These days average selling prices on computers decline a lot, as a result, profit margins of computer suppliers continually fall down. The only way to increase profitability without affecting the final price is to decrease components and workmanship cost. Since big Asia-based manufacturers offer more beneficial prices, a lot of system integrators now turn to them.

As I have read over AsiaBizTech, Dell Computer is rumoured to have shifted all its graphics cards manufacturing to Taiwan-based manufacturers because the prices they offer are more attractive compared to the costs provided by their former partner Sanmina-SCI. Apparently, MSI, ASUSTeK and Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co) are reported to become the graphics cards suppliers for Dell.

MSI has been manufacturing graphics cards for the number two computer supplier in the world beginning from June 2001 and it seems to proved the latter that Taiwanese computer-component manufacturers can not only offer attractive pricing, but also admissible quality. ASUS is a well-known OEM, who makes mainboards and some other devices for Hewlett-Packard, Dell and other big companies. Foxconn Electronics is said to be one of the major suppliers of Intel core-logic based mainboards both for Intel itself as well as some system integrators and component resellers.

The latter is a new player on the graphics market and I have no information whose GPUs the company will adopt for their graphics cards. Both ASUS and MSI use graphics processors from NVIDIA. Since these two are going to be the major graphics cards makers for the number two computer supplier in the world, it seems to me that Dell has decided not to use a lot of ATI powered cards in their PCs.