NVIDIA continues ridiculous name games

Robert Hallock 17 Feb, 2009 at 1:13pm ET Article published in Tech

Expreview is delivering word that the upcoming GeForce GTS 240 and GeForce GTS 250 are slightly modified, or outrightly rebadged versions of existing cards.

GeForce GTS 240 = GeForce 9800GT with a +75/188/400MHz core/shader/memory boost

GeForce GTS 250 = GeForce 9800GTX+ with no changes.

We imagine the discussion went something like this:
<BeanCounters> The market stinks and our sales are slipping. What can we do?
<Marketers> We can release our next-gen architecture! It’s amazing!
<Engineers> No, we can’t. The G200 process leaks like a sieve when we shrink it.
<BeanCounters> FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU–
<Marketers> OH, OH, I KNOW! We can rebadge existing GPUs! It worked for the 9800GT, so let’s do it again! IT’S BRILLIANT.
<BeanCounters> k.
<Engineers> 🙁 k.

Comments

17 Feb 2009 ~ 1:35pm Leonardo The sad part is that this marketing horse dung will probably work. There are so many people who will seek out an upgrade based on new model names and numbers with few other considerations. People like us will roll our eyes and curse at Nvidia, meanwhile Best Buy shoppers will be oohing and ahhing over Nvidia's 'latest' cards on the shelves, and "hey, it's not as expensive, Nvidia is so cool, man!"
17 Feb 2009 ~ 1:44pm Tim It makes sense to me, the new 260 / 280 / 295 - whatever cards are the "new" versions, while I look at the 9800 / 9600 / 8600 - whatever numbered cards as "the OLD stuff", no matter how good they may be.
17 Feb 2009 ~ 1:49pm Thrax A fool and his money.
17 Feb 2009 ~ 1:51pm mas0n
17 Feb 2009 ~ 1:58pm Kwitko Tim, I've got a brand new FX3000GTX+ Special Ultra Black Limited Edition to sell you. It's really an old GeForce 256, but it has a new name, so it's better than the old one.
17 Feb 2009 ~ 2:08pm NiGHTS I guess I'm missing something...I can agree with marketing attempting to clarify which card's better than the other with an incremental numbering system.

Is the problem here that they're advertised as "new" when they aren't?
17 Feb 2009 ~ 2:12pm Thrax

NiGHTS wrote:

Is the problem here that they're advertised as "new" when they aren't?

Ding.
17 Feb 2009 ~ 2:19pm Leonardo Tim, I understand your point - that technically Nvidia could group these cards together under the 2XX nomenclature because they are 'new,' in the sense that they are the current family of cards offered. Although I understand your point, in my opinion, Nividia is playing marketing shenanigans purely to confuse people into buying cards when nothing significant has changed.

It's typical marketing strategies played out in nearly all industries, from breakfast cereals, to hand tools, to computer components. Those who fail to study (research) will always be taken in by the marketing dirtbags. Yes, a sucker truly is born every minute and there are professionals trained to spot and market to that sucker.

Tim, you and I won't buy a new product based on its name, but I have no doubt there will be many thousands of gamers looking at these 2XX cards on store shelves thinking, "hmm, it's a 250, wow, probably almost as fast as the 285, and only half the cost..what a deal!" If Nvidia still produced it, it wouldn't surprise me to see them resurrect the 5200, upclock it by 10%, and sell it as the New Nvidia 230 GX Super Duper You Are a Gaming Hero card, at 25% higher cost than the original 5200.

And people would buy it.
17 Feb 2009 ~ 2:23pm Leonardo Oh, let me continue. In the last few months, being the pre-owned computer parts trader that I am (second only to Gnomewizzzarrrddd), I've bought and sold a number of Nvidia 88 and 98 series cards. I have not been able to ask the same price for my 8800s as the 9800s I've sold, although they are essentially the same cards. 9800 looks so much smarter than the old, dusty '8800' name.

