NVIDIA Gives Up on the GTS 240

Over the past few weeks, there have been a series of reports indicating that Santa Clara, California-based graphics chip maker NVIDIA was considering releasing a new GeForce graphics card for the entry-level and mainstream market segment. Dubbed the GeForce GTS 240, the card was said to be a rebranded version of the company's already available GeForce 9800 GT, also a rebrand of the older 8800 GT, which was powered by a 65nm-based G92 GPU. However, according to the latest reports, NVIDIA has reconsidered its plans and is now telling its partners to focus on three cards with the 9800 GT name.

 

According to a document seen by the fellows over at Daily Tech, the green company has been put under pressure by many of its partners, which led to the chip maker changing its strategy. Therefore, there's a good chance that the much rumored GTS 250 won't even make it to the market, leaving users looking for an NVIDIA mainstream-performance graphics card with three versions of the GeForce 9800 GT – the standard model, a reduced power version and a GeForce 9800GT OC one – each providing a slightly different performance level.

 

Over the past years, NVIDIA has been known for releasing new graphics cards that were basically rebranded versions of its older products. The GeForce 9800GTX+ and 9800 GT are the best examples. In fact, the recently introduced GeForce GTS 250 is, spec-wise, on par with the GeForce 9800GTX+, with only a slight difference that enables the GTS 250 with 1GB of graphics memory. Aside from that, on a first look, an inexperienced user would believe that these two cards are significantly different, especially since one is part of the new series and the other is part of NVIDIA's previous GeForce 9-series.

 

In related news, it appears that the chip manufacturer has just reduced the pricing on two of its latest cards, namely the GTS 250 and the GTX 260. This helps the company better position its products in the mainstream market, offering the GTS 250 for gamers on a budget and the GTX 260 for those looking for extra performance but not willing to pay extra on a high-end GTX 280 or GTX 285.