"lessened the need for CPUs" - bollocks
When I look at the latest Steam Hardware Survey data (http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey), I see three things that fly in the face of these words :
1) Quad-CPU adoption has increased by 13.3% over the last 18 months
2) Multi-core CPUs now account for over three-quarters of the survey base
3) Multi-GPU systems still account for less than 2% of the survey base
The way I read this situation is that GPUs have had next to no impact on multi-core CPU progression. I wonder why ? Could it be because GPU drivers have long been less efficient on SLI configurations than on single-card configs ? Could it be because a host of problems often plague SLI configurations while single-GPU boxes just game on ? Could physics end up having only an incidental effect on gaming ? Finally, could it simply be the prohibitive price of multi-GPU setups ?
As a side note, about physics : has anyone else noticed that the most visible use of the tech is to add a plethora of additional particles to explosions ? Is there anyone else that finds such stupid use of that tech as annoying as I do ?
Mr. Huang, you are already practically guaranteed one sale per PC. Just because you want to have two more sales per PC doesn't mean you deserve it. You say "great graphics have become one of the most important features for consumer PCs", and I totally agree with that. Unfortunately for all of us, great graphics is not just buying a good graphics card. Anyone that has followed the hardware benchmarking trials for a while knows very well that a PC is the sum of its parts. A good GPU is useless on a system with a slow CPU, feeble bus speeds, or little memory. Good graphics require a powerful GPU, a powerful (and nowadays multi-core) CPU, high data transfer rates across the board, lots of fast RAM and hard disks that don't get caught on their coffee break every other minute.
In other words, the Steam survey says exactly the contrary of what you claim : gamers are upgrading their CPUs in order to follow your graphics cards' needs, not to smother them.
To wrap this comment up, I would just like to add one more thing. The action the industry needs, Mr. Huang, is for you to pull out your finger and start doing serious progress in GPU technology instead of renaming last years' cards with a fancy new scheme and reselling your existing stock.
Make something new and wonderful for a change, I can guarantee you it will sell. And Intel won't be able to do anything about it.