NVIDIA's move to rebrand the GeForce 9800 GTX+ to GeForce GTS 250 was meant to be followed with a similar rebranding for the GeForce 9800 GT, to GeForce GTS 240. The company even prepared a reference PCB design for the accelerator. Alas, the move wasn't popular NVIDIA's partners, who forced it shelve the plans.

Apparently NVIDIA wants to continue development of the GeForce GTS 240, at least for its OEM customers, if not AIC partners that cater to the retail consumer segment. The GeForce GTS 240 reference design accelerator is in accordance with the schematics that surfaced back in February, and maintains a single-slot design overall. Under the hood is the 55 nm G92b graphics processor with 112 shader processors, a 256-bit GDDR3 memory interface, 1 GB of memory, and reference clock speeds that match that of GeForce 9800 GT OC: 675/1620/1100 (core/shader/memory). The card supports 2-way SLI, and should be priced in the sub $130 space.

MAINGEAR Computers, award-winning builders of high performance custom computers, is proud to announce the Pulse, a powerful, energy efficient small form factor PC based on NVIDIA ION graphics. The Pulse is the world's first ION PC that can be upgraded with a GeForce GPU, offering consumers the flexibility to choose an economical, low power ION solution or an energy efficient, high performance configuration with GeForce.

The ION configuration is available with Intel Core 2 45nm processors and a 80+ Certified 300 watt power supply that is 80%+ efficient. This configuration is the smallest, most energy efficient gaming PC on the market today.

Gigabyte has designed one of the first custom PCB designs for the Radeon HD 4770, this time, brandishing a silent cooler and double the amount of memory. The company also designed a new GeForce 9800 GT accelerator with a similar design and feature set. To begin with, the Radeon HD 4770 model GV-R477SL-1GI, sports a blue custom-PCB, which is built using the company's Ultra Durable VGA construction. A somewhat large passive cooler spans beyond the length of the card, and consists of three copper heat-pipes conveying heat to an aluminum fin block. The card features 1 GB of 128-bit GDDR5 memory. The GeForce 9800 GT model N98TSL-1GI(289) features a similar cooler over a blue custom UDV PCB. It makes use of 1 GB of 256-bit GDDR3 memory.

Global graphics and mainboard manufacture, MSI, today unveils two new energy saving graphics cards - N9800GT-MD1G and N9800GT-MD512 - that meet customers demands for energy-saving and performance. Both cards use NVIDIA's all new, advanced GeForce 9800GT GPU, which not only delivers all the performance of its predecessors, but uses a more advanced power control technology to decrease power consumption by up to 25%. Additionally, this card equips MSI's latest generation of capacitors, Hi-c CAP, and solid state chokes (SSC) for better, more stable overclocking and the most fulfilling performance/energy-saving graphical experience.

Japanese NVIDIA partner ELSA unveiled a new graphics accelerator based on the GeForce 9800 GT. The Gladiac 998 GT SS (Save Power & Silent) falls into the new breed of 9800 GT cards that have been touting features such as energy-efficiency, some even abandoning the use of auxiliary PCI-Express power input. The clock speeds of this card stay below the reference speeds for 9800 GT, although kosher considering the number of companies that have done something similar to lower power consumptions. The core is clocked at 550 MHz (1375 MHz shader), while the 512 MB memory adheres to reference speeds of 900 MHz (1800 MHz DDR). The double-slot cooler is very quiet according to the company, with a rated noise output of 15 dBA. The card is yet to reach Japanese markets for a quote of its price.

GIGABYTE Technology Co. LTD., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today released GIGABYTE passive thermal resolution graphics accelerator GV-N98TSL-1GI. Adapting leading passive thermal technology, GIGABYTE is proud to provide the only passive GV-N98TSL-1GI in the market. GV-N98TSL-1GI features 1GB GDDR3 memory and 112 stream processors to provide all professional gamers with an extremely quiet and exciting gaming environment.

With outstanding innovation ability, GV-N98TSL-1GI rewrites the records of passive thermal technology. First features GIGABYTE latest in-house passive thermal resolution: Slient-Cell on NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT, GV-N98TSL-1GI supports all heavy loading games and provides excellent cooling effects. By adopting ultra-huge pure copper base with 3 heat pipes, heats can spreads effectively from hot areas. In addition, GV-N98TSL-1GI enhances the overall cooling capability by utilizing the precision process to deliver zero-interval combination between heat pipes and fins.

