'New' GTS250?

[chrisk]

Is nVidia rebranding the 8800GT again?

Nvidia cuts out reviewers for the GTS250 - The Inquirer

I know its the Inq, and they certainly like to make nVidia look bad, so take this with a grain of salt. Interesting to see if nVidia has cherry-picked cards and stacked this upcoming review cycle.

If true this is ridiculous IMO...how many names can they put on a single part?

[SKYMTL]

Stay tuned for HWC's official position on this one.

Considering we have not made sweet love to Cuda or PhysX, according to the article we are hooped when it comes to sample allocation.

However, from where I stand Charlie's description seems spot on.

[Dr_BenD_over]

I heard the same rumour elsewhere

NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 to Make Its Debut at Cebit 2009 - Expreview.com

[belgolas]

Yup it is all over the net. A new overclocked 8800 GT with the naming of GTS 250 is coming out.

[Thund3rball]

Wow! Tsk tsk Nvidia. Well they continue to confirm my position on their products since I got my 8800GT on release day... nothing worth upgrading to unless I go GTX 260 or better. S'ok with me, I can spend more money on games instead of gfx cards.

But for shame Nvidia on rigging the reviews. Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess. This is why I hate business. There's no such thing as an honest business.

[chrisk]

Makes you wonder if that other rumour is true about nVidia getting out of the reference card business. One being true does not mean the other is also, but this type of behaviour seems desperate.

[sswilson]

I really don't understand the reasoning behind not wanting to put product in the hands of as many reviewers as they possibly can. Does somebody up top really thing that "bad" news isn't going to get out, and how "sympathetic" do they think that reviewers who have to pony up the cash themselves are going to be?

SKYMTL obviously can't comment too much, but since I'm pretty well out of the review business I'll chime in and let folks know that there is a hell of a lot of crap that goes on behind the scenes WRT who does and doesn't get a review sample.

Many manufacturers "expect" to get some kind of pat on the back no matter what they ship you. Even those who get a reasonable review can be cantankorous if you don't give them a 5 star rating. What they don't realise is that an honest review which points out small issues with the product but still gives it a good overall review is going to sell a lot more product than one that looks like it came straight from the manufacturer's PR department.

Anywise.... < Rant = Off > and I'll let you folks get back to business.... :)

[chrisk]

It's in the best interests of the reviewer to make honest assessments of products. People will simply stop going to the sites that just repackage PR materials. The site dies if nobody clicks the banners.

Its also incredibly short-sighted for companies to coax and demand good reviews. More money will be made long-run if you let people make honest assessments of your products (reviewers, enthusiasts' threads, etc) and you heed the suggestions and complaints. This is common sense to us of course but....

[Thund3rball]

Well coming from a marketing department of a good sized manufacturing company I can honestly say the big wigs hardly give two cents what the general public thinks of their methods or products as long as they are making their margins. Will this ultimately hurt Nvidia... I doubt it. And if their numbers start to slide will they actually decide it's because of their poor business practice as opposed to market conditions or better bang for buck products from competitors? Again... I highly doubt it.

[donimo]

another way of looking at it is the 8800gt sure was a sweet card eh?

ha

I wish I ponied up for one instead of my 1950