GPU sales up for Q1

With all the depressing news about the sagging economy out there, any bit of positive news is all too welcome. Take the GPU sector in the PC industry, for example (a leading indicator of how things are going): sales for the first quarter of 2009 are in from Jon Peddie Research, and they show a 3.3 percent increase from Q4 2008 -- a good sign, indeed.

Furthering the optimism this recession thing could be on its way out the door, Intel's CEO Paul Otellini stated in his quarterly conference call with analysts “the worst is behind us.”

Intel rose 2 percent from the previous quarter in its share, up from 47.7, with NVIDIA up 0.5 percent from 30.6. Things weren't so fortunate for AMD, who dropped 2.2 percent to 17.1.

Year over year, things still look quite poor, but the research firm predicts things will be back to normal come Q3, with sales to hit "2008 levels" in 2010.

Microsoft's own numbers took a rather huge hit as well, but its upcoming Windows 7 (said to come anytime between July and Q1 2010) is expected to boost sales all around, as new operating systems do, particularly the good ones.