ECS is introducing two new GeForce 9 series accelerators which feature low-power designs. The accelerators based on GeForce 9800 (N9800GTE-1GMU-F) GT comes with reference clock speeds, while GeForce 9600 GT (N9600GTE-1GMU-F) with slightly reduced clock speeds. The cards feature 1 GB of GDDR3 memory, double that of the reference design.

The cards make use of Arctic Cooling L2 Pro GPU cooler with a 92 mm PWM-controlled fan. Power is drawn entirely from the PCI-Express slot, as the cards lack the 6-pin PCI-E power inputs. The N9800GTE-1GMU-F comes with clock speeds of 600/900 MHz (core/memory), which are the reference speeds for 9800 GT, while the N9600GTE-1GMU-F 550/900 MHz.

AMD may be inches close to launching its high-end Radeon HD 4890 accelerator, but in its shadows, an equally exciting product-line is taking shape: the Radeon HD 4700 series, which AMD refers to as "A new paradigm of performance and price", rightly so, with the new 40 nm process the RV740 GPU is built on, and the performance that looks to put it on top of its class.

IT168.com published a few slides from a recent presentation AMD carried on, for its upcoming Radeon HD 4700 series. The most relevant slides reveal a lot about the Radeon HD 4770, the flagship product based on the RV740. The card design that has surfaced, reveals a cooler design similar to that of the Radeon HD 3870, except for a different colour-scheme and printed graphics. The card features 512 MB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit memory interface, which ideally churns out the same amount of bandwidth as 256-bit GDDR3, while consuming lesser power (due to lesser number of chips on the board). A slide also reveals a crucial bit about the pricing strategy AMD is planning to adopt, which shows the Radeon HD 4770 to be priced at US $99 (target SEP prices). From AMD's own ratings, the card should offer higher performance per watt and performance per dollar (in terms of rated compute power) than NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT. You can also work out from the figures that the card consumes 80 W of power. The card is slated for a May 4 launch.

Galaxy made an addition to the increasing number of low-power GeForce 9800 GT graphics cards taking shape by several NVIDIA partners. The company introduced 512 MB and 1 GB variants. Specs-wise, the cards retain the GPU and memory configurations (112 SP, 256-bit memory interface), while cutting down on clock-speeds to 550/900 MHz (core/memory), from the reference speeds of 600/900 MHz.

The company uses the 55 nm G92 GPU (G92-283-B1), which has a smaller thermal footprint in comparison to its 65 nm variant. The result: cards that do not require auxillary power from the 6-pin PCI-E connector. The 1 GB variant comes with a full-coverage single-slot cooler, while the 512 MB one comes with a simpler radial cooler. Both cards are SLI capable. Display outputs provided on the card include DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI.

On the brink of being a regular AMD partner, Colorful has come up with a new way to market GeForce 9800 GT cheap: by crippling it with a (much) weaker memory sub-system. The card uses a regular GeForce 9800 GT GPU, with 512 MB of memory. Wait, that sounds pretty normal when it reads on the box, doesn't it? Only till you find out that it's actually 512 MB of DDR2 memory, and that too across a 128-bit wide memory bus.

It uses a red PCB with a simplistic (read: inexpensive) radial cooler. DVI, D-Sub and HDMI connectors are provided on the card, though it is deprived of an SLI interconnect. Furthermore, the card uses a 6-pin power connector to take in power. We certainly hope this card is extremely cheap to warrant its specifications.

NVIDIA is going ahead with the launch schedule of the GeForce GTS 200 series, that consist of products based on the current-generation G92 GPU. It is known that the GTS 240 and GTS 250 are re-branded 9800 GT and 9800 GTX+ respectively. The 9800 GTX+ SKU will officially be renamed GTS 250 on March 3. One can expect NVIDIA partners to come up with cheaper SKUs that fit into the US $ 130 range, lower than the current $150 range 9800 GTX+ and ATI Radeon HD 4850 compete in.

The GTS 240 on the other hand, will be introduced soon with a newer price-range of around $100, lower than the $120 mark the 9800 GT revolves around. This should make it more competitive against the Radeon HD 4830, which is currently winning in the price/performance figure. Additionally, the company is preparing a GeForce 9800 GT Green Edition, which carries forward the design methodology of the 9600 GT Green Edition: lowering the GPU voltage and slightly reducing the clock speeds. It is expected to carry clock speeds of 550/1375/900 MHz (core/shader/memory) against the reference 9800 GT specifications of 600/1500/900 MHz. The new SKU might be priced at a premium over the GTS 240, at around $ 120.

