Micro-Star International (MSI) will launch ATI-based graphics cards in April, ending its status of being an Nvidia-exclusive customer, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported today. MSI"s move is expected to kick off a new wave of competition between ATI Technologies and Nvidia, the paper said. MSI has been one of Nvidia"s major clients and it continues to market Nvidia-based products.
The rising demand for ATI-based graphics cards has spurred MSI to expand its product lines to include ATI cards, the paper said. MSI will showcase its first ATI-based cards at the 2004 CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany from March 18-24, according to the report. MSI"s shipments of graphics cards will increase sharply starting the second quarter after it begins volume shipments of ATI-based cards, it said. The company currently ships about 700,000 graphics cards per month.