During the 1980s and 1990s a relatively large number of companies appeared selling primarily 2D graphics cards and later 3D. Most of those companies have subsequently disappeared, as the increasing complexity of GPUs substantially increased research and development costs. Many of these companies subsequently went bankrupt or were bought out. Intel and VIA Technologies remain as producers of primarily integrated solutions, while Matrox targets niche markets. Amongst the notable discrete graphics card vendors, ATI Technologies â€" acquired by AMD in 2006 and since renamed to AMD â€" and NVIDIA are the only ones that have lasted.
Defunct graphics chip makers
These companies designed graphics chips and cards.
- 3Dfx - assets were acquired by NVIDIA during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy
- 3Dlabs - merged with Creative Labs' personal entertainment division to form ZiiLABS
- Advance Logic Research â€" acquired by Gateway Computers
- Ark Logic
- ArtX - acquired by ATI Technologies
- ATI Technologies - merged into and renamed AMD
- Avance Logic - acquired by Realtek
- BitBoys - acquired by ATI Technologies
- Chips and Technologies - acquired by Intel
- Chromatic Research - acquired by ATI Technologies
- Gemini Technology - went bankrupt, acquired by Seiko Epson to form the Vancouver Design Center
- GigaPixel - acquired by 3Dfx
- Headland Technologies - division of LSI Logic's Standard Products Group in late 1990s, assets sold to SPEA
- IXMICRO - produced video cards for Macintosh and Macintosh clones
- MOS Technology - produced the VIC and TED line of graphics chips, owned by Commodore International
- Number Nine Visual Technology (originally named Number Nine Computer Corp.) - pioneer in the graphics industry, developed 1st 128-bit graphics processor; acquired by S3
- Oak Technology - acquired by Zoran Corporation
- OPTi Inc. - no longer makes graphics chips
- Paradise Systems - acquired by Western Digital, later sold off to Philips
- Primus Technology
- Radius - made graphics solutions for Apple, out of business mid-1990s
- Raycer - acquired by Apple Computer
- Real3D - acquired by Intel
- Rendition - acquired by Micron Technology
- Silicon Graphics Incorporated (SGI) - quit developing 3D graphics in-house in the early 2000s and bought GPUs from other companies; later went completely out of business in 2009; its assets were bought in the resulting Chapter 11 bankruptcy by Rackable Systems, which changed its name to Silicon Graphics International
- Tseng Labs - sold its video chip assets to ATI Technologies in 1997
- Video 7 - merged with G2 to form Headland Technologies
- Weitek Corporation - maker of Power9000 brand of GPUs circa 1991-1994, bankrupt 1995
- Western Digital Imaging - combined efforts of Paradise Systems and Faraday Computing, bought by Western Digital and allowed to go out of business
Defunct graphics card makers
- Appian Graphics - acquired by ATI Technologies
- Artist Graphics - acquired by ATI Technologies
- BFG Technologies - undergoing liquidation
- Boca Research - acquired by Zoom Telephonics
- Cardinal Technologies - bankrupt
- Genoa Systems - bankrupt
- Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. - acquired by ELSA Technology, Inc., then by Guillemot Corporation
- Media Vision - bankrupt
- Nth Graphics - bankrupt
- Orchid Technology - acquired by Micronics Computers, then by Diamond Multimedia
- Paradise Systems - acquired by Western Digital, then by Philips, then de-emphasized
- SPEA AG - German vendor in late 1990s, no longer in business
- STB Systems - acquired by 3dfx Interactive in 1999
- Vermont Microsystems, Incorporated (VMI)
Other
The following companies are still in operation, but no longer design PC graphics chips:
- Acer Laboratories Incorporated - focusing on design and manufacturing of integrated circuits for the personal computer and embedded systems
- Cirrus Logic - sold its video chip assets
- Hercules - no longer manufactures graphics cards
- IIT Corp - reverted to a video-conferencing solutions company, and then later a VOIP service provider
- PowerVR - focusing on mobile graphics technologies
- Realtek - no longer makes graphics chips
- Silicon Integrated Systems (SIS) - sold its video chip assets to XGI
- Texas Instruments - withdrew from the computer market
- Trident Microsystems - sold its video chip assets to XGI
- UMC - became a custom-only fab and discontinued all of its standard products in the late 1990s
- XGI - focusing on embedded and mobile applications
