According to Jon Peddie Research (JPR) of Tiburon, Calif., just-in-time manufacturing helped the integrated graphics chip segment to post strong growth in Q4.
Fueled by Intel and VIA, which took the lion’s share of the market at 74 per cent between them. Canada’s ATI came in third place with 11 per cent during the period, said Lisa Epstein, a senior analyst at the research company.
Epstein added that enthusiast and performance segments slipped in Q4, with the explanation being that the majority of the semiconductor buys were made in Q3 for the holiday rush.
The company estimates that approximately 60.2 million desktop graphics devices shipped in Q4’05, 37.9 million or 63 per cent of them were integrated parts — an increase of 4.4 per cent over the previous quarter showing the continued growth of the integrated segment in desktop graphics.
Overall, Intel claimed 32 per cent of the desktop graphics market – a drop of five points (13.5 per cent) from the previous quarter, ATI held steady at 24 per cent, and Nvidia picked up one point to come in at 23 per cent.
While Intel was still the largest supplier of desktop graphics during the period, the company’s segment market share declined sequentially from their high of 40 per cent in Q4’04.
Meanwhile, Nvidia’s lead over ATI in the discrete desktop segment increased to 52 per cent (compared to ATI’s 47 per cent) attributed to Nvidia’s successes in the high-end retail channel where ATI has been absent.
It has been a great year for PC graphics (desktop, mobile, and servers) with 2005 growing 12.7 per cent year-to-year, said Epstein.