The decline of the PC is all but olds by now, but Jon Peddie Research (JPR) reports the market has at least one bright spot-- gaming hardware, one worth $21.5 billion in 2014, or twice the size of gaming consoles.
It is also a segment set for growth, forecast to reach the value of $23.1bn by 2017.
"More money is being directed to mid and high range PC builds and upgrades by gamers," the analyst says. "[PC gamers] pay thousands for the ability to play games at very high settings and then do business, video/photo editing, content creation and other tasks with maximum horsepower at their disposal in a desktop ergonomic environment.”
The PC gaming segment covers PCs, upgrades and peripherals used, as the name suggests, by gamers. It is also a cornerstone of the entire consumer PC market, and JPR predicts companies will invest more of their R&D and marketing budgets towards the needs of games.
What do gamers want? Mainly high-end CPUs and GPUs, as well as SSDs, fast RAM and UHD/4K monitors-- in other words the hardware required to push 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution visuals at the smoothest possible framerates.
JPR divides the PC gaming hardware market in multiple segments, namely the high-end enthusiasts (the PC equivalent of sports car owners) and the performance and lower-end segments who just want something to play games on… a segment under threat from cheaper gaming solutions.
