In brief: GPU shipments reached 101 million units in the third quarter of 2021 according to the latest report from Jon Peddie Research. That's an increase of 12 percent year over year but a significant 18.2 percent decline compared to the second quarter.

Looking at each of the three biggest manufacturers reveals that AMD's shipments were down by 11.4 percent in the third quarter. Nvidia's shipments, meanwhile, increased eight percent while Intel saw its shipments decline by 25.6 percent.

The publication said the third quarter used to be the strongest relative to Q2, but the pandemic and recession have scrambled seasonality. In fact, the third quarter saw the biggest drop ever from the previous quarter and was way below the 10-year average.

The situation looked eerily similar in the CPU sector. JPR found that the overall PC CPU market increased 9.2 percent year over year but dipped 23.1 percent compared to last quarter. The tablet market also saw shipments decline 6.9 percent quarter over quarter.

JPR President Jon Peddie said Covid continues to unbalance the fragile supply chain that relied too heavily upon a just-in-time strategy. "We don't expect to see a stabilized supply chain until the end of 2022. In the meantime, there will be some surprises," he added.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang just last week said he expects demand to far exceed supply through 2022. AMD chief Lisa Su back in September said she believes the chip shortage could ease in the second half of 2022 while Intel boss Pat Gelsinger sees shortages running into 2023.