The Valve survey is great if you want to know what the installed base is, but neither AMD or Nvidia really care about that. They want to know what was sold this past quarter (what will be sold next quarter would be extremely valuable info to have as well, but is a bit harder to know =).

BTW, if you used the Valve survey as definitive data you would think that the majority of gamers use an Ati 9600 or the like which is just not true.

I really think the Valve Hardware Survey is a more appropriate bellweather for whom has *true* market share, since that's amongst gamers.

Did Intel have 46.4% in Q3 2007 (instead of 36.4%)?

With the 4670 and 4830 just recently launching, AMD might have an even better 4th quarter. Nvidia could still pull something out of its hat I suppose, but right now it's fighting AMD's current gen products with its last gen products. If it managed to put out a GTX 240 and GTX 220 in the 4th quarter, that would be interesting, but I have heard mention of no such products. Nvidia's strategy of the old G9x chips to fight the new ATI hotness is not looking very wise. How much more can be shaved off the prices of those products, while the HD4 cards have just hit the market and can likely be adjusted downward in price quite comfortable if necessary. And the GT200 based products are already selling for about as low as they can comfortably go without a die shrink, no? And how complex / expensive are the PCBs for those?

the results don't give any credit to the dramatic shift in GPU prices downward which likely had more to do with the huge amount of year on year growth than anything else.

additionally with the prices dropping into the sub $300 range while still being a significant purchase I believe the new pricing moves most graphics cards out of the "big ticket items" to be bought or sold.

as in it's the "big ticket items" that aren't selling now that the economy has tanked while an add in graphics board is a notable purchase it's an easy one too justify as it's only done every few years like 3 or more so while yes the gpu will cost somewhere around $300 it's not a huge purchase and will likely be around for a while to come.

also I thought AMD would gain more marketshare compared to Nvidia this go around but I guess it will depend on the next quarter as well to reflect that shift.

.

This is a report about market share from the 3 graphics companies. Sure if you ask gamers you'll get a pretty different picture, but for an overall view of the market this is the best survey. nvidia sold more units last quater, but AMD gained on them, meanwhile overall shipments were up.

A video card is an important part of any "staycation". Less travel, more time playing games.

AMD gains 0.1% marketshare.
Intel gains 16%.

While Nvidia sagged, Via collapsed.

Via 3Q07 7.3%
Via 3Q08 0.9%

Intel snapped up nearly all of the drops in Nvidia, Via, and SiS marketshares.