The 128-bit GeForce 8400GS Makes Waves

Nvidia is known for the fact that it seldom changes its roadmap and plans regarding the release of a graphics chip or an entire motherboard chipset. It looks as if right now this is one of those exceptions as the graphics manufacturing company launched a new entry level, or maybe middle level graphics card aimed at the Chinese market.

The GeForce 8400GS is nowhere to be found on any official Nvidia roadmap and here it is, I mean there it is in China, according to the news site DigiTimes which cited several graphics cards manufacturers and vendors. The official Nvidia roadmap presents a GeForce 8400GS graphics chips with a 64-bit wide video memory interface intended to be sold as an entry level card. The difference between the two models is at the first sight the wideness of the memory bus, which in the case of the new 8400GS reaches 128 bits.

As the 128-bit version GeForce 8400GS graphics chip is very similar to another higher level chip, the GeForce 8500GT, both cores being packed using the same G3-128 die, it is widely believed and speculated that the 8400GSes are in fact 8500GTs. It is customary in the computer hardware business to relabel parts that failed one or more quality tests but that can still be used as lower end products and sell them this way in order to clear stock and recover the costs of production, at the very least. The process called "downgrading" is widely used from processors to system memory and graphics cards.

On the surface, the main difference between the 8400GS and the 8500GT graphics chips is the lower working frequency of the 8400GS chip suggesting a more unstable component. Another notable difference between the two graphics chips is that the original 8500GT chips come in the G3-64 package. If the two chips are derived from the same basic chip is hard to say with certainty as the manufacturing company, Nvidia, refused all comments.