Worse than 2008 financial collapse: PC and laptop market crashes as motherboard makers reportedly reduce shipment targets

We have previously reported on falling CPU sales, which have affected the consumer DIY PC market. The situation seems to be even worse than it seemed, as Taiwanese outlet DigiTimes reports that major motherboard makers Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and ASRock have revised their 2026 motherboard shipment targets downwards. This downward adjustment is a pre-emption of the laptop and DIY PC demand collapse due to a severe CPU and RAM shortage.

DigiTimes alleges that, per supply chain sources, Asus is set to face a worse hit to its motherboard shipments than it did during the 2008 financial crisis and the first year of the COVID pandemic. As such, Asus is reportedly looking to ship only 10 million motherboards in 2026 compared to 15 million in 2025. Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock are also expecting a collapse in demand and have revised their motherboard shipment targets to:

• Gigabyte: 8 to 8.5 million (2026) vs 11 million (2025)
• MSI: 8.4 million (2026) vs 11 million (2025)
• ASRock: 2.7 million (2026) vs 4.3 million (2025)

A part of this sharp decline in motherboard shipments is due to the lack of any incentives for gamers to upgrade their PCs. Nvidia and AMD have no plans to release next-generation GPUs before 2028. Even worse, the current crop of GeForce RTX 50 and Radeon RX 9000 GPUs has gotten more expensive. The RTX 5070, for instance, launched at $549 in early 2025. It now retails for above $600 on Amazon. The same is true for the RX 9070.

So, in the absence of affordable RAM, storage, CPUs, and new GPUs, it is easy to see why gamers would hold off on upgrading their PCs or buying gaming laptops. 

Moreover, we can expect people to increasingly look away from high-end laptops and jump ship to cheaper alternatives. We see an indication of this in the sales performance of the MacBook Neo, as it is currently the best-selling laptop on Amazon (get it on Amazon).

Unfortunately, neither memory makers nor AMD, Intel, and Nvidia seem to be in any rush to resolve the situation. The AI market is booming, and it is making these companies a lot of money. Even Asus, ASRock, and Gigabyte aren’t too affected by the motherboard sales slump, as AI server sales are reported to be currently the biggest revenue generator for these companies. DigiTimes reports that Asus is expected to achieve 100% quarter-on-quarter server revenue increase for Q1 2026.

What should consumers do?

Honestly, the best advice seems to be holding on to your devices if you are in no need of any upgrade. If you do need an upgrade, look for deals and discounts. Although fewer than 2025, there are still good discounts to be had on laptops, PC parts, etc.

For gamers, gaming consoles still appear to be the best value gaming machines around, even with repeated price increases.