Evidence that Nvidia renamed 9xxx GPUs tips up

[Final8y]

By Charlie Demerjian
Saturday, 3 January 2009, 02:10

A FEW MONTHS AGO, we told you that Nvidia had a plan to flog its parts that people normally wouldn't buy at a premium. How? By renaming them to catch the stupid unaware.

Thanks to reader Ray, we have the first evidence of this, so these retreads will likely be 'out' at CES. The official proof comes in a PDF from the German retailer Mediamarkt, here. As you can see, they are listing a GeForce G100, GT120, and GT130. We guess the green goblin didn't have the guts to say 8800GS, er... 9600GSO and 9500GT anymore. Luckily Nvidia didn't forget the first rule of marketing: if your products suck, spin.

In case you hadn't noticed, Nvidia hasn't put out any lower end SKUs based on the GT200 because... well, it is spinning a lot. It is also sitting on a huge inventory of 9xxx series parts that no one really wants because a good chunk of them likely contain the defective materials set. So, rather than come clean, Nvidia is changing the names hoping to whitewash the issue. How consumer friendly. If your products suck, spin.

Also make note of the new PhysX logo. This is Nvidia's way of spending money on branding to pretend Cuda actually matters and is not about to be wiped out by OpenCL and DX11 Compute Shaders. Luckily most Nvidia fanbois are dumb enough to buy this, but preaching to the choir tends not to be money well spent.

These NDA-breaking PDFs have a way of disappearing, so we will put the pics of the relevant parts below. Enjoy the spin. µ

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/214/1050214/evidence-that-nvidia-renamed-9xxx-gpus-tips-up

Nvidia rebrand leaked

Written by Peter Scott
Saturday, 03 January 2009 11:09

Low end 9 series to become G1x0

It's been quite a while since Nvidia rebranded its cards and we were beginning to think it has dropped the habit altogether. We talked about the upcoming rebrand in November, and now several leaked ads, courtesy of German retailer MediaMarkt, all but confirm the new naming scheme.

Three cards are mentioned in the ads: the G100, G120 and G130, the latter apparently being a rebranded 9600 GSO, which was in fact, a rebranded 8800 GS all along. Third time lucky it seems.

Apparently the G100 and G120 are 9400 GT and 9500 GT respectively. According to TechConnect, the naming scheme is scheduled to go live at the end of the month, and G92 cards will subsequently also be rebranded into GTS 1xx series.

Nvidia also plans to brand the high end GTX2xx, performance and mainstream are GT2xx, while the entry level remains G1xx branded. They simply follow a keep-it-simple strategy, as a tool to get attention back to its rebranded products. If it sounds new, it has to be new.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11203&Itemid=1

 

[layte]

I started reading the first quote and my eyebrows rose, then I saw it was a Charlie Demerjian special and mass eyerolling ensued. The guy does himself no favours.

 

[Final8y]

I started reading the first quote and my eyebrows rose, then I saw it was a Charlie Demerjian special and mass eyerolling ensued. The guy does himself no favours.

He could have put it better, as its written in away as what you'd expect from an upset forum member.

 

[Dicehunter]

This is why i stick with ATI, they tell it like it is.

 

[Final8y]

This is why i stick with ATI, they tell it like it is.

Its the avg joe who this will likely effect as they don't tend to do their homework as much before buying & the avg joe is the biggest market.

Had their NV gfx card for 1.5 years or so & feel like adding a little more punch to their games & see new numbers on the gfx cards & unknowingly buys one with the exact same GPU inside as the one he had & even when he gets home & finds out the performance is no better he could not even get a consolation prize of SLIing them because even tho the GPU is the same the model number is not the, correct me if im wrong.

 

[Dicehunter]

Well through personal experience ive found ATI to be more of a people company than Nvidia, love both hardware groups dont get me wrong but i emailed the customer department of both when i had both kinds of GPU's sitting infront of me (job releated questions) and ATI's customer service was a lot faster and clearer than Nvidias.
Therefore i stick with ATI as i know when i have a problem i can get in contact with human beings.
Infact that should be ATI's new motto

 

[Rroff]

I dunno what the big deal is, aside from a couple of minor things like 10bit color processing there isn't a huge amount of difference between 8/9 series and the 200 series... just a lot more pipelines - and the lower end parts would have most of these cut anyhow... I'm not a great fan of the renaming but if you want to sling dirt at nVidia atleast find something thats actually an issue rather than making a big conspiracy out of a minor issue.

