Why hasn't a third vendor come in?

[Idontcare]

Why ? Not enough money in it.
Companies are in business to make money and right now in the graphics chip market that is in embedded devices not pc. In the embedded market there are over 20 graphics chip providers .

I think this is the truth and even reflected in Intel's decision to delay larrabee.

There is a difference, to Intel's decision makers at least and probably any other business leaders contemplating entering the discreet graphics market, between operating at basically break-even (and possibly small losses) with 20-40% gross margins versus being able to confidently project a viable product path for extracting 50-60% gross margins and 10-20% net profits consistently quarter after quarter.

It is simply not enough to look forward 3-4 yrs and conclude "yes we can build a competitive product at a pricepoint that will at best result in us breaking even". Heck it isn't even enough to conclude that you might see 10% net profit on the efforts.

If the projected ROI isn't high enough then the decision makers will cut-bait (projects are internally reviewed on quarterly basis, industry norm) and move to reallocate resources to projects viewed as having potential for higher, and just as important more sustainable, returns on their investment.

The guy operating out of his garage has very different revenue requirements versus the decision makers at a mature business like an Intel or an IBM. He might well be willing to have a business model that calls for operating in the red for a decade at the expense of the venture capitalist's checkbook.

 

[tommo123]

yeah, but isn't there a factor here of trying to enter that market and be a force in it, as it's starting to merge with your own core market?

GPGPU is gaining ground. if intel doesn't do anything, then as more time goes by, more and more can be done on the GPU and the CPU holds less importance.

i'm still picturing the day when my current (E6600/6GB ram) will be upgraded by simply dropping in a new GPU that can handle (with OS support of course) some of the workload. all GUI effects, (OS feels faster), more and more being offloaded for video work. When will the GPU show up in task manager as another processor?

Nvidia is pushing it as hard as they can and ATi is riding their coat tails. a few breakthroughs and they could find themselves in a very though spot. things can change very quickly. i mean, at one point intel was a startup faced with behemoth companies - that are now dead and gone. yahoo/alta vista, then google turned up etc etc.

the next 10 years will be interesting

--

edit

p.s, sorry for the ramblings. i just woke up and pretty much typed out each synapse firing off

 

[nenforcer]

Don't forget 3DLabs which was around and still making GPU's up until about 4-5 years ago!

 

[Puffnstuff]

With the current global economy being so tough I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for another gpu company to come on the scene.

 

[BFG10K]

The AA on the Parhelia was also amazing.

Actually FAA was rather poor given it only affected primary polygon edges. That and it had visual compatibility issues in a range of games.