2012-12-21-181

[UPDATED] GF100 to be branded Nvidia Geforce GTX 480?

Long rumoured to be codenamed GT300, with branding as the GTX 300series, Expreview is now reporting that Nvidia has named GF100 asGeforce GTX 480 for the top model and GTX 470 for the more affordable,cut down variant.

Release is on track for late Q1 2010, i.e. end March, barring furtherdelays. Why Nvidia would seemingly skip a generation is unknown, thoughan upgrade from GTX 285 to GTX 480 does sound psychologically moresignificant than to GTX 380. Considering GF100 is a revolutionaryarchitecture for Nvidia, we could even expect a completely new brandingscheme, like they did for the GT200 series.

While designed to simplify branding, the Geforce 200 series was immensely confusing, using G92 chips from the 9000 generation, GT200, and even newer GT21x shrinks. The notebook branding is even more of a mess, but let us not get into that. Let us hope Geforce 400 consists of straightforward derivatives of GF100.

Interestingly, technically, Nvidia have not completely skipped the 300 series. A reportedly OEM Geforce 310, which is nothing but a rebranded Geforce 210, was launched in late Novermber.

We hope for this generation, Nvidia revert back to a sensible branding strategy that is transparent, clear and fair to consumers, whether it be Geforce 400 series or something else.

Reference: Expreview