ASUSTeK Computer reportedly said Tuesday it targeted to ship 10 ?12 million graphics cards the following year, up about 32% - 62% from calendar 2004. The move may put ASUS on the first spot among makers of graphics cards and means increasing competition between manufacturers. The decision may also outline standalone graphics cards market growth.

ASUSTeK's Computer's goal of shipping 10 ?12 million graphics cards in 2005, up from the 7.4 ?7.5 million units estimated for this year, will mean more competition for OEM and clone orders among Taiwan graphics-card makers in the coming year, DigiTimes reports.

Rivals of ASUS are also reportedly planning to increase graphics cards shipments in 2005, but at this point it is unclear, how much exactly. MSI, according to reports, plans to increase shipments only by 5.3% - 5.7%, which may mean 8 million graphics cards in 2005. Foxconn affiliates Tul Corp. and Leadtek Research also plan to increase output; in case they manage to hold the current pace of growth and their shipments are up about 50% year-over-year, they may supply about 9 million graphics cards, up from 6 million units in 2004. Gigabyte Group (Gigabyte and GeCube) also plans to expand its presence on the graphics market: with the current shipments growth pace of about 60%, their 2005 output may be as high as 6.4 million units.

* estimation based on recent growth rate.

MSI's main customer for graphics cards has been Dell Inc. for a while. Other leading graphics cards makers, such as Gigabyte, Leadtek and Tul Corp., are also going to pay attention to securing more OEM and SI orders.

Analysts expect consumers and businesses to continue replacing their older machines with newer computers in 2005. This may mean demand growth for computer components. However, this year's unprecedented demand for graphics cards has been driven by emergence of new games, such as Doom III, FarCry and Half-Life 2. Next year the world is unlikely to get a plethora of blockbuster titles awaited for years, however, due to natural shift of game developers to shaders, future games are likely to boast with innovative graphics quality, which may continue to drive demand for newer graphics cards.

ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte Group produce graphics cards powered by VPUs from ATI Technologies and NVIDIA Corp.. Leadtek Research and Tul Corp. make NVIDIA- and ATI-based graphics cards respectively.

Official representatives from the mentioned companies did not comment on the story.