The big picture: The GPU industry has been dominated by two major names for the better part of two decades but that could soon be changing. Intel, as you've likely heard, is working on its own discrete GPUs and now we're hearing of a fourth potential contender.

Jingjia Micro, short for Changsha Jingjia Microelectronics Co., Ltd, is a Chinese vendor that has reportedly started researching its next GPU. Known as the JM9271, the chip will allegedly be as fast as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1080.

As Tom's Hardware highlights, Jingjia Micro got its start in 2006 as a military-civilian integrated company specializing in electric component design and production. The firm is reportedly credited with building China's first domestic GPU, the JM5400, on a 65nm process. Successive chips were refined significantly and the company found additional success on the 28nm node.

Its most recent GPU, the JM7200, offers performance that is equivalent to a GeForce GT 640 but has a TDP of less than 10 watts versus the 50W used by Nvidia's chip.

The firm's next chips, the JM9231 and JM9271, are already in the works. The former is said to boast performance rivaling Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1050 while the latter will be closer to the GTX 1080 with a boost clock north of 1,800MHz, 16GB of HBM and support for PCIe 4.0.

They won't be as efficient as Nvidia's 16nm offerings, however, as they're still being built on the older 28nm process. TDPs are expected to be in the range of 150W and 200W, respectively, for the JM9231 and the JM9271.

Masthead credit: Video card by BokehStore. GPU by sdecoret.