The Evetech Hardware Report 2026: the RX 9070 XT was the best-selling graphics card online at 15.8%, half of cards sold had 16GB+, AMD CPUs were in 81.3% of PCs, and Gauteng placed 45.1% of online orders.
What do South Africans actually buy when they upgrade a gaming PC, pick a laptop or build a machine for AI? This first Evetech Hardware Report answers that from our own online orders in 2026, comparing 1 January to 21 October 2026 with the same dates in 2025. Every figure is a share, a ranking or a growth rate, and together they show a market moving quickly towards more memory, AMD graphics and better laptops.
No single graphics card sold more in Evetech's online orders in 2026 than the Radeon RX 9070 XT, at 15.8% of cards sold. Half of all graphics cards bought online now have 16GB or more of video memory, up from 37.2% a year earlier. AMD processors sit inside 81.3% of PCs sold online, and Gauteng places 45.1% of online orders. On 22 October 2026, a 16GB card started at R9,999 in stock.
The biggest story of 2026 is the RX 9070 XT. Counting every board-partner version together, it took 15.8% of graphics cards sold online, ahead of NVIDIA's RTX 5070 at 13.9% and RTX 5060 at 12.5%. A year earlier, over the same dates, it ranked second with 10.5%. In July to September 2026 it reached 24.1%, close to one card in every four.
That lifted AMD as a whole. Comparing like-for-like quarters to avoid launch-timing effects, AMD's slice of online graphics card sales climbed from 21.5% to 34.9% between July-September 2025 and the same months of 2026. NVIDIA remains the majority brand, with 63.2% of cards over the 2026 window, but the gap has narrowed sharply. Graphics card sales as a whole grew 1.11x year on year.
Our RX 9070 XT bestseller breakdown looks at the card in more detail.
Video memory has become the spec buyers care about. Cards with 16GB or more made up 50.5% of graphics cards sold online in 2026, against 37.2% over the same dates in 2025. Like-for-like, July to September went from 41.6% to 55.4%, while cards with 8GB or less fell from 35.2% to 29.4%.
The clearest sign is the RTX 5060 Ti, which comes in 16GB and 8GB versions. 78.5% of RTX 5060 Ti buyers chose 16GB, nearly four in five. And the newest group, cards with 24GB or more that suit local AI models, grew from 1.7% to 6.2% of graphics cards between July to September 2025 and the same months in 2026. Intel's Arc Pro B60 and B70 made up 49.7% of those 24GB-plus cards, from a small base.
Read more in our 16GB graphics card trend report, or find the right card for AI models in our GPU AI Index.
Laptop buyers are spending more. Laptops under R15,000 fell from 70.2% of laptops sold online to 51.6%, and models at R25,000 or more rose from 7.6% to 16.0%. On laptops sold in both years, prices moved only slightly, so most of that shift comes from people choosing better machines.
Gaming laptops moved to the new generation quickly. In July to September 2026, RTX 50-series models made up 71.4% of RTX laptops sold online, against 40.8% a year earlier. The RTX 5060 was the most popular laptop GPU tier at 33.5% of RTX laptops, followed by the RTX 5050 at 19.9%, and RTX laptops as a whole rose to 30.1% of laptops sold online from 26.2%. Our AI Laptop Index ranks the current range for AI work.
For desktops, ready-made systems are winning. Pre-built PCs made up 44.5% of PCs sold online in 2026, up from 24.6% over the same dates in 2025. Browse the current pre-built PC deals.
AMD dominates the processors inside PCs sold online. Ryzen chips were in 81.3% of PCs sold in 2026, up from 77.1% over the same dates in 2025, so roughly four in every five PCs leaving Evetech through online orders now run an AMD processor.
Gauteng is the heart of PC hardware buying, with 45.1% of online orders delivered there. The Western Cape is next at 23.6%, up from 21.9%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 11.5%. The Eastern Cape takes 5.6%, Mpumalanga 3.8%, the Free State 3.5%, North West 3.1%, Limpopo 2.3% and the Northern Cape 1.4%.
The report uses Evetech online orders through the website and app, counting only paid orders, from 1 January to 21 October 2026, compared with the same dates in 2025. Shares are of units sold in each category. Where a product launched during 2025 would distort a full-year comparison, we compare July to September with the same months a year earlier. Province shares cover delivered orders and leave out store collections. We will update the report as the year closes, and every number here is a share, ranking or growth rate rather than a total.
Browse all graphics cards and the GPU best sellers to see what is in stock today.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT, with 15.8% of online graphics card sales at Evetech between 1 January and 21 October 2026.
Half of graphics cards sold online in 2026 had 16GB or more, at 50.5%, up from 37.2% over the same dates in 2025.
Yes. Comparing July to September, AMD went from 21.5% of online graphics card sales in 2025 to 34.9% in 2026.
AMD. Ryzen processors were inside 81.3% of PCs sold in Evetech's online orders in 2026.
Gauteng, with 45.1% of Evetech's delivered online orders in 2026, followed by the Western Cape at 23.6%.
Yes. Laptops under R15,000 fell from 70.2% to 51.6% of laptops sold online, and R25,000-plus models rose to 16.0%.
Shopping like the rest of South Africa? Start with the most popular cards and systems above, then pick the memory and price band that suits how you play and work.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT, with 15.8% of online graphics card sales at Evetech between 1 January and 21 October 2026.
Half of graphics cards sold online in 2026 had 16GB or more, at 50.5%, up from 37.2% over the same dates in 2025.
Yes. Comparing July to September, AMD went from 21.5% of online graphics card sales in 2025 to 34.9% in 2026.
AMD. Ryzen processors were inside 81.3% of PCs sold in Evetech's online orders in 2026.
Gauteng, with 45.1% of Evetech's delivered online orders in 2026, followed by the Western Cape at 23.6%.
Yes. Laptops under R15,000 fell from 70.2% to 51.6% of laptops sold online, and R25,000-plus models rose to 16.0%.
The best graphics card for local AI in South Africa depends on VRAM: an Intel Arc B580 12GB at R6,999 for 14B models, an RX 9060 XT 16GB at R9,999, and a 24GB Arc Pro B60 at R14,399 for 32B. Index of 46 in-stock cards.
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The best-selling graphics card in South Africa in Evetech's 2026 online orders was the Radeon RX 9070 XT, at 15.8% of cards sold and 24.1% in July to September, ahead of the RTX 5070 and RTX 5060.
16GB graphics cards in South Africa went mainstream in 2026: 50.5% of cards in Evetech's online orders had 16GB or more, up from 37.2%, and 78.5% of RTX 5060 Ti buyers chose the 16GB version.
The Evetech Hardware Report 2026: the RX 9070 XT was the best-selling graphics card online at 15.8%, half of cards sold had 16GB+, AMD CPUs were in 81.3% of PCs, and Gauteng placed 45.1% of online orders.
The cheapest 24GB graphics card for local AI in South Africa is the Intel Arc Pro B60 at R14,399, enough for 32B models. NVIDIA's cheapest 24GB card, the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell, costs R57,999 but adds CUDA support.