 

[Final8y]

I'm not a great fan of the renaming but if you want to sling dirt at nVidia atleast find something thats actually an issue rather than making a big conspiracy out of a minor issue.

snip

If that is pointed at me then your pointing it at the wrong person as i did not write the articles, i merely reposted it.
People have a right to be aware regardless. The article should not be judged by who posted it but by the article its self when the poster included no comment in the initial article.

 

[Final8y]

I dunno what the big deal is, aside from a couple of minor things like 10bit color processing there isn't a huge amount of difference between 8/9 series and the 200 series... just a lot more pipelines - and the lower end parts would have most of these cut anyhow....

snip

The deal is the majority who are not technically minded & who do not look at the technical specs past the name & model number unlike me & you, would buy basically the same product again thus wasting money & i would be ****** if that ever happened to me.

There is nothing wrong with having concern for your fellow man.
Even OcUK would not stock a model of NV card because it was a rename.

 

[Rroff]

It was pointed at the original author I know quite well of charlie by now

I do see that point - however at the end of the day the cards wouldn't be that much difference specwise even if they were 200 series cores... so it doesn't really make much odds if the consumer doesn't check specs themselves.

 

[Xandos]

Lame. I'd go ATI if their drivers didn't suck.

 

[Final8y]

It was pointed at the original author I know quite well of charlie by now

I do see that point - however at the end of the day the cards wouldn't be that much difference specwise even if they were 200 series cores... so it doesn't really make much odds if the consumer doesn't check specs themselves.

The Original author did not post the thread so when your referring to someone on a personal level & not just the article who has not posted in the thread then its wise to use his name like in the first replay to lesson wrong interpretation.

 

[nightmare99]

Surely they can sell thier cards as what ever they like

If they want to confuse and mislead thier customers thats upto them.

 

[Final8y]

It was pointed at the original author I know quite well of charlie by now

I do see that point - however at the end of the day the cards wouldn't be that much difference specwise even if they were 200 series cores... so it doesn't really make much odds if the consumer doesn't check specs themselves.

For a first time buyer or some one who has a much older GPU chip then it makes no odds. but that is not the concern expressed in the articles. The articles concern is for upgrader's who have the same GPU chip being tricked into upgrading to the same GPU & performance intentionally or not but the articles lean on intentionally .

 

[Final8y]

Double

 

[Minstadave]

I started reading the first quote and my eyebrows rose, then I saw it was a Charlie Demerjian special and mass eyerolling ensued. The guy does himself no favours.

He's like a kid throwing his toys out the pram.

 

[OCdude]

Ohhhhhhhhh the DRAMA of it all

 

[Rroff]

For a first time buyer or some one who has a much older GPU chip then it makes no odds. but that is not the concern expressed in the articles. The articles concern is for upgrader's who have the same GPU chip being tricked into upgrading to the same GPU & performance intentionally or not.

What I'm saying is... it does't make much odds if its a cut down 200 series or a rebadged 8/9 series your going to get similiar specifications. Infact with a cut down 200 series you'd probably end up with less RAM tho slightly more SPs.

 

[Final8y]

What I'm saying is... it does't make much odds if its a cut down 200 series or a rebadged 8/9 series your going to get similiar specifications. Infact with a cut down 200 series you'd probably end up with less RAM tho slightly more SPs.

The problem is the avg joe who has the 8/9 series is looking to upgrade to something faster or newer features than what they have which means not being tricked into buying a rebadged of what they already have as that not paying for an upgrade in performance or new features but playing for an upgrade in name & number & few users would intentionally want to do that but that has happened with post of people going from a 8 to a rebadged 9 & no doubt a few will then do a hat trick & buy the same GPU a 3rd time unintentionally.

The fact is they think it will be faster or have new features. It coming from a 200gpu with performance cut down to the level of G92 chip is not the point at least it will have more new features.
Even on this forum people have to be advised that if they are not careful they can end up with a new ati card with new features but equal or slower in performance with the model change & that may be fine as the new features is what they are after. but NV is not even offering new features with its Model change.

 

[xen_]

Lame. I'd go ATI if their drivers didn't suck.

I used to think ATI drivers were much worse, and they were ages ago. But recently I've gone from nvidia to ati and the drivers work fine, and with the more recent lot of drivers from nvidia I had a lot of issues. I don't think ATIs are any worse anymore.

This rebranding business is annoying, it'll make their line become even more confusing.