NVIDIA will not be going ahead with its controversial GTS 240 rebrand of the GeForce 9800 GT graphics card, according to a confidential email that DailyTech has seen. The GPU firm has been under pressure from frustrated GPU board partners.
Instead, NVIDIA is telling its customers to focus on three cards using the 9800 GT name. Besides the standard version, there is a reduced power version of the 9800 GT and the 9800 GT OC version.
The original 65nm 9800 GT used the same original G92 chip as the 8800 GT and had the exact same specifications. A 55nm die shrink resulted in a G92b chip, which NVIDIA used as well in the 9800 GTX+ -- this has also come under controversy for being rebranded as the GTX 280M despite not using a GT200 chip.
The 9800 GTX+ has also been rebranded as the GTS 250 in a last ditch effort to compete with the ATI Radeon 4850. The graphics division of AMD has been leveraging its very high yields and small die sizes of its GPUs to lower its prices very aggressively. This has forced NVIDIA to follow suit, dramatically cutting its revenues and profits.
The mainstream sales problem for NVIDIA will get worse very soon, as ATI prepares to introduce GPUs for desktop computers built on the 40nm process. These chips will be smaller and cheaper to produce, and are expected to bring new levels of performance at its projected price point of $99 USD.
The low power 9800 GT also targets this price point, with NVIDIA's reference card design consuming 75W.
The existence of the 9800 GT OC is a bit of a mystery, however. Its specifications are similar to the old GeForce 9800 GTX, but it will be a niche product that will end up competing against itself in the form of the 9800 GTX+/GTS 250.
Source: DailyTech
