NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 Technology Report

When we were recently invited to one of NVIDIA's many conference calls, we were quite excited. After the shocking mauling by ATI's Radeon HD 4870 and its ilk, we expected NVIDIA to strike back with a new GPU or two. Something along the lines of the Empire Strikes Back, perhaps?

However, that hope was quickly dashed. The big announcement (with NDA and all) was nothing more than a rebranding exercise, and it was a weak one at that. If this is the best response NVIDIA can come up with, then 2009 is going to be a really painful year for them.

Don't believe us? Well, see for yourselves.

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Link : NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 Technology Report

 

Yeah. Silly NVIDIA. They must really be feeling the pinch between ATI pulling a fast one and their alleged massive midrange and mobile card failures if they have to rebrand a 9800GTX+ (the 512MB at least).

At least they kinda bothered to make the vendors use a new pcb for the 1GB models instead of making that revision optional for the 512MB. That probably shows that there is a lot of stock of 9800GTX+/GTS250 512MB in the channel...

 

I just got my GTS 250 last night (2 days delay).

And I'd like to contribute my findings to too!



I confirm that the performance is that of a 9800GTX+.

Thank you.

 

i think most of us came to that conclusion earlier. benchies are just evidence to support the conclusion.

the GTS 250 does consume less power than the 9800GTX+ (55nm version). That's the good part.

and from this, i wonder how's the effect on 9800GTX+ pricing.

 

referring to new units.

i'm sure there's plenty of 9800GTX+ in stock. so with the introduction of the new name, i think a lot of people are going into a loss.

 

Ooh, that GTS 250 looks like another copy of the 9800GTX+ according to the benchmarks? How could nVidia have relabelled that? Strange...

Also, will a 4850 be identical to a 9800GTX+ in terms of performance?

 

not identical with HD4850 but they perform similarly.

btw how is it strange when nVidia has been doing it for the past few cards?

this is nothing new, just adds to their shame.

 

Indeed. Some G92 cards are 8800GT/GTS 512, 9800GT, 9800GTX/+, and now GTS 250. Same GPU across 3 generations FTL!

 

Seriously, is there anything else that they can do differently apart from rebranding and cutting down the $? These days it's all about how many core you can cramp in, and how fast you can run them. This is what unified shader architecture is for i guess. NV can't possibly produce something that's faster than GTX260 and sell it at 150USD price point. if they did that they would be screwing up with themselves, so the best they could do is this..a rebadged 9800gtx+. We need a stronger ATI.

 

on the other hand, the 8800 series (8800GS included) had 2 different cores. G80 and G92.

then 8800GS being 9600GT, meaning the 9600 series covers 2 cores as well. G92 for 9600GSO and G94 for 9600GT.

 

like i said, it doesn't really matter whether the G92 belongs to 8800 or 9800 because 8800/9800/200gtx all features unified shader architecture.

They could do it, but then it wouldn't cost 150 dollar, and its power characteristic just doesn't fit the current mainstream standard. But most importantly, why would NV do it? there is no threat coming from ATI as of now.

 

it took ati almost three cycles to catch up with NV.

so, the 4800 series finally arrived in 2h08. 4850 is on par with G92, and the 4870 is in the class of GT200. judging from the performance POV, they are late as they do not surpass NV's offerings (though SRP, power requirement are lower) but everyone is happy. the GPU business is a funny business. perhaps NV should throw in some cool terms like "small die strategy", "asset lite movement" to win some hearts back