NVIDIA's Recent Rebranding Practice

[oopyseohs]

So NVIDIA is getting ready to launch its latest set of graphics cards that have been rebadged from previous generations. The GeForce GTS 250 is apparently a rebadge of the GeForce 9800GTX+, while the GTS 240 is a rebadge of the 9800GT, which was a rebadge of the 8800GT.

The 8800GT came out in October of 07, which was quite some time ago. Now we are going to see practically the same card (overclocked) launched as another new product?

In some ways it makes me sick that old products sold under new names can still make money. It also lets these companies pull back on designing and innovating on new parts.

To me the worst part is that there will be plenty of reviews of these new cards, when the performance is far from new; why not just copy/paste the numbers from the old 9800GTX+ and 8800GT articles?

 

[SunnyD]

My thoughts are that you could have posted this in any of the old rebranding-related threads.

Interesting it took you 3.5 years for your second post though.

 

[Denithor]

Meh.

The GPU makers have been doing this for years, why stop now?

If anything it will make a little more sense as the names will correspond to different performance levels.

Of course, I suppose it kills the concept of a "mid-range" GT200 card at this point.

 

[oopyseohs]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
My thoughts are that you could have posted this in any of the old rebranding-related threads.

Interesting it took you 3.5 years for your second post though.

Sorry!! I did a search before posting but I couldn't find anything.

And yeah, I usually don't participate in discussions. What can I say- I'm non-confrontational!

 

[krnmastersgt]

Didn't nVidia only release the 8800 GT to take control of the market again? The G92 was meant for the GF9 series from what I remember, packaging some lower clocked versions gave us the 8800 GT, hence the reason GF9 looked so bad.

 

[OCGuy]

The same way I feel about ATi's rebranding practices:

If all you do is walk into BB and point at the video card with the cool box and the biggest numbers, you deserve whatever you get.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
The same way I feel about ATi's rebranding practices:

If all you do is walk into BB and point at the video card with the cool box and the biggest numbers, you deserve whatever you get.

Well, in all honesty - going with this approach with ATI cards leads you to the 4870... meaning the biggest and bestest non-rebranded card. Next is the 4850, then the 4830. Things get a wee bit fuzzy when you start going down from there.

It's not quite as bad as NVIDIA, which has three or four different sub-models of the same card for each level (9800GT, 9800GTX, 9800GTX+ for example), some of which aren't even the same chip! (9600GT, 9600GSO, 9600GSO 512). Then there's vendor confusion - GTX260, GTX260+, GTX260+ SC, GTX+260 SSC, GTX260+ Your Mom Edition FTW Supermegaultra.

 

[AVP]

Actually you might end up with a 9800 agp card. I bet there is still one somewhere on some shelf in Best Buy somewhere. Or better yet they will tell you that Nvidia fx 5200 is better than a 4870, duh.

 

[Jacen]

I mentioned this in the hardocp/inq thread, this really isn't anything new especially for Nvidia. Geforce 4MX anyone? While not specifically a "rebrand" they took a lesser product and branded it with a "better" name to help sell more of them. Old habits die hard imho.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
The same way I feel about ATi's rebranding practices:

If all you do is walk into BB and point at the video card with the cool box and the biggest numbers, you deserve whatever you get.

Well, in all honesty - going with this approach with ATI cards leads you to the 4870... meaning the biggest and bestest non-rebranded card. Next is the 4850, then the 4830. Things get a wee bit fuzzy when you start going down from there.

It's not quite as bad as NVIDIA, which has three or four different sub-models of the same card for each level (9800GT, 9800GTX, 9800GTX+ for example), some of which aren't even the same chip! (9600GT, 9600GSO, 9600GSO 512). Then there's vendor confusion - GTX260, GTX260+, GTX260+ SC, GTX+260 SSC, GTX260+ Your Mom Edition FTW Supermegaultra.

:laugh:

 

[oopyseohs]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Your Mom Edition FTW Supermegaultra.

:laugh:

you just made my day. wow. You are right about NVIDIA also having a super confusing naming policy. 9800GTX+ and GTX 260 Core 216 probably are the worst culprits.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: oopyseohs

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Your Mom Edition FTW Supermegaultra.

:laugh:

you just made my day. wow. You are right about NVIDIA also having a super confusing naming policy. 9800GTX+ and GTX 260 Core 216 probably are the worst culprits.

Oh... let's see...

8800GS, 8800GT, 8800GTS, 8800GTS 320, 8800GTS 640, 8800GTX, 8800 Ultra.

So... tell me... which is better than which?

I'm not saying ATI is free of blame. Take a look at their X800 series... But for the current state of things... good 'ole Nvidia wins this round of market confusion.

 

[oopyseohs]

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: oopyseohs

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Your Mom Edition FTW Supermegaultra.

:laugh:

you just made my day. wow. You are right about NVIDIA also having a super confusing naming policy. 9800GTX+ and GTX 260 Core 216 probably are the worst culprits.

Oh... let's see...

8800GS, 8800GT, 8800GTS, 8800GTS 320, 8800GTS 640, 8800GTX, 8800 Ultra.

So... tell me... which is better than which?

I'm not saying ATI is free of blame. Take a look at their X800 series... But for the current state of things... good 'ole Nvidia wins this round of market confusion.

Oh wow.. How could I forget those. That 8800GTS thing was DUMB.

 

[HOOfan 1]

Originally posted by: Jacen
I mentioned this in the hardocp/inq thread, this really isn't anything new especially for Nvidia. Geforce 4MX anyone? While not specifically a "rebrand" they took a lesser product and branded it with a "better" name to help sell more of them. Old habits die hard imho.