BFG Technologies announced two new graphics cards, the company's non-reference versions of the GeForce 9800 GT accelerators, using the company's own PCB design and the ThermoIntelligence cooling system. The cooling system consists of a central Zerotherm-made GPU cooler and heatsinks over the cards' memory and VRM areas. The GPU cooler as claimed by the company, drops the operational temperatures of the GPU by as much as 30 °C in comparison to the reference NVIDIA cooler. The black PCB holds a 4+1 phase power circuit for the GPU and memory.

These cards come in the OC2 and OCX variants. OC2 represents a level-2 overclock of 650 MHz (core), 1,620 MHz (shader) and 1,926 MHz (memory), and OCX represents a level-3 (top) overclock of 680 MHz (core), 1,674 MHz (shader) and 2,000 MHz (memory). Both graphics cards provide features standard to the GeForce 9800 GT graphics processors, with 112 shader cores and CUDA support for GPU PhysX API acceleration.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced the SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT and GeForce 9800 GT Low Profile 512MB GDDR3 Graphics Cards, providing powerful 3D performance and HD experience to HTPC enthusiasts with low profile design and native HDMI support.

Alienware introduced its fleet of high-performance gaming PCs based on Intel's newest Core i7 processors. The range is branded as Area 51 X-58. Its range starts from US $1,349, with the base model using the Core i7 920 processor, which is configurable to Core i7 940 and the Core i7 965 Extreme Edition. Memory options go up to 12 GB of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, and base graphics card being the ATI Radeon HD 4870, configurable up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 SLI or Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX.

There are options for up to 2 TB of storage, or the option to pick performance over storage, with two WD VelociRaptor 300 GB drives in RAID 0. Parallel to this brand is Alienware's other brand, the ALX X-58. The ALX comes with the same base CPU and memory, but ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 or two GeForce 9800 GTX, 2 TB of storage, along with the option of a Blu-Ray burner. The ALX X-58 starts at $3,699. These systems come equipped with 700, 1000 or 1200W power supplies depending on the hardware opted for.

Industry watcher DigiTimes has some good news today. Apparently, disturbed by the rising presence of ATI in the discrete graphics card market, NVIDIA is planning a counter attack with the easiest way possible - cut the prices of its products. If the information is right, NVIDIA is going to slash the prices across its entire high-end GeForce GTX 200 line-up, as well as the mainstream GeForce 9800 GT and GeForce 9600 GT series. Unfortunately, the other piece of information as of when and by how much the prices will go down is unknown.

With AMD making gains in the discrete graphics card market - rising to around 40% in third-quarter 2008 according to a recent report from Jon Peddie Research (JPR) - Nvidia is planning to cut its graphics card prices in an attempt to curb further loss of market share, according to sources at graphics card makers.
AMD anticipates taking 50% of the market after reducing prices for its ATI Radeon HD 4000 series products, but to counter Nvidia has also made moves to cut prices for its GeForce GTX 200, 9800 GT and 9600 GT series.

NVIDIA has issued a slide-show, a consolidated presentation taking into account, the findings of some review sources. In short, NVIDIA claims that the GeForce 9800 GT is not only faster than Radeon HD 4830, but also that its value-added features such as the CUDA HPC foundation and PhysX acceleration amount to a superior product all in all. Donanim Haber got their hands on this slide-show before anyone could, so here goes: GeForce 9800 GT vs. Radeon HD 4830 - a presentation by NVIDIA.

As reported earlier, AMD is preparing a scaled-down version of the RV770 graphics processor, called RV770LE. The new graphics core would go into making the Radeon HD 4830 SKU. The new graphics core was created to compete with the GeForce 8800/9800 GT, which seem to be in a comfortable market position owing to their price and price/performance. They are comfortably placed between the GeForce 9600 seties and the 8800 GTS 512M/9800 GTX/GTX+.

AMD has already started projecting the HD 4830 to outperform the the G92GT, in essence, the GeForce 9800 GT. In a slide titled "Best Graphics Card for <$150", the company puts up figures where the new card is projected 10% faster in most games tested. The only glitch, is that most of AMD's own increment projections are based around that 10% mark, which means it could be a very tight contest between the HD 4830 and 9800 GT. A prelude could be that for the 9800 GT, its CUDA and PhysX processing capabilities could bail it out, if it does fall into a tight spot, as in, if the two end up in a neck and neck contest. The new Radeon accelerator comes out sometime next month.

