Intel doesn’t do discrete graphics cards and even if this may change with the upcoming Larrabee architecture it’s a rather astonishing fact that Intel has been the dominating graphics circuit manufacturer for many years. The reason is because of Intel’s chipsets that houses Intel-made GPUs and even though the performance is rather meager, especially in 3D applications, Intel’s integrated circuits have been enough for many and at the same time given Intel a hefty portion of the graphics circuit market.
Things didn’t exactly turn for the worse when Apple decided to give up PowerPC and move over to Intel’s x86 platform. Its notebooks then came with Intel’s integrated graphics circuits that further strengthened Intel’s position. But as you know, NVIDIA ended this a while back by convincing Apple to use GeForce 9400M GPU instead of Intel’s tired X4500HD chip.
This is supposed to be the start of something bigger. NVIDIA says that it has considerably bigger plans for its 9400M GPU. It believes that it will be able to grab no less than 30% of the integrated graphics circuit market through the new chipset. The first step was to make deals with five major manufacturers that will now launch notebooks sporting NVIDIA’s 9400M graphics.
For the first time, Intel may actually break a sweat on the chipset market and to us consumers this should only result in better products with better components at lower prices.
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