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New GPUs to drive DIY PC market growth in 2H21

Aaron Lee, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES Asia 0

The upcoming availability of new-generation GPUs will be stimulating the do-it-yourself PC market particularly the gaming PC segment in the second half of 2021, according to industry sources.

With AMD and Nvidia debuting their new gaming GPUs, the DIY PC market particularly the high-end segment is poised to grow in the latter part of this year when the latest flagship graphics cards hit market shelves, the sources said.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether chip shortages will disrupt production for new-generation graphics cards and constrain the DIY PC market growth, the sources noted.

Another variable is demand from cyptominers, as high-performance computing graphics cards are popular for cryptomining, the sources said.

Nvidia has already offered graphics cards designed specifically for cryptomining. The vendor through a firmware driver will also have newly manufactured GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 Ti graphics cards limit mining performance so that miners will be discouraged from buying and stockpiling them, the sources indicated.

PC peripheral supplier Thermaltake has expressed optimism about the DIY gaming PC market growth. Unlike ordinary desktops, which can be replaced by notebooks, DIY desktops are hard to be replaced, the Taiwan-based company said.

Specializing in DIY gaming PC peripherals, Thermaltake saw its revenue climb 30.1% on year to a record high of NT$5.28 billion (US$191 million) in 2020. The company also saw its revenue hit the second highest quarterly level in the first quarter of 2021, when profits jumped 900% from a year earlier.

Thermaltake's offerings include power supply, desktop chassis, cooling modules and gaming memory products.

Power Logic, a cooling fan maker for graphics cards, is also upbeat about demand for DIY PCs in the second half of 2021. The company disclosed its cumulative 2021 revenue through April climbed 70.2% on year to NT$656 million.