Following the mammoth success of the ROG (Republic of Gamers) EN9600GT MATRIX graphics card, ASUS, world-leading producer of top quality graphic solutions, has today released the new ASUS ROG EN9800GT MATRIX/HTDI/512M. Combining cutting-edge technology and features, this innovative piece of hardware unleashes the true power of graphics cards - allowing gamers to enjoy unrivaled gaming experiences. It achieves all this by incorporating several unique features that include:

• Integrated hardware and software for total graphics card control
• Accurate adjustments of the GPU and memory voltages
• Complete monitoring of the GPU/memory/Power IC/ambient temperatures
• Complete monitoring of the GPU/memory/board power consumption
• Automatic control of fan speeds according to advanced GPU loading detection
• Power savings that surpasses generic boards
• Customizable functions to add a new level of control for gamers

BFG Technologies, Inc., the leading North American and European supplier of advanced NVIDIA-based 3D graphics cards, power supplies and other PC enthusiast products, announced today the BFG NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT, 9800 GT OC, and the GeForce 9500 GT graphics cards.

All three new BFG graphics cards offer best-in-class price versus performance, and are backed by free 24/7/365 world-class tech support and the best lifetime warranty in the industry.

MSI rolled out two non-reference graphics accelerators based on the GeForce 9800 GT and 9500 GT under the Zilent banner. MSI uses Zilent to brand its products such as graphics cards and motherboards where the acoustic envelope is significantly reduced without affecting the thermal envelope. The first card, N9800GT-Zilent is based on the newer G92b 55nm silicon fabricated core. It uses a cooler designed by Zalman which claims to have a smaller acoustic footprint than the stock NVIDIA cooler. The cooler is a double-slot solution and consists of four copper heat-pipes emerging out of the die contact area into a grill of aluminum fins. Central to this grill is what looks like a 60mm fan. MSI decided to step up the memory, this card comes with 1 GB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 950 MHz (1900 MHz DDR). The core is overclocked to 660 MHz. As with other GeForce 9800 GT cards, it supports NVIDIA HybridPower technology.

The second release is the N95000GT-MD512Z/D2. This card is completely silent, it has no moving parts. It consists of a core contact from which two aluminum heat-pipes convey heat away to aluminum fins behind the card that dissipate it. It comes with a HDMI port, and the usual DVI and D-Sub connectors. It comes with 512 MB of DDR2 memory clocked at 1000 MHz. The core is clocked at 550 MHz.

Inno3D has come up with two models of the GeForce 9800 GT graphics cards with factory-fitted coolers made by Arctic Cooling and ZeroTherm. These products branded under the iChill banner use the ZeroTherm Hurricane and Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo coolers and are accordingly named Hurricane and Twin Turbo.

Both cards use identical specifications, a 700 MHz core clock with 1500 MHz shader and 2000 MHz memory clock speeds. Inno3D claims these coolers allow high-performance settings and can maintain silent operation of as low as 0.6 sone. The cards have pre-applied Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal interface compound.

Although it was speculated by many that 3-way SLI would be a standard feature with the GeForce 9800 GT graphics cards, reference designs of the card were just a little more than an improvement over the 'previous generation' 8800 GT. 3-way SLI didn't turn out to be a feature standard to all 9800 GT cards, at least not the reference NVIDIA designs. ASUS took up the initiative and prepared the ASUS EN9800GT HybridPower. This non-reference design supports 3-way SLI multi-GPU technology, uses 4-phase VRM circuitry, and the signature ASUS Glaciator GPU fansink. It uses 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. There's no word on the card's parameters or pricing yet.

Leadtek Research Inc., the global leading brand for extreme visual graphics technology development, is pleased to announce the launch of new high-end graphics card, WinFast PX9800 GT 512MB. Based on the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT graphics processing units and unified architecture design, the new graphics card can provide customers the best-in-classic gaming performance.

BFG Technologies, the leading North American and European supplier of advanced NVIDIA-based 3D graphics cards, power supplies and other PC enthusiast products, announced today the BFG NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT, 9800 GT OC, and the GeForce 9500 GT graphics cards. All three new BFG graphics cards offer best-in-class price versus performance, and are backed by free 24/7/365 world-class tech support and the best lifetime warranty in the industry.

ZOTAC International, a leading manufacturer of NVIDIA-based graphics cards, today unleashes a new generation of performance graphics cards with the new ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GT series. The new series includes the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GT and 9800 GT AMP! Limited Edition - a power packed duo ready to take on the latest DirectX 10 with Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL 2.1 3D games and applications.