Nvidia preps mid-range offerings

THE TECHNOLOGY WORLD is preparing for the trip out to Hangover, Deutschland this week. Nvidia is expected to introduce a new mid-range to its GeForce 8 series shortly after the show, and will no doubt be offering its closest press buddies a look at the card behind closed doors.

This 8-series mid-range card is the GeForce 8600 GT which is, according to our our Taiwanese friends, a 540/1400MHz card, and is codenamed G84, in the tradition of Nvidia cards since the last forever. Nvidia is hoping this will be uber alles in the $150-180 range, replacing the stalwart 7600 GT and GS.

Meanwhile, you can also check out alleged photos of the $250 variant, the 8600 GTS, in between munching your bratwurst. This runs at 675/2000MHz and will take the place of the 7900 GS and 7950 GT. According to OCW, we might see the GTS before the GT, but release dates are likely to be up in the air - no doubt the green team will be looking to counter ATI's supposed top-to-bottom "We planned it this way, honest guv" R600 launch.

Expect the usual plethora of board partners to come out with the usual outrageous number of variants of clock speeds, memory configurations, HDCP support and fan designs in a bid to cover every $5 segment of the market with a card. With around a month to go until the availability of the GTS part, expect official news about these bad boys to be rolling in very soon. µ