia has seemingly taken even more market share away from its competitor. The green team's share of the market saw an annual increase from 70.2% in 2016 to 72.8% this year. That gain reportedly came at the expense of AMD, whose market share dropped from 29.8% to 27.2%. Overall sales saw a small rise from the 15 million units last quarter.

Vendor Q3 2017 market share Q2 2017 market share Q3 2016 market share AMD 27.2% 30.3% 29.8% Nvidia 72.8% 69.7% 70.2%

Peddie's firm tracked sales from 48 different add-in board manufacturers, all of whom source their GPUs from AMD, Nvidia, or both. JPR notes that the third quarter is typically the strongest of the year for graphics card makers as system builders build inventory.

Interested gerbils can check out JPR's press release about its latest report. Those who are exceptionally interested and well-funded can pony up the $1500 to read the entire 97-page document.