14 DAY TRIAL // Now that ATI's monopoly on the DirectX 11 graphics market is broken, the next logical step for NVIDIA is to quickly bring out a more affordable adapter based on the Fermi architecture. Even with all the chip shortages at TSMC, AMD still managed to sell mainstream and entry-level cards for a few months. In fact, it could be said that these segments still belong to AMD, considering that NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 470 and 480 are enthusiast-grade components.
Rumors and unconfirmed reports have, thus far, been the only source of information on the Santa Clara GPU maker's future plans. The most recent of them, uncovered by the folks over at Fudzilla, claims to have discovered when and where NVIDIA's next card will surface and how much cash it will ask users to give up.
The rumor says that the card will be dubbed GeForce GTX 460 and will make an appearance in June, or at Computex. Its existence was revealed some time ago, along with part of its specifications, which seem to hint at a high likelihood of it being able to “defeat ATI’s mainstream / performance offer.”
The adapter will obviously be based on the DirectX 11-capable Fermi architecture. However, unlike what previous reports seemed to suggest, this particular model won't use the GF104 or GF108. It remains to be seen whether the company manages to complete this device on time or if further chip shortages will cause this product to be delayed as well.
The last vital bit of information that the report provides is the price range. The GTX 460 will supposedly cost between $279 and $299, which is in the same range as the price for the ATI Radeon HD 5850. This means that the newcomer will have to be better than this device if it is to thrive or, at least, survive on today's market.