AMD did a rather better job of selling graphics chips in Q4 2007 than it did in the previous quarter. But then so did its arch rival, Intel, market watcher Jon Peddie Research said last week.

According to JPR's latest figures, AMD took 22.8 per cent of GPU sales in Q4 2007, up 3.7 percentage points from 19.1 per cent in Q3. AMD's share of the market was just over half of what Intel achieved: 41.1 per cent, up from 38 per cent in Q3.

The two chip makers' gains came partly at Nvidia's expense - its market share fell from Q3's 33.9 per cent to Q4's 31.8 per cent, a fall of just 2.1 percentage points - but mostly from the remaining top-five vendors: VIA and SiS.

Fifth-placed SiS saw is share fall from 2.1 per cent to 1.9 per cent quarter on quarter, but VIA took the biggest hit, falling from a Q3 share of 6.63 per cent to just 2.3 per cent in Q4.

Nvidia's share dip marks a slight pause in an upward trajectory that saw it pass AMD in Q3 2006 and, a year later, come within striking range of Intel's lead. Indeed, in Q4, it pretty much matched Intel's share of desktop graphics, both firms taking around 37.1 per cent of the market.

Intel continued to dominate the mobile GPU arena, though AMD took second place, knocking Nvidia into the number-three slot, a space the latter hasn't occupied since Q1 2007.

The top-three vendors all saw their shipments rise quarter on quarter, but both VIA and SiS experienced a dip in shipments, JPR's numbers show.

The graphics market as a whole saw shipments rise 8.7 per cent to 106.37m units.