Gigabyte Technology told some of its partners from the Russian Federation it would gradually decrease the share of Powered by ATI graphics cards in its product family. The company will from now concentrate on NVIDIA-based solutions, according to the sources close to the company.

Gigabyte Technology was among the first firms to start producing more lucrative Powered by ATI RADEON solutions in early 2002 after switching from NVIDIA-based GeForce3 graphics cards. It looks like now the company is going to rearrange its work with graphics chips partners once again and concentrate on products from Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA Corporation. Even though the company has not said it would stop producing graphics cards using graphics processors from ATI Technologies, it has indicated a clear plan to concentrate on NVIDIA-based offerings, therefore, it may mean that the share of Powered by ATI products among all graphics solutions made by Gigabyte Technology will be considerably less than 50%

It worth to note that the Russian Federation is among the strongest market for NVIDIA – the company has a sounding market share there and is very consistent about its investments to further promote the GeForce brand. It would be logical for Gigabyte Technology to offer more products better accepted by the market.

Some sources close to Gigabyte Technology in Europe said the company is not going to loose any focus on Powered by ATI products.

Currently Powered by ATI graphics cards are produced by the majority of tier-one mainboard makers – ASUS, Gigabyte and ECS. MSI is making Powered by ATI solutions for some of its partners, such as Medion, and may also consider own-branded solutions with RADEON graphics processor. As a result, it may be logical for Gigabyte to withdraw from competition with other tier-one companies.

It is generally believed that strategy involving a number of graphics processors developers helps computer components manufacturers to better control the costs of their products and deliver solutions accepted by a broader market. This year a great number of companies decided to build graphics cards based on VPUs and GPUs from both ATI Technologies and NVIDIA. The list includes ASUSTeK Computer, Creative Technology, Gigabyte Technology, Diamond Multimedia, MSI, SUMA and a number of others.

A Gigabyte Technology spokesperson had not returned a call for comments and elaborations on the company's graphics plans by press time.