A new report from Jon Peddie Research shows that despite year-on-year total GPU shipments declining an average of 14 percent in Q4 2015, the quarter did bring some good news: a 2.4 percent increase from Q3.

The year-on-year average decrease included a 9 percent drop in desktop graphic processors and a 17 percent decline in notebooks.

The site says that the fourth quarter increase is a sign that the GPU market is rebounding and outperforming the PC market, which is now stabilizing. Overall PC sales may have suffered a 10.27 percent decline last year, but they increased by just over 2 percent quarter-to-quarter.

In the breakdown of individual GPU makers, AMD saw its unit shipments increase 5.16 percent quarter-to-quarter, while Nvidia's jumped up by 8.41 percent. Intel lagged behind the two big GPU companies; its shipments increased a mere 0.73 percent.

Supplier This quarter market share Last quarter share Qtr-Qtr marker share Last year share change
AMD 11.8% 11.5% 0.3% -1.9%
Intel 71.6% 72.8% -1.2% 0.2%
Nvidia 16.6% 15.7% 0.9% 1.6%

Discreet graphics cards are now found in 31.28 percent of all PCs - an encouraging rise of 1.34 percent from the previous quarter. But while discreet GPU shipments increased 6.57 percent from the last quarter, they were down 7.01 percent year-on-year.

Even though both Nvidia and AMD didn't release any new GPUs in the second half of 2015, the companies' products continued to perform well near the end of the year. It was reported last month that Nvidia beat fourth quarter earning forecasts and posted record revenue for Q4 and 2016. This was partly due to consumers purchasing new hardware in response to the large number of GPU-intensive titles, such as The Witcher 3, Call Of Duty: Black Ops III, and Star Wars: Battlefront being released in 2015.

Ultimately, the report paints a fairly positive picture. While year-on-year shipments of PCs and GPUs may have decreased, both markets have stabilized and are now starting to improve. The fourth quarter was particularly good for GPUs, especially considering the lack of new products.