Posted on Saturday, September 24 2005 @ 12:43 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Graphics card makers
believe Microsoft's next-generation OS, Windows Vista, will help them to increase profits due rising demand for high-end graphics cards. They claim demand for higher-end cards will increase because Windows Vista requires higher standard graphics cards.
For example, the average gross profit margin for Nvidia GeForce 7800-based graphics cards is about 10%, whereas cards based on the GeForce 6600/6800 for the middle-range segment brings gross margins of 3-6%. Entry-level products, based on the GeForce 6200 or below, provide about 3% in gross profit margins.
According to the graphics cards vendors Windows Vista will need a GPU with 256MB memory or more. They further added some of NVIDIA's high-end graphics cores, including the GeForce 6000/7000 series now support Windows Vista and middle-range graphics cards can be upgraded through drivers.
