The just concluded quarter ending June 2010 has seen some remarkable numbers from various companies, including Microsoft and Apple. What is perhaps the most interesting turnaround though, is AMD ATI finally edging ahead of Nvidia in terms of discrete GPU shipments. Many unbiased gamers and even Nvidia fanatics have experienced problems with the green giant in recent times, forcing them to switch over to ATI until Nvidia finally decided to do something about it. Do it they did, with the release of the much awaited and first DX11 GPU from Nvidia, based on the Fermi architecture. But having had their place firmly planted in gamers’ hearts for more than a year now, as well as the good 6 month lead in launching DX11 GPUs, ATI has managed to get a 51% share of the discrete GPU market, according to Mercury Research.
What is perhaps the most revealing fact, is Apple’s choice to put ATI Radeon GPUs in its iMac and Mac Pro lineups. While the iMac is not especially known for its graphics, the Mac Pro lineup has been one of the chief render farm machines for years now, and it really shows how well ATI is doing (or how much Nvidia is pissing people off) when Apple chooses them to power their workstation graphics. To get a good idea of how ATI’s market share has grown, last years figures for the same period were 41% for ATI, and 59% for Nvidia.