14 DAY TRIAL // Early last month, Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA announced an update of its GeForce graphics card lineup with the introduction of the much-anticipated GeForce G210 and GT 220, both of which were designed using the company's energy-efficient 40nm process technology. According to updated details available on the Internet, one of the two, namely the G210, is expected to become available in the retail channel sometime in October, as the yields of the 40nm process from TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) have improved.
According to a recent news-article on Digitimes, citing industry sources, the graphics chip maker is preparing to make these cards available in the retail channel in October, thanks to the improved yields with TSMC's 40nm process technology. These cards will provide users with a more energy-efficient GT200 graphics processing unit and will deliver features such as DDR2 and DDR3 memory, as well as support for Microsoft's latest DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1.
However, another piece of information is also interesting, as the chip maker is expected to announced new GPUs codenamed GT230 and GT300, which are due out in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Digitime's famous industry sources. There are no details available on these two cards, only speculations based on previously reported rumors, which make the two part of the chip maker's next-generation GPUs.
NVIDIA has also reportedly updated the naming scheme for its line of GeForce graphics. According to the aforementioned sources, the chip maker has decided to ditch the GTX, GT and G marks from the cards' names and is now planning on using only the GeForce brand and a number that will follow. Basically, what this means is that NIVIDIA is expected to launch new GeForce 1x0, 2x0 and 3x0 series of GPUs.
As far as the competition is concerned, Sunnyvale, California-based AMD is also preparing the launch of its next-generation 40nm GPUs, codenamed RV870. These new parts are expected to become available next month, at the earliest.