Following NVIDIA's announcement of a US $150M to $200M package towards covering anticipated warranty, repair, return, replacement and other costs and expenses relating to faulty 'packaging material', suppliers in Taiwan have gone low-key on the issue.

By 'packaging material', they don't mean 'packaging' as in the logistics, but 'packaging' as in electronics, a package simply put is a ceramic or plastic enclosure in which is embedded a chip (die) with tiny wirings connecting parts of the chip to an interface on one side, be it an array of pins or solder balls. Unlike CPUs, graphics processors are connected to the circuit boards using ball grid arrays.

SPARKLE today announced SPARKLE GeForce 8500GT 1GB and GeForce 8600GT 1GB Graphics Cards for mainstream gamers. An incredible 1GB onboard video memory makes consumers' HD gaming experiences smoother than ever.

XFX today released the first and only graphics card of its kind; a Championship Gaming Series (CGS)-approved Fatal1ty 8500 GT 512MB (PV-T86J-Y1S3). Created in collaboration with Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, winner of 12 world titles and renowned international gaming expert, this highly overclocked gaming card features UltraSilent Cooling. Available exclusively in the U.S. at Best Buy, this card has an 850MHz memory clock that is 20% faster than a standard GeForce 8500 GT.

Leadtek Research Inc., known globally for extreme visual graphics technology development, is proud to announce the launch of its new mid-range graphics card, WinFast PX8600 GT TDH 512MB. With Leadtek's original and exclusive fansink within a single heatpipe, this sensational new card offers the best of cooling system capabilities - a whopping 15'C cooler in GPU temperature and ultra quiet noise level. And it all adds up to outstanding performance and the 'coolest' price for gaming enthusiasts.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., a professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced SPARKLE GeForce 8500 GT PCI and GeForce 7300 GT PCI Graphic Cards. SPARKLE GeForce 8500 GT PCI and GeForce 7300 GT PCI Graphic Cards bring affordable upgrade solutions to special PCI platform and industrial applications with lower prices.

Taipei, Taiwan, July 20th, 2007-- Leadtek Research Inc., known globally for extreme visual graphics technology development, takes pride in announcing the launch of its new mid-range graphics card, WinFast PX8500 GT TDH Low Profile with an exclusive design to fit both low profile and full height systems. The new card is also touted as the world's first low profile add-in card with NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT GPU, and targeted as low-cost entertainment solution supporting up to 1080p Blu-ray and HD DVD contents at ultra-high 2560x1600 resolutions.

Nvidia has released the new Official 162.22 and 163.11 Beta Forceware drivers for Windows Vista.
The 162.11 drivers are for the GeForce 6,7,8 series and some of the improvements include better DX10 SLI support and increased total graphics memory.
The 163.11 Forceware are only for the GeForce 8 series and are almost specifically pointed for improved DX10 performance in World in Conflict.

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SPARKLE Computer, today announced Calibre P850LV graphics card with elaborate designed daughter card to the entry level market. The Calibre P850LV graphics card is powered by NVIDIA's next generation GeForce 8500 GT GPU (G86 architecture). Helped with 650MHz core speed, 1300MHz shader clock and 128bit 128MB 1600MHz GDDR3 video memory, the Calibre P850LV graphic card fully supports Microsoft DX10/Shader Model 4.0, NVIDIA PureVideo technology and all the Microsoft Windows Vista features. In order to bring additional value for end users, the Calibre P850LV graphics card is equipped with a specially designed daughter card, which can show real-time GPU temperature or real-time PCB temperature on Graphics Display Port (GDP) with 3bit digital tube display. Users can also manually switch between the two measurements.

Hong Kong 17th April, 2007 - InnoVISION Multimedia Limited are pleased to announce the mainstream 8 series that is equipped with high-end performance but priced at mainstream level with Inno3D GeForce 8600GTS, GF 8600GT & 8500GT.

Inno3D GeForce 8600GTS, GF 8600GT & 8500GT is built with the best price/performance GPUs for Microsoft DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 gaming and ideal for Microsoft Windows Vista .

