After showing some impressive growth in Q3 2008, the GPU market came tumbling down in Q4, with sales dropping 35 percent quarter-to-quarter and 28 percent from a year ago. According to Jon Peddie Research, it is the first time since 2000 that the GPU market has plumbed cold depths in the final quarter of the year compared to the third quarter.

All graphics vendors were hit with reduced shipments - though some suffered more than others. Both Nvidia and Intel, for instance, increased shipments of notebook GPUs and gained some market share, while AMD's share shrunk to 17 percent. Meanwhile, on the desktop front, GPU shipments declined overall but AMD and Nvidia - with 21.4% and 37.9% respectively - still managed to snag a little market share from Intel during the quarter. Check out some more figures after the jump and the press release here.

Total graphics chip market shares for Q4 2008

Notebook graphics market share