Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Tom’s Hardware
Tom’s Hardware
Technology
Zak Killian

GPU sales skyrocketed 27% last quarter — tariff jitters sparked an odd gaming hardware spending surge in Q2 '25

A photograph of Micro Center store shelves stocked with PC graphics cards.

The middle of the year is usually a sleepy season for PC hardware sales, and so summer quarter shipments tend to sag a bit as people hold off until holiday deals. Of course, 2025 has been anything but typical. Instead of the usual slowdown, the latest numbers from Jon Peddie Research (JPR) show a surprising surge in CPU and GPU shipments. The culprit? Fear of tariffs, according to the analyst.

With new U.S. import tariffs hanging over tech imports, PC makers and consumers alike went into buy-ahead mode. The result was a markedly unseasonal rush on gaming hardware that pulled demand forward, creating what could be called a "panic‑build quarter" in the client PC industry.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.