Oh, BTW, I have a fresh RMA XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Edition (SuperHeroOfTheWorld III) video card coming in from XFX any day now.... The name alone makes it perform better! And, and, that tacky boy wonder graphic on the heatsink makes all my middle aged friends think I'm so cool! You just can't pay any price for intangibles like that!
17 Feb 2009 ~ 4:59pm drasnor

Leonardo wrote:

Oh, BTW, I have a fresh RMA XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Edition (SuperHeroOfTheWorld III) video card coming in from XFX any day now.... The name alone makes it perform better! And, and, that tacky boy wonder graphic on the heatsink makes all my middle aged friends think I'm so cool! You just can't pay any price for intangibles like that!

Oh please, everyone knows all the cool kids have anime babe graphics on their heatsinks.

-drasnor
17 Feb 2009 ~ 6:59pm foolkiller I think Nvidia just ran out of numbers for their naming scheme so they wanted to update it. We had the Geforce / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5000 (FX) / 6000 / 7000 / 8000 / 9000

While I'm sure a Geforce 10,000 would be nice, I bet it costs an aweful lot of ink to print all those digits, so instead, just a few off, and start with 2 again, just to keep things simple. Don't forget to rebadge all your older part numbers to match.

This truly is nothing new, companies in every industry do it all the time. They don't really care about the consumer. They care about making sales, and as long as they can keep track in corporate which card is which, they are quite happy to sell you a 9800 GTX with a GTX 250 name.

ALL HAIL PROFIT!
17 Feb 2009 ~ 10:47pm Gnomewizardd Eh its nothing surprising! Nvidia will make money off it and they also will re-badge the current 2xx series when they release the 3xx series, Oh and Leo I maybe 1st in trading but ur 1st in my heart!
17 Feb 2009 ~ 10:49pm GnomeWizardd Yes that's me not a guest, I was too lazy to realize i wasn't logged in, I guess the question of weather water makes u wet or dry shoulda tipped me off
17 Feb 2009 ~ 11:23pm Garg I wish we'd go back to a numbing scheme that lasted more than a generation and a half. My old GeForce 256 is starting to sound current generation.
17 Feb 2009 ~ 11:39pm Leonardo

GeForce 256

You are on to something, Gargoyle! 256, let's say 256 GTX, 256 GTX+, 256+ Dragon Slayer Edition, ~OC edition.... Possibilities are endless.
18 Feb 2009 ~ 3:54pm Tim I personally don't buy any computer parts without researching them on the internet firsat and reading performance reviews, but many people just see the new hottest gee-whiz thing at Best Buy or Wal Mart, and grab it without thinking because their friend in high school told them it's better and faster.

This numbering / naming game will continue until we are buying computers that have the cpu, ram, gpu, northbridge, southbridge, etc, all burned into one single chip of silicon, and even them they will probably find a way to put their marketing BS to work on it.

I've been wondering for a while now what Nvidia would do when their graphics card numbers got close to 10,000.
18 Feb 2009 ~ 3:56pm Tim Hey Gargoyle, try putting that GeForce 256 on eBay with a $150 Buy It Now and the full original product description, some dumb ass will buy it, I'll bet.
18 Feb 2009 ~ 4:25pm Thrax It won't sell as well as a Nintendo Wii, though.
19 Feb 2009 ~ 12:10am foolkiller Don't forget to put VINTAGE and RARE in the description for that Geforce 256. All the gaming auctions just HAVE to have that, heh.
19 Feb 2009 ~ 12:54am Liame ha, they shoulda just done,

New Nvidia 10k-GTX or 10K-GTX
"Ten K" sounds cool and would sell, especially since people are used to that from things like Win2k. Plus a "10K" is a 'race,' and they could play that into the whole "speed" thing.

How about a card that auto-evolves, instead of having to replace one every 2 years, maybe it could be "core-swappable," but that wouldn't likely work, because they change too many other things besides just the core GPU - like the numbers and the avatars.
;-)
19 Feb 2009 ~ 12:59am Leonardo

Don't forget to put VINTAGE and RARE in the description for that Geforce 256

Take any ancient Apple product and add "classic" in a Craigslist advertisement.