ATI Technologies has revised its forecast, and the Canada-based graphics-processor maker now expects PCI Express (PCIe)-enabled graphics cards to account for 25% of the global graphics card market by year-end, according to sources at ATI. The company had earlier expected PCIe-enabled graphics cards to take 40% of the market by the end of this year. Slower-than-expected sales of PCI-enabled graphics cards in the channel pushed ATI to revise its projection, the sources noted.

PCIe-enabled graphics cards currently account for less than 10% of graphics card sales in the channel. However, 25-30% of new desktop PCs shipped by PC OEMs include PCIe graphics cards, the sources noted.

As the price of Intel Pentium 4 CPUs for the PCIe platform will be lowered in mid-October, the price differences between PCIe- and AGP 8X-based solutions will narrow in the fourth quarter, and help lift the overall market share of PCIe graphics cards to 25% by year-end, the sources asserted.

Source: www.digitimes.com