Fifyfive per cent of channel market remains AGP

THE UPGRADE market remains very strong. Just fancy that, journos are only talking about PCIe variations of motherboards and cards while over 55 per cent of the channel market is still AGP.

That's why Nvidia and ATI are working hard to bring their new AGP based cards out. ATI has X1300 PRO and X1600 PRO out while Nvidia has many SKUs including the very successful Geforce 6600 vanilla and GT and the soon to come 7800 GS AGP. I smell a 7300 AGP in the offing soon, as well.

System integrators and OEMs have completely moved to PCIe based cards only and that is why every new PC that you buy will have one of these cards. It is almost impossible to buy a new PC with AGP card inside.

AGP is still here to stay, as it took ages before we got rid of PCI cards, and you can still buy them in the stores. Nvidia and ATI stopped making their fastest cards for AGP as it does not make much financial sense. People who will spend $650 for a graphic card can upgrade a motherboard as well. Actually most of them did it ages ago. µ