Nvidia sticks new names on old cards, hopes no one will notice

[mobilenvidia]

From our not always not so reliable but always thought provoking The Inquirer

Nvidia sticks new names on old cards, hopes no one will notice

Re-named and shamed

By Sylvie Barak: Friday, 03 October 2008, 5:53 PM

AS IF ITS OLD naming scheme wasn?t complex enough, Nvidia has gone and done it again, hoping that by adding a few more Gs 'n' T and Ss into the mix, it can make its old cards seem more appealing.

Rumours of the Nvidia name shuffle have been floating around for a while now, but today a VR-Zone forum thread established that a file in the Forceware 178.15 beta graphics drivers did indeed have details about the changes.

Apparently, the Nvidia_G92.DEV_0615.1 is to become Nvidia Geforce GTS 150, whilst Nvidia_G94.DEV_0626.1 becomes Nvidia Geforce GT 130 and Nvidia_G96.DEV_0646.1 magically transforms into Nvidia Geforce GT 120.

The re-branding will reportedly apply to all 55nm GeForce 9-series cards although it remains unclear whether current cards will also get the peel-off-old-and-stick-on-new-name sticker treatment.

So, to follow what appears to be Nvidia?s bizarrely-complicated and irrelevant re-naming process, the Geforce GTS 150 is a die-shrunk Geforce 9800 GTX+ which is a faster Geforce 9800 GTX which is a faster 8800 GTS 512.

Similarly, a Geforce GT(S) 1xx is a die-shrunk Geforce 9800 GT which is just a Geforce 8800 GT with Hybridpower.

Lost yet? Wait, there?s more.

Apparently the Geforce 9600 GSO is a renamed GeForce 8800 GS, the Geforce GT 130 is a die-shrunk Geforce 9600 GT and the Geforce GT 120 is a die-shrunk Geforce 9500 GT. Feeling green with nausea?

It is also important to bear in mind that the 9800GTX+ is 55nm, so it really is ONLY getting a name change. Also, despite the fact that most 9800GTXs are 65nm, there are also 55nm 9800GTXs, so they?re also only getting rebranded.

The INQ asked Nvidia if it cared to comment as to why it had to renamed the cards. We suggested it sounded like a case of flogging old lamps as new.

In trying to shift a whole load of parts sloshing about the channel due to them no longer being competitive, re-labelling them seemed lthe easiest way to go about things, apparently.

We politely waited all day for a response which we didn?t receive.

If Nvidia thinks it can change a few names and hoodwink card-buyers into buying cards with neither boosted performance or lower prices, the firm, obviously, still has much to learn about the name of the game. µ

I've noticed more and more of late, renaming of GPU's, not sure why there even needs to be so many models with the same device number

GS, GSO, GT, GTS, GTX, GTX+ .... and then for each model as well.

I don't think it's doing the end user any good flooding us with confusion.

[Guest Alex]

There was some old business saying that if the people are not buying the product you should change its name. :)

[mobilenvidia]

That makes sense but when you have so many products that are so similar.

Why not concentrate on a few products and do them well ?

[Exiyn]

To be quite honest, I don't understand most of the graphics card names anymore. Even from AMD and Intel.

There are so many and they come out so fast. Someone will mention having a particular card and I'll just be like, "Which is that?" aside from all the high end ones, that is.

If it's not at the top, it doesn't really get a name... it's just "Ah, that sounds like it might be a mid-range card since I don't recognize it." lol...

Intel's, however, I don't understand at all.

I liked the graphics card names of yesterday. Voodoo 5500... Mmmm

Or, "Savage 3d"! lol

But yeah. Oh well, now I'm stuck with 8300GS, 8400GRT, 8173.975LOL, and 8200GTFO and having to do copious amounts of research to figure out what the difference is between the GS, GT, GTS, G, etc... models.

TBH, it kind of bothers me. A lot.

But don't get me wrong, I still love you NVidia. <3 :) lol

EDIT: Although, I must add, their new naming scheme does make it a little easier to understand the difference of performance between the cards... which is nice. :)

Edited October 6, 2008 by Exiyn