Eactly, to the type of people who read this forum, it is really a non-issue as we read these forums and countless other tech websites and therefore we know better.

ATI is also rebranding cards as well, so whatever.

 

[OCGuy]

OMG! The rebranding horror!

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: oopyseohs

Originally posted by: SunnyD
My thoughts are that you could have posted this in any of the old rebranding-related threads.

Interesting it took you 3.5 years for your second post though.

Sorry!! I did a search before posting but I couldn't find anything.

And yeah, I usually don't participate in discussions. What can I say- I'm non-confrontational!

Or you're a troll.

Or getting paid to bash Nvidia.

 

[SSChevy2001]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
OMG! The rebranding horror!

That's a BS story from Fudzilla, but thanks for wishing AMD was the same.

Here's the original link which dates July 2008
http://www.fudzilla.com/index....view&id=8490&Itemid=34

 

[geokilla]

I somewhat like what NVIDIA's doing. Basically, they're gonna be releasing mainstream to high-end cards, while they'll keep production of the older cards and pushing them down the ladder. The 8800GT which used to be a moderate to high end GPU back in the 8800GTX days could now be considered mainstream. So it's like 2 years from now, the current "king", GTX280 may be renamed GTS360 and it'll become a mainstream card, while we'll be getting a GTX380 as a high-end enthusiast card.

 

[SSChevy2001]

Originally posted by: HOOfan 1
ATI is also rebranding cards as well, so whatever.

Which of these cards are rebranded?
4350, 4550, 4650, 4670, 4380, 4850, 4850x2, 4870, 4870x2.

 

[bluemax]

Can anything beat ATI with rebadging the Radeon 8500 almost a dozen times?

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
It's not quite as bad as NVIDIA, which has three or four different sub-models of the same card for each level (9800GT, 9800GTX, 9800GTX+ for example), some of which aren't even the same chip! (9600GT, 9600GSO, 9600GSO 512). Then there's vendor confusion - GTX260, GTX260+, GTX260+ SC, GTX+260 SSC, GTX260+ Your Mom Edition FTW Supermegaultra.

You fail to see the point of Nvidia's approach of saturating the market with various SKUs: to erase and marginalize ATI products in the overall GPU landscape. Just look at reviews over the last few years, particularly when ATI parts weren't competitive. You might see 2, 3, 4 Nvidia parts for every ATI part, all of which were different enough in performance to justify a different SKU and all of which beat out the ATI parts. I'd say the strategy worked pretty well for NV as they enjoyed record profits for most of that period while increasing market share.

In any case, getting worked up over subjective product/marketing branding is utterly pointless, its been this way since CPUs came off the MHz system. Both sides do it and will continue to do so. Speaking of which...... ATI rebadges the RV770 for their new high-end part.

 

[Jacen]

Isn't rebranding with different specs/clocks/memory configurations a bit different than the same exact card?

Apparently with these you could literally review the old cards and probably not see a difference when using the same drivers.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: chizow
Speaking of which...... ATI rebadges the RV770 for their new high-end part.

The main difference is that it will not carry the moniker "4870", thereby clearly indicating a performance difference. While I don't think it should be called the "4970", but rather something more in line with the same series like "4890" to denote no architectural change.

As I said, neither company is immune from reproach. But in this generation of video cards, at least ATI has a much more clear convention (until they actually rebrand the 3000-series cards in and they're on market).

As a side note - I just noticed that article mentioned the 4970, then goes on to poll about the 4890. Hmm... not to mention "sources" and "informers". There's also the blurb about AMD keeping people in the dark about the RV770... but all of this is tin-foil-hat territory and doesn't belong in this conversation until it actually happens.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
The main difference is that it will not carry the moniker "4870", thereby clearly indicating a performance difference. While I don't think it should be called the "4970", but rather something more in line with the same series like "4890" to denote no architectural change.

As I said, neither company is immune from reproach. But in this generation of video cards, at least ATI has a much more clear convention (until they actually rebrand the 3000-series cards in and they're on market).

As a side note - I just noticed that article mentioned the 4970, then goes on to poll about the 4890. Hmm... not to mention "sources" and "informers". There's also the blurb about AMD keeping people in the dark about the RV770... but all of this is tin-foil-hat territory and doesn't belong in this conversation until it actually happens.

lol huh? Just because they name it a different, yet still completely subjective and arbitrary numerical designation means its not a rebrand of the same exact RV770 core? That makes no sense, whatsoever. Oh and they also decided to rebrand the core as well and call it an RV790. You might as well say you have no problem when ATI randomly names their parts or rebadges their products, only if Nvidia does it.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: SunnyD
The main difference is that it will not carry the moniker "4870", thereby clearly indicating a performance difference. While I don't think it should be called the "4970", but rather something more in line with the same series like "4890" to denote no architectural change.

As I said, neither company is immune from reproach. But in this generation of video cards, at least ATI has a much more clear convention (until they actually rebrand the 3000-series cards in and they're on market).

As a side note - I just noticed that article mentioned the 4970, then goes on to poll about the 4890. Hmm... not to mention "sources" and "informers". There's also the blurb about AMD keeping people in the dark about the RV770... but all of this is tin-foil-hat territory and doesn't belong in this conversation until it actually happens.

lol huh? Just because they name it a different, yet still completely subjective and arbitrary numerical designation means its not a rebrand of the same exact RV770 core? That makes no sense, whatsoever. Oh and they also decided to rebrand the core as well and call it an RV790. You might as well say you have no problem when ATI randomly names their parts or rebadges their products, only if Nvidia does it.

Let's wait until this next part is actually announced before we make any assumptions shall we? As I said, neither company is beyond reproach, but right now Nvidia seems to covet the title moreso.