A 59% Plunge in February! Why Have Graphics Cards Suddenly Become Even Harder to Buy?

While scrolling through the news on the subway, I saw this piece and found it pretty annoying. For casual gamers, graphics cards were never exactly a high-frequency purchase to begin with, but once prices go up, even “maybe later” turns into “now I really can’t afford it.”

According to a report by Fast Technology on March 19, Board Channels compiled shipment volumes for graphics card brands in mainland China for February 2026. The figures mentioned here are SELL IN data, meaning the volume manufacturers shipped to distributors, not how many units players actually bought in the end.

There are two especially eye-catching numbers. First is the month-over-month figure: in February 2026, total graphics card shipments across all brands fell by about 59% compared with January. Second is the year-over-year figure: compared with February 2025, shipments were also down about 42%. That kind of drop is no longer just “a bit slow” — it feels more like suddenly half the shoppers disappeared from a mall.

Board Channels’ conclusion was also pretty straightforward: in February, shipment performance for all brands declined sharply both month over month and year over year, and overall sales were fairly average. The reasons are not complicated either. A round of inventory pushing was completed in January, and by February, the shipping window was shorter, so the overall pace naturally looked weak.

But more importantly, the key issue is still price. The original article mentioned that “the fundamental reason for the decline is the price increase of graphics cards.” Major AIC brands generally raised prices by about 10% at the end of January, followed by another roughly 5% increase in March, for a cumulative rise of around 15%. AIB brands, meanwhile, increased prices several times in succession, with the estimated total increase reaching at least 15% to 20%.

It feels a lot like when a milk tea shop quietly raises the price of a large cup. You might have hesitated before, but now you see the price and just close the shopping cart right away. For people who only want to play a couple of matches after work or try a new game on the weekend, once graphics cards enter a cycle of continuous price hikes, the urge to buy drops especially fast.

In addition, the top ten graphics card brands by shipment volume for February have also been released: Colorful, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, GALAX, Manli, ZOTAC, Inno3D, Gainward, and Maxsun. You can see that all the mainstream brands are on the list, so this is not a case of a few manufacturers losing momentum — the entire market is running cold.

If you’re thinking about building a PC recently, my advice is simple. If you need it right now, keep an eye on promotional prices and don’t panic-buy just because you’re afraid prices will keep rising; focus instead on your total build budget. If it’s not an urgent need, you can wait a bit longer and at least see whether channel pricing stabilizes after March. After all, with both shipments and prices looking uncomfortable right now, impulse buying can easily lead to regret.

One more thing: this kind of data reflects channel confidence. When distributors are reluctant to take on more stock, it often means market sentiment is also cautious. For ordinary gamers, that’s more real than any spec sheet. Because in the end, what determines whether you buy or not is not a benchmark chart, but whether it hurts when you actually make the payment.