The PC hardware market is experiencing what can only be considered a tumultuous time, which is resulting in price increases and a lack of consumer trust.

Source: Jon Peddie Research
To put it in a nutshell, consumers are battling the woes and victories of the big three of PC hardware - NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. Firstly, Intel suffered a massive brand hit as consumers lost trust in the company's products following the debacle of 13th and 14th-generation CPUs and their power-related problems. On the other side of the CPU fence, AMD's latest Ryzen 9000 series CPUs were only just released and have fallen on deaf ears due to their disappointing gaming performance uplift compared to the uplifts seen in previous generations, particularly the jump from Zen 2 to Zen 3.
As for NVIDIA, the company is an example of how too much winning can eventually hurt consumers, as NVIDIA's incredible graphics card performance has led the company to absolutely dominate the discrete GPU space with more than 80% market share as of 2022. This domination and AMD's official withdrawal from producing high-end GPUs have resulted in NVIDIA being able to charge what it likes for its products, especially at the higher end of its product stack (RTX 4070 Super and above).
Keeping to the same point of market share, a new report from analyst firm Jon Peddie Research reveals Intel has just fallen out of the discrete GPU market completely, surrendering the 2% market share it held in Q2'23 to its competitors, making its market share 0% as of Q2'24.
"The add-in board market continues to surprise and astonish market watchers who have been predicting its doom for decades. With one little dip in Q1 (seasonally normal), we've seen four quarters of growth. But, overall shipments are down compared to two years ago, so that's not encouraging. However, we remain optimistic about the future, and the fantastic games that are coming that will take all the performance an AIB can offer," said Jon Peddie, JPR's president, in a statement
The Intel excess power-related problems with Intel's 13th and 14th gen CPUs hurt not only Intel but also motherboard manufacturers. Additionally, the full force of this blow is yet to be felt as Intel is yet to release its upcoming next-generation CPUs named Arrow Lake. Due to the breaking of trust, consumers are less likely to run out and buy a new Intel CPU, as there is no way of knowing if the same problems will arise a few years later. Arrow Lake is only around the corner, so we will find out soon if the adoption rate of the new generation has suffered as a result of the 13th and 14th-generation woes.
AMD's lackluster gaming performance hike with its 9000 series CPUs has led many to believe there isn't going to be a significant performance jump with the coming X3D versions of the chips, as they are from the same 4nm process node. These chips are rumored to be released sometime early next year, and given the adoption rate of the 9000 series so far, they will really need to be impressive to convince gamers to upgrade from previous generations.
Unfortunately, it isn't a great time to be a PC hardware fan, as the industry is somewhat of a contentious spot between NVIDIA's lack of competition, which gives the company leeway to increase prices and stagger performance, to Intel's fall-from-grace situation that has shattered consumer trust, and AMD's performance woes with its latest generation of CPUs.
I hope to see these problems resolved sooner rather than later, and hopefully, as a result of the resolution, the PC industry landscape will return to a level of competition that will ultimately benefit consumers who are chasing price to performance.