For years now, the graphics systems in computers have fallen into one of two categories. Budget systems typically use integrated graphics, where the GPU is part of the motherboard's chipset. Users wanting higher-quality video and gaming performance install dedicated graphics cards, which can be upgraded from time to time with new models without having to replace the whole motherboard. Intel and AMD have announced a new strategy for handling the low-end integrated graphics market, with plans to build the GPU into future CPU chips.

Intel plans on releasing its first CPU with this technology, which the companies involved are calling embedded graphics, late in 2009. AMD will follow suit another year or two down the road. As a result of these new products, analysts are predicting that by 2013, the market for integrated GPUs will be all but dried up in favor of embedded GPUs.

What does this mean for the consumer? We'll hear less and less about platforms like NVIDIA's Ion, pairing certain combinations of CPUs and integrated graphics. You'll also be tied-in to having the same company manufacture both your CPU and GPU, which sounds like it's going to limit consumer choice, but probably won't make that big a deal. Right now Intel's king of the integrated market anyway, so it would mostly just be changing how it makes and distributes its GPUs. This would also make all graphics upgradeable, as you could swap in a new CPU and GPU all at once, but that's also unlikely to make a big difference for anyone; if you wanted higher-performance graphics, you'd put in a dedicated graphics board, not upgrade the embedded system. It does offer a new upgrade avenue for laptop owners, though.

What we're really hoping for is that this change lets manufacturers build systems even cheaper, and pass the savings down to us. We should know for sure by this time next year.

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