Modern information technology / 1. Computer Engineering.

Bilokonna K.V., Romanyuk S.A., Sivets O.A.

Vinnitsa National Technical University, Ukraine

Market of video cards

Video card performed the function of the frame buffer at the initial stage of development of the PC. The image was formed by the CPU and computer software, and the card was only responsible for its storage (in buffer memory) and the output at a certain frequency of individual frames to the monitor. PC CPU that is a general purpose processor, unable to effectively address the specific task of forming a three-dimensional image. Understanding this fact has come with increasing demands for quality and realism of the generated image, as well as to the speed of rendering individual frames. For these purposes a dedicated graphics processor (GPU), which would deal exclusively with the calculation of the three-dimensional image. Actually, modern graphics processors complexity are not inferior to the central processor (general purpose), and the difference lies only in their specialization, so that they can more effectively cope with the task of forming an image on the display monitor [1].

As the central, graphics processors are characterized by parameters such as micro-architecture, the clock speed of the work of GPU`s core and manufacturing process. Graphics processors have specific characteristics which are usually given in the technical documentation. For example, the most important characteristics of the graphics processor are the number of vertex (Vertex Pipelines) and pixel (Pixel Pipelines) conveyors.

Overall, the market of graphics processors has reached 479.17 million shares in 2012. Among them: the first quarter shipped about 123 million of discrete and integrated graphics chip, in the second quarter the market was 126 million units, in the third quarter shipments reached 120 million units and in the fourth quarter shipped 110.17 million GPU.

Intel became a leader [2] in the first quarter and released 72.7 million units, the second place was taken by AMD with the implementation of 31 million graphics processors, and NVIDIA closes the top three in the first quarter – 18.57 million shares.

Three leaders retained their positions in the second quarter. Compared with the first quarter of 2012, Intel increased its market share in the second quarter to 78.12 million units [3] and has remained the undisputed leader, AMD has reduced the level of supply to 28.6 million, and NVIDIA sold 18.65 million graphics chips.

Intel is the largest provider at the expense of integrated graphics in the third quarter, as it for the three months shipped 71.75 million processors with integrated graphics core. AMD`s company is in the second place [4]. It was able to issue 25.43 million graphics solutions for PC. NVIDIA is managed to ship 22.25 million GPUs.

Shipments of Intel`s company fell to 69.67 million in the fourth quarter, AMD`s company – to the 21.97 million, and NVIDIA – to the 18.53 million GPU.

The graph below shows an implementation of GPU by leading companies for the quarters of 2012 (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Implementation of GPU by leading companies

Shipments of graphics processors decreased to 106.21 million units in the first quarter of 2013 [5].

Intel has continued to dominate in the market for graphics processors for desktop and notebook PCs with the volume of supply 65.64 million units. Second place is still occupied by AMD`s company – 21.45 million GPU. In the top three is NVIDIA`s company, which sold 19.1 million units.

Figure 2 shows a diagram of the realizing by leading companies graphic processors for the first quarter of 2013.

Figure 2 - Implementation of the GPU by leading companies

NVIDIA company released the fastest graphics processor for laptop in 2012 – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M. This chip is launching a new wave of mobile processors based on the architecture of the last generation of Kepler, on the basis of which is already available desktop solutions. GeForce GTX 680M is the most productive chip ever made by processors for laptops. GeForce GTX 680M supports technology Optimus, PhysX, SLI, CUDA, and others, as well as new technology Adaptive V-sync, which provides improved smoothness in games [6].

One of the most powerful and most expensive cards in 2013 is the GeForce GTX Titan. The price of this video card exceeds $ 1,000. It is the latest flagship single-processor for 3D-visualization of gaming [7]. GeForce GTX Titan is working on a chip NVIDIA GK110, contains 7.1 billion transistors and initially developed for supercomputers. GPU 2688 provides streaming processor 224 texture module 48 and modules rasterization, and 384-bit bus. GPU Clock is 837 MHz with Boost-overclocked to 876 MHz, which became the result of a large number of transistors. The video card is equipped with 6 GB of memory GDDR5-6 GHz. As the efficiency of cooling GPU a GeForce GTX graphics card uses an advanced centrifugal fan that blows the hot air out of the rear of the device. In the GTX Titan offers 64 stream processors on a single SMX or a ratio of 1/3 which offers a significant increase in computing speed double precision. The system can be set up to three graphics cards with the technology of Titan 3-way SLI [8].

The analysis showed that the market of graphic cards is essential. Although there has been a consistent trend of reducing the market of discrete graphics cards and has been trend of increasing the market of mobile video cards. Also the analysis showed that Intel, AMD and NVIDIA are leading companies for the supply of video cards. They throughout 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 retain their positions.

References:

1. The magazine "ComputerPress." A revolution in the world of graphics
processors. – [Electronic resource]. Mode of access:

http://www.compress.ru/article.aspx?id=16963&iid=786

2. GPU market: AMD and NVIDIA are losing ground, Intel – strengthens
leadership. – [Electronic resource]. Mode of access:
http://www.easycom.com.ua/news/rynok_graficheskih_protsessorov__amd_i_nvidia_teryayut_pozitsii_intel___ukreplyaet_liderstvo/?lang=ru

3. GPU market is shrinking. – [Electronic resource]. Mode of access: http://compulenta.computerra.ru/tehnika/computers/10004795/

4. In JPR summed up the third quarter on the market of graphics solutions for PC. – [Electronic resource]. Mode of access: http://www.ixbt.com/news/hard/index.shtml?16/32/78

5. Hi-TechNews. – [Electronic resource]. Mode of access:

http://hi-news.ru/business-analitics/rynok-graficheskix-reshenij-sokrashhaetsya-vsled-za-rynkom-pk.html

6. Graphics market. – [Electronic resource]. Mode of access:
http://www.ixbt.com/news/hard/index.shtml?16/83/72

7. The best and most powerful cards in 2013. – [Electronic resource]. Mode of access: http://top10x.ru/top-10-luchshie-i-samyie-moshhnyie-videokartyi-2013/

8. Sales GeForce GTX Titan. – [Electronic resource]. Mode of access:
http://www.xard.ru/post/23767/?print=true