ASUSTeK to Launch Own-Brand “Powered by ATI” Graphics Cards?

by Anton Shilov
08/28/2003 | 09:06 AM

Sources in Taiwan claim that ASUSTeK will launch its own Powered by ATI graphics cards in late September in addition to its NVIDIA-based lineup of graphics products. If the rumours are correct, this will be a major design win for ATI Technologies.

DigiTimes said that it is not clear whether ASUS will continue or will cease the production of NVIDIA-based graphics cards after it will launch its new product family by the end of the quarter. Even though the quantities of retail graphics cards from ASUSTeK are not really high and account for only about 40% of ASUS’ graphics cards output, considering the fact that ASUS is one of the biggest clients of NVIDIA, the contract seems to be a very important one for ATI.

Officials from ASUS and ATI denied to comment on the news-story, but as far as we can judge, just like MSI, ASUSTeK has been manufacturing ATI-based graphics cards for some time now and retail lineup is just an expansion of the relationship between both companies. Additionally, ASUS will manufacture Powered by ATI mainboards later this year.

With ASUS moving to ATI camp, we may point out that the whole Big Four, including ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte and ECS, makes ATI-based graphics products. Nevertheless, it is still to far from the point when ATI has a major market share win over NVIDIA, I have to add. Furthermore, it seems that in six to twelve months from now there will be almost no manufacturers that adopt graphics processors from only one vendor and the leading developers of graphics processors will compete not for a company or even product lineup, but for every single product or contract, I suggest.