Feb 1, 2011 07:37 GMT  ·  By

It seems that some concrete numbers regarding the graphics market's performance in 2010 have been released, and Jon Peddie Research found that the market shares of the major players slightly changed.

The graphics chip market has been mostly dominated by Intel for years, since the company sells many integrated graphics, and while this situation was preserved in Q4 2010, changes still happened in terms of market share. Jon Peddie Research did what it is known for and provided the numbers that Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, VIA and Matrox secured in the October-December period.

Apparently, the Santa Clara, California-based CPU maker kept the lead with 52.5%, but this percentage was lower than the 55.2% of the third quarter.

In other words, Intel lost share to Advanced Micro Devices and NVIDIA, which both saw increases of 1% or more.

To be more specific, NVIDIA's share grew from Q3's 23% to 24%, while AMD's increased from 21% to 22.5%. Meanwhile, VIA and Matrox retained their shares of 0.8% and 0.1%, respectively.

The decline is not expected to continue in 2011, however. There will be a higher number of DirectX 11 graphics on sale, especially those in the Fusion AMD Chips, and Intel's Sandy bridge CPUs are quite likely, if not guaranteed, to positively influence the overall market.

“Although numbers were down in Q4 we expect 2011 to be a strong year for GPU sales,” says the JPR press release.

“The full adoption of DX 11 for mainstream and high-end systems will take place putting a premium on GPU sales, AMDs Fusion and Intel’s Sandy Bridge should hit their stride. Couple all that with an improving US and World economy, and 2011 should be solid year all-around.”

“We continue to be optimistic about the future for PCs into 2011,” the announcement also stated. “There is momentum for machines used in business, creative content, and entertainment.”