SiliconBeat

This year’s global fall-off in shipments of graphics-oriented microchips is likely to be the worst ever tracked by Jon Peddie Research.

The Tiburon-based consulting firm estimates that graphic-chip shipments will drop 12 percent this year compared with 2008. That’s a nasty change, since shipments have seen double-digit increases every year since 2002, except for 2008 when they rose only about 6 percent.

Still, Peddie predicts a big turnaround next year, when graphic-chip shipments are expected to surge by nearly 22 percent.

“Taking together our data, interviews with suppliers and world economic forecast models, we believe the worst is over and Q3 will show recovery leading all the way through 2010, subject to seasonal adjustments,” it noted in a recent press release.

That should be good news for Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia, two Silicon Valley companies that specialize in graphic chips.