NVIDIA Set to Rename Current GPUs

Back in May, it became known that NVIDIA had plans to do something with their lineup’s naming scheme… something to take out the complication for end-users. After all, enthusiasts like you who visit this site know the difference between a 9800 GTX and 9800 PRO, but the majority of people don’t.

When that news was posted, I said, and I quote, “How they plan to do this is unknown, but I’m personally glad I’m not the one in charge, because I have no immediate ideas.” Well as it stands now, I wish they did consult me, because the plans they have coming forward make things no-less confusing for the end-user… not from how I can see, anyhow.

According to TG Daily, NVIDIA’s planning to rename all current 9000 series to G100, which will result in models such as G100, G120, G140, and so on. Alright, I’m willing to admit that such a numbering scheme would be good for now, because obviously, G140 is going to be better than G120, but what happens when ATI comes out with a Radeon HD 160 that happens to be ultra-low-end? Not to say they will, but they’ve stooped that low before (so has NVIDIA).

If I ran things, I think I’d just include a single digit as well as the year (NVIDIA GeForce One 2008, NVIDIA GeForce Two 2008), but that’s impossible when even the companies themselves don’t know what GPUs they’ll be releasing over the course of the year. Oh well, we’ll see how this goes. I don’t expect it to make things any easier on the regular consumer though.

When the 2009 45 nm GPUs arrive, which seems to be the case around Q1 or Q2, Nvidia will have fully transitioned to the new branding structure: Enthusiast GPUs will be integrated into the GTX200-series, performance GPUs into the GT200-series, mainstream GPUs into the GS200-series and entry-level products into the G200-series.