X-bit labs

ASUS Ignores GeForce 6800 GS, GeForce 7800 GTX 512.

Category: Video

by Anton Shilov

[ 12/28/2005 | 08:51 PM ]

The competition between the world’s leading suppliers of graphics processing units – ATI Technologies and NVIDIA Corp. – might hit a new milestone as at least one maker of graphics cards does not want to update its product lineup with new products powered by the recently unveiled chips.

One of the world’s most influential makers of computer components, ASUSTeK Computer, still has not launched products based on the latest graphics processors unveiled by NVIDIA Corp., a leading supplier of graphics processing units (GPUs). Particularly, ASUS has not added NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS and GeForce 7800 GTX 512 products, even though it was supposed to, according to a press-release by NVIDIA Corp.

The move by ASUSTeK may indicate that the company now wants to sell the existing products before pushing new competitors to the market. It may also indicate that the models 6800 GS and 7800 GTX 512 are not here to stay for long, but will be replaced by more powerful offerings soon enough.

The company already has a broad lineup of GeForce 6800-series products, thus, adding another one is likely to slowdown sales of already existing products. Currently the company ships 5 single-chip GeForce 6800-series graphics cards and even lists one dual-GPU GeForce 6800 GT-based board on its web-site, even though the product has been abandoned according to representatives of the company.

A reason why ASUSTeK has not yet launched its GeForce 7800 GTX 512 board may be its very unique product lineup amid extremely tight supply of high-speed G70 and GDDR3 memory chips: at press time search-engine Pricewatch located no GeForce 7800 GTX 512 available in the U.S. The same search system discovered six offerings to obtain the competing RADEON X1800 XT. However, among the offerings there was not ASUSTeK’s recently unveiled EAX1800 XT TOP graphics card powered by overclocked RADEON X1800 XT. But instead of the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 ASUS ships its Extreme N7800GT Dual graphics card powered by two GeForce 7800 GT graphics processors as well as Extreme N7800GTX TOP based on overclocked GeForce 7800 GTX.

In the light of the fact that graphics cards makers now have opportunities to install two GPUs on a single board as well as overclock single-chip graphics cards, it is highly possible to expect more makers to follow ASUSTeK’s initiative and have a unique product lineup instead of going after developers of graphics processors and offering its clients a product family suggested by ATI or NVIDIA.

ASUSTeK’s official representatives could not be reach for comment due to holidays.