Half Of All Notebooks To Use gCPUs This Year
The introduction of Intel's Sandy Bridge and AMD's Fusion processor will dramatically increase the penetration of graphics-enabled CPUs (gCPUs), market research firm IHS iSuppli said today.
According to a new forecast, 50% of notebooks and 45% of desktops will use gCPUs in 2011, up from 39% and 36%, respectively. By 2014, 83% of notebooks will use gCPUs with integrated graphics processors, the share of desktop PCs will hit 76%, the firm said. "With GEMs [graphics enabled microprocessors] capable of generating the total graphic output of a PC, no additional graphics processor or add-in graphics card is needed," said said Peter Lin, principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS. "Computers today are serving up ever-richer multimedia experiences, so the graphics capabilities of PCs have become more important, driving the rising penetration of GEMs."
The obvious question would be what the effect on discrete graphics cards may be, even if AMD is unlikely to torpedo the demand for its own products. IHS noted that "discrete graphics cards will remain the solution of choice for leading-edge graphics, providing high-end performance for applications such as games." GEMs, as far as their graphics capability is concerned, are likely to be targeted especially at mainstream and value PCs, IHS said.
Both AMD and Intel are positioning their gCPUs as a way to reduce the manufacturing cost of their chip solutions as well as a way to reduce the influence of third-party manufacturers within their platform environments as many users will perceive embedded graphics solutions as good enough for their purposes. While Intel is relying on a single general gCPU approach, AMD is expected to release five application platforms with five GEM microprocessor categories.
Via is also part of the game, but caters with its gCPU solutions to embedded and industrial applications, IHS iSuppli said.
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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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daygall i realize im a gamer, but i cant see consumer numbers that high, true the market share may be that high, but i cant see consumer numbers matching it exactly that way.Reply
until gCPUs are able to do the same work load that is -
rmmil978 Really shouldn't surprise anyone, since a gCPU is all you'd ever need to play Farmville or Plants Vs. Zombies.Reply
I know that's a pretty typical spiteful PC gamer response, but heck, when you really think about it in another way, most gCPU's coming out this year are probably more powerful (graphics wise probably, processor wise definitely) than an Xbox 360 or PS3 (considering they are using 5 year old hardware), so games of console caliber should be able to be played reasonably well on a PC running a gCPU, which is just fine for most people. Sad, but true. -
Thunderfox Not surprising at all considering all the mainstream parts are gCPU's. It's not about whether you want it or not, it's about whether you have a choice. And most people don't need more than that for what they do with a portable computer anyway.Reply
People who actually want to game on them will invest in something with a dedicated GPU, even though the CPU may have an unused graphics core built into it anyway. -
pelov The most intensive task my CPU does most of the time is gaming anyway. It'd be a good thing if the CPU can pitch in with it's dedicated cpu/gpu to the discrete GPU then you'd be seeing nice performance increases. There's already talk of this with the upcoming AMD processors.Reply
You could potentially have a 6850 x-fire solution and a llano/zacate CPU providing an even bigger performance boost. Just a matter of how well it works... took them quite a while to get x-fire right. can't imagine it'll be smooth-sailing right out of the box. -
agnickolov Well, the integrated GPU used to be in the chipset, now it's in the CPU. Nothing has changed for those that use discrete graphics. All this article is saying really is that the percentage of chipset-based graphics is going to practically disappear by 2014.Reply -
aftcomet rmmil978Really shouldn't surprise anyone, since a gCPU is all you'd ever need to play Farmville or Plants Vs. Zombies. I know that's a pretty typical spiteful PC gamer response, but heck, when you really think about it in another way, most gCPU's coming out this year are probably more powerful (graphics wise probably, processor wise definitely) than an Xbox 360 or PS3 (considering they are using 5 year old hardware), so games of console caliber should be able to be played reasonably well on a PC running a gCPU, which is just fine for most people. Sad, but true.Reply
Since when can integrated graphics play Crysis 2 on setting equal to consoles? -
iam2thecrowe can someone tell me how this is any different to integrated gfx on the motherboard? is it cheaper this way? faster? more power efficient? Because it seems like the exact same thing, just moved closer to the cpu.Reply -
IntelUser2000 Replycan someone tell me how this is any different to integrated gfx on the motherboard? is it cheaper this way? faster? more power efficient? Because it seems like the exact same thing, just moved closer to the cpu.
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All of the above. -
jsc This has been the trend since the early IBM PC days. The goal has been more and more integration.Reply -
What will be interesting to watch is how Intel handles the gpu refresh for its Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPU. AMD has a continually evolving library of OpenCL based gpu's to add to their future refreshes of Llano and Brazos. This makes Intel a gpu design house as well as a cpu design house. But without a portfolio.Reply
AMD simply makes this years star gpu into the APU.
Designing gpu's does not come cheap. AMD library is already paid for. That shold be a huge price advantage or margin advantage for AMD.