"You could have the screaming-est device ever made on Earth, but if your Wi-fi is weak because your GPU is too bulky or draws too much juice, then your performance is going to stink," Lao said.

Intel dominates the integrated GPU market, in part because it can attractively price its bundled CPU and GPU. Nvidia is starting to make some inroads into integrated graphics .

But it has made little headway with its because of Intel's twin strengths.

"Intel has bundled Ion out, so it's having trouble getting traction," said independent analyst Rob Enderle.

Intel is also challenging Nvidia on its home turf. Its integrated graphics chips can already support Blu-ray HD video. And Intel is for the add-on graphics market.