Following the news we covered just last month of NVIDIA's plans to rename the 9800 GT to GTS 240, despite the fact the 9800 GT was little more than a renamed 8800 GT, it seems the GPU board partners have managed to convince NVIDIA not to follow through with this name change. There had been much controversy over NVIDIA's renaming scheme even here on our forums, but in a confidential email seen by DailyTech, NVIDIA has cancelled plans to rename the chip yet again. Instead there will now be three versions of the 9800 GT, one of which includes the feature updates due to be present in the GTS 240. There will be the green edition, which we had already heard news of some time ago, which has no need for external power connectors, there will be the standard version, and then an OC version, which although details are not yet confirmed, one would imagine the card would be clocked at the GTS 240 expected speeds of 675/1688/2200 MHz.

German website Computerbase.de is reporting, that there are several users out there, who have received GeForce 8800GTs, which do not have the usual 112 Shaders and 256 bit memory interface you would expect from this model. Their cards seem to have only 96 shaders and an 128 bit interface. While the 128 bit interface is clearly advertised, the 96 shaders are not. This would make the card even slower than a 9600 GSO. The problem is, that these cards are still being sold as 8800GTs and you won't know that you have gotten a slower one, until you check it after installation. The card in question is from Point Of View with the model number R-VGA150868.UPDATE: Looks like one affected user has heard back from Point Of View, he will get his card replaced. All shops selling this card should clearly advertise it as 128-bit variant. The number of shaders on the R-VGA150868 product is intended to be 112, not 96. That's why Point of View offered to replace the card.

Update no. 2: Both Point Of View and NVIDIA have commented on the issue. Point Of View states that they are only the first to offer this card at such specs and other manufacturers will follow. Meaning, that all 8800 GTs will suffer this change. NVIDIA on the other hand is not aware of any such change and has underlined, that Point Of View is acting alone on this one.

Inno3D Launces i-Chill 8800 GT w/ Arctic Cooling Accelero X1

Inno3D is excited to launch the i-Chill GeForce 8800 GT featuring the Arctic Cooling Accelero X1. Tuned at the extreme core speed of 700/2000MHz and offering all the great i-Chill features including a 3 years warranty, top A1 components, along with a free game bundle. The i-Chill 8800GT Accelero X1 combines passive and active cooling which lowers temperatures immensely compared to the reference fan which allows smooth gameplay for all enthusiast gamers.

For a high performance card like the GeForce 8800 GT, it seems a single-slot cooling solution is not enough. With reports of the card running over 90°C under load and the loud fan, NVIDIA has decided to upgrade the standard 8800 GT with a new cooler. The new cooler will be equipped with a larger fan (75x10mm compared to the old 65x10mm) running at a lower RPM (1664RPM compared to the old 4333RPM) resulting in a quieter and more efficient cooling solution.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced the SPARKLE GeForce 8800 GT 256MB Graphics Card and SPARKLE GeForce 8800 GT 256MB Passive Graphic Card, the latest in SPARKLE GeForce 8 series products line. These two graphic cards are specifically developed to meet mainstream gamers' demand for high-performing graphic cards with lower prices. The SPARKLE GeForce 8800GT 256MB passive graphics card can also brings totally wholehearted gaming experience to users who seek 0dB working noise DirectX 10 graphic cards.

MSI announces that it has prepared two GeForce 8800GT 256MB graphics cards that will be priced at $200 and lower. Both the NX8800GT-T2D256E and the NX8800GT-T2D256E-OC are based on NVIDIA's reference design but will have an ATI-theme to them with the red PCB. The stock card will be running default reference speed while the overclocked edition will be running 660MHz (core), 1650MHz (shader), and 1900MHz (memory).

Well, really, what can I say? Grab 'em while they're hot!

For those of you who need a proper introduction to the 8800GT...

The NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC ultimate graphic card provides extreme performance ideal for gaming. The graphic card provides special gaming and overclocking features; 65nm technology with low temperature, easy overclocking, high bandwidth, PCI-E generation 2.0 support, raised number of stream processors, overclocked version, SLI support and a special game bundle with not one but two games! MSI offers all this for a surprisingly reasonable price tag. With all the new features, the MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC can achieve even better benchmark results or real application performances than ever!

Editors note: So apparently the MSI 8800's sold out. For $234USD, you can get yourself an XFX 8800GT off of Dell. Here is the entire list of the 8800GT's Dell has in stock.

Galaxy Technology has prepared one of the first non-reference products based on the G92 chipset. Several major modifications were made in order to push this card to the limits and be more overclock friendly. The PCB has been changed to dissipate the heat in a split second while the graphics processing unit's power management has been redone to obtain three phase power supply. Also equipped is a better cooling device with two heatpipes to keep the card running cool and stable.

The 8800GT truly is the star of today, and Newegg is happy to announce that they have plenty in stock. As of the time of writing, you can get two 8800GT's: A $269 XFX model at stock clocks, and a "superclocked" $279 EVGA model.

While AMD is working hard on putting the finishing touches on the RV670, NVIDIA isn't going to let itself just be forgotten about. In an NVIDIA presentation slide, the 8800GT got confirmed as having 112 shaders working at an impressive 1.5GHz. This is much better than the 96 shaders at 1.2GHz rumor heard earlier. The actual core/memory clocks are still up in smoke though. However, the latest rumors hint that they will be around 600/900 for the core and memory, respectively. The VRAM will be 256-bit GDDR3, the amount of which will be determined by manufacturers. Expect the cards to cost between $199 and $249 USD when they hit retail channels worldwide.

Need I say more?