Graphics card players have recently started turning their focuses to mid-range and high-end graphics cards as related demand from enthusiast gamers continues to rise despite the fact that overall PC sales are still weak, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Some channel retailers pointed out that overall demand in the PC DIY market has been dropping, but demand for high-end components such as CPUs, motherboards and graphics cards continues to rise, and because of their high gross margins, many players have turned to the market segment, looking to improve their profitability.
Among the graphics card players, Asustek Computer has performed rather well recently and the company's graphics card product line together with the motherboard business has become a stable profit foundation.
In China, Asustek is not able to surpass Colorful and Galaxy in terms of graphics card shipments because of a 17% value-added tax on memory, but still has advantages in the country's high-end graphics market.
Asustek is also the largest graphics card brand in Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
Asustek has also been pushing to have its Auto-Extreme automated production lines manufacture all its graphics cards in order to have stable high-quality graphics card shipments.
