14 DAY TRIAL // Although NVIDIA has lost the competitive edge over AMD's graphics subsidiary, ATI, the green company is certainly not going to sit back with arms crossed, and watch how its competitor gains more market share. It is generally believed that NVIDIA will roll out a new graphics solution by the end of the year, which is likely to become a better competitor for ATI's latest dual-GPU Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card. In addition, the company is expected to regain at least some of its former glory with the release of a next-generation graphics card in Q1 2009.
At this point in time, there are but few details to go on for either of NVIDIA's upcoming graphics chips, so no one can pinpoint the exact methods by which the Santa Clara-based chip maker is planning to regain some of the market it has lost to competitor ATI. However, recent rumors indicate that the company is working on a 55nm-based GTX 260 graphics card designed to improve performance of its current GTX 260 chip, which is based on the 65nm process technology. The upcoming 55nm-enabled GTX 260 card is expected to arrive during the second half of Q4, and will ultimately replace NVIDIA's 65nm product.
Sadly, as is the case with any unconfirmed product, technical and pricing details about the company's upcoming graphics card are currently unavailable.
In addition to the new GTX 260 graphics card, codenamed GT206, NVIDIA is likely to add to its GeForce lineup a new 40nm-based GT212 GPU. The new graphics processor is expected to power the company's upcoming high-end graphics cards, which will hopefully be released in early Q1 2009, as NVIDIA estimates.
The new cards will bring improved performance, and will eventually replace NVIDIA's current flagship models, the GTX 280 and GTX 260 cards. Despite the fact that, currently, there are no details available on the new cards' tech specs and pricing, as we approach the rumored release date, further info should emerge, so keep an eye on this space.