Custom Systems Best Sellers: Video Cards

PNY Electronics, Parsippany, N.J., experienced the largest overall dollar volume share in the category, racking up the second-highest growth during the period. (Inverness, Ill.-based Visiontek, which had the highest growth in dollar volume share in NPD's Distributor Track study, didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.) Nick Mauro, senior marketing manager at PNY, attributes the positive results to the vendor's close relationship with Nvidia. The vendor doesn't market its own products, but instead enlists the aid of partners such as PNY to handle the task.

"We launch new technology at the same time as Nvidia announces it. And we overclock and add our own tweaks to cards to keep them fresh and provide benefits to consumers who may not know how to overclock," said Mauro.

PNY works "very aggressively" with distributors, both internally as well as through Nvidia, and puts together monthly specials and promotions based on particular products that are seeing strong market demand, according to Mauro. "It's really just being on top of our core product line and being aware of seasonality and what distributors need," he said.

Andrew Kretzer, director of sales and marketing at Bold Data Technology, Fremont, Calif., says Nvidia's Quadro cards are quickly gaining popularity in the high performance computing market. "Nvidia Quadro cards are fantastic: That's the card that most of our North American workstation customers are primarily asking for and PNY is the only one that sells it in the channel," said Kretzer.

Quadros use professional-class GPUs and are certified to run high performance applications including CAD, 3-D design and visual effects, added Kretzer.