Nvidia Corp. on Thursday followed its rival ATI, graphics products group of Advanced Micro Devices, with the refresh of performance-mainstream graphics cards lineup. The Santa Clara, California-based company decided not to introduce a brand-new chip, but just released another slightly cut-down version of its existing GeForce 285/G200b. Nvidia claims that its novelty offers the best price-performance ratio in its category.

“Nvidia today announced the GeForce GTX 275 GPU, the latest addition to Nvidia’s performance GPU lineup, offering first-rate graphics, physics, and GPU computing performance, as well as the absolute best price-performance for today’s value-conscious gamers,” a statement by Nvidia reads.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 graphics card will feature fully-fledged G200b graphics processing unit (GPU) with 240 shader processors (SPs) operating at 1404MHz, 80 texture units (TUs), 30 render back ends (RBEs) working at 633MHz and 448-bit memory interface. The graphics card will be equipped with 896MB of GDDR3 functioning at 2328MHz.

Based on specifications, the GeForce GTX 275 graphics processing unit should be substantially faster compared to the GeForce GTX 260 core 216, but should still lag behind the GeForce GTX 285, which is top-of-the-range single-chip offering from Nvidia. However, considering that ATI Radeon HD 4890 OC, which was released today, is even faster compared to the model 285 in many benchmarks, based on results obtained by X-bit labs, it will be hard for the GTX 275 to compete against it at the same price-point.

Nvdia’s GeForce GTX 275 will be available for 229-$249 globally on or before April 14, 2009. Some regions are available now; other regions are available for pre-order. Current availability varies by region. GeForce GTX 275 will be available from the world’s leading add-in card partners, including: Asustek Computer, BFG, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Sparkle, Zotac, PNY, Point of View, and XFX.

Tags: Nvidia, Geforce, G200b, 55nm