Yan Tai, China, April 17th, 2007 - Foxconn, a global leading manufacturer of quality performance computing hardware, today announced the release of their NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS, 8600GT and 8500GT graphics cards. The Foxconn new GeForce 8600 graphics series feature NVIDIA revolutionary new DX10 unified architecture which brings unparalleled levels graphics realism and performance to gamers, in addition to Foxconn's unique cooling system, which is proven to increase overclocking capability by up to 15%. The Foxconn GeForce 8500GT, on the other hand, is the ideal graphics solution at a sub-$100 price point. It delivers unprecedented levels of graphics realism and gaming performance you have been long craving for, without emptying your wallet.

Go Extreme with Foxconn 8600GTS and 8600GT Overclocked Version
In addition to the standard GeForce 8600 and 8500 series, Foxconn is also launching a factory GeForce 8600GTS and 8600GT "Overclocked" graphics card at the same time. It is spec'd at a stunning 700 / 2200 and 560 /1560 MHz (Core / Memory clock) respectively.

Eindhoven, April 17th 2007 - POINT OF VIEW, well known for its range of nVidia based Graphics cards, is launching today a special version of the GeForce 8600 GTS, 8600 GT & 8500GT Graphics Cards. These Point of View cards are the latest expansion of the of the most powerful Graphics Cards ever released; the GeForce 8 Series.

Instead of writing all the boring press releases, I've decided to gather all the manufacturers who will launch new GeForce 8600 and GeForce 8500 Series graphics cards in one post and keep it up to date. I'll start with the BFG Technologies and their BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS(710/2000MHz), 8600GT(565/1400MHz) and 8500GT(450/800MHz) overclocked OC 256MB video cards. The BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS OC graphics cards are available today while the 8600GT OC and 8500GT models will be available in late April. Second comes GIGABYTE with its Silent-Pipe brand new video cards. The GIGABYTE GV-NX85T256H, GIGABYTE GV-NX86S256H with Silent Pipe 3 and GIGABYTE GV-NX86T256D graphics accelerators are available from today. VR-Zone also reports that Point of View and Leadtek have come up with the new 8600/8500 series. Biostar is also introducing its Sigma Gate V8603TS21, V8603GT21, V8502GT21 NVIDIA GeForce 8600/8500 Series based video cards. Last but not least for today is Zotac International with the ZT-88XE760-FSS, ZT-88SE320-FPP, ZT-85TE250-FSL and ZT-85TE25H-FSL video cards. Click on the manufacturer names for additional information about every specific card.

Taipei, Taiwan - MSI, a leading manufacturer of computer products, proudly unveils its latest MSI graphics card - NX8600GTS/GT and NX8500GT Series. Incorporating the newest NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT/GTS and GeForce 8600 GT graphics processor which deliver superior cinematic resolution and high performance acceleration for today's demanding 3D graphic applications. The MSI NX8600GTS/GT and NX8500GT Series are the best choices with the most sensible prices for the most complete solution for the 3D and video application market.

NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today announced the extension of the award-winning NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series line-up to include three new graphics processing units (GPUs), bringing high-resolution gaming, stunning Microsoft Windows Vista graphics, and stellar HD DVD and Blu-ray video playback to virtually everyone regardless of budget. The new GPUs that complete the world's first top-to-bottom family of DirectX 10 GPUs include:
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS: $199-229
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT: $149-159
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT: $89-129

With the GeForce 8600 set to go on sale tomorrow, the details of the 8600 and 8500 series cards have been published by DailyTech - although they aren't 100% certain, it's certainly a more trustworthy source of information than other sites you may find. All three of the cards will be 128-bit, and the details are listed in the table below. As you can see, the specs seem to tie-in with those released by ASUS for the 8600GTS at least. These mid-range cards should start to trickle onto shelves over the coming weeks, offering DirectX 10 capabilities at a noticeably lower price than the 8800s. Obviously price will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, and there will be slight changes to some clock speeds, but in general they should line up like this: