Graphics chip manufacturers had a particularly successful third quarter, according to Jon Peddie Research, with shipments up almost 20 percent sequentially and 18 percent year-over-year as retailers and OEMs prepare for the holiday season.

Total shipments for the quarter were 97.85 million units. Overall, Intel held its lead with 37.2 million units shipped and claiming a 38 percent market share, down 3.8 points from Q3 2006.

On the desktop, Nvidia held its leading position with a 37.8 percent share against Intel’s 33.5 percent, while AMD suffered a slight loss to 17.5 percent. In the mobile market Intel remained on top but slipped slightly to 50.9 per cent. Moreover, AMD took back the number two position for mobile chips at 23.4 percent and Nvidia came in third with 22.8 percent.

While traditionally the third quarter has good growth for the computer industry, this year had the biggest jump on quarter for the last six years. The researcher attributed the market’s strong performance to increased demand by consumers for multimedia-rich systems and, to a certain extent, to demands of Vista.