Taiwan-based Palit Microsystems and Hong Kong-based PC Partner have surpassed Asustek Computer to rank first and second in terms of global retail market share for graphics cards, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

Palit has extended its graphics card business from ODM production to own-brand sales through mergers and acquisitions of other brands and focuses on Nvidia platforms, the sources noted, adding that Palit currently sells graphics cards under its several brands including Palit, Galaxy, Yuan, Gainward, Vvikoo, XpertVision and Daytona.

PC Partner markets graphics cards based on AMD platforms under its brand Sapphire and models based on Nvidia GPUs under Zotac, the sources indicated.

Asustek used to be the largest or second largest vendor of graphics cards, but has become the third largest, followed by Micro-Star International (MSI) and Gigabyte Technology, the sources noted.

In China's graphics card retail market particularly, Asustek, MSI, Gigabyte and TUL (PowerColor) are less competitive in price due to a high customs duties, the sources said. While China-based Colorful Technology and Development has the largest retail market share for graphics cards, Asustek only ranks fifth or sixth, the sources noted.

Due to increasing adoption of integrated graphics chips in CPUs, and decreasing demand for PCs, global demand for graphics cards is on the decline, the sources indicated.