We're Looking At Record Sales In Graphics Chips

It's a grand time to be in the GPU business. According to Jon Peddie Research, graphics chips manufacturers shipped 97.9 million units in the third quarter, a 20% rise over the preceding quarter, and 18% more than during the same period last year.  Intel is still king; AMD is the little engine that could; but it's Nvidia that's showing the biggest market-share rise.

Overall, Intel held its lead, shipping 37.2 million units (+21.2% over Q3 2006) and claiming a 38.0% market share, which, however is down 3.8 points from 41.8% the company held in Q3 2006. AMD posted a slight shipment growth of 8.4% to 18.7 million units, translating into a 19.1% market share, down from 23.4% last year.  Both companies are increasingly under pressure by Nvidia, which scored another successful quarter with 39.3% shipment growth over Q3 2006:  Nvidia shipped 33.1 million units for a market share of 33.9%, up from 32.4% in Q3 of last year.

Interestingly, Peddie reports that almost 75% of all graphics shipments are still for desktop units. Nvidia actually leads in that category, with almost 38% of all units shipped. Forget Moore's Law. Here's HotHardware's Law: The Internet is for prOn but the desktop is for gaming. And the laptop is for stealing.