It is not a secret that Nvidia Corp., currently the only supplier of DirectX 10-compliant visual processing units, is working on various versions of its GeForce 8-series graphics chips for various market segments. Which is rather a sensation is that Nvidia already ships beta drivers for Windows Vista that supports top-to-bottom GeForce 8 family, including a rather unexpected model GeForce 8800 Ultra.

Nvidia recently released new ForceWare version 100.41 drivers for Windows Vista operating system which, according to some findings, features support for several graphics products that have not been released so far, including GeForce 8800 Ultra, GeForce 8600 GTS, GeForce 8600 GT, GeForce 8500 GT, GeForce 8400 GS, GeForce 8300 GS.

The GeForce 8800 Ultra may become an overclocked version of the GeForce 8800 GTX, which has been shipping for several month, however, considering the exceptionally low availability of the GeForce 7800 GTX 512, which was released in late 2005 and which featured an overclocked by 120MHz GeForce 7800 GTX chip, the new Ultra may not feature extreme clock-speed, but have other improvements compared to the model 8800 GTX. It is also interesting to note that Nvidia has not used the “Ultra” moniker for its graphics processing units for several years already.

The GeForce 8600, 8500, 8400 and 8300 graphics products are likely to be aimed at performance-mainstream, mainstream and entry-level markets. Their specs currently remain unknown and are subject to change, as graphics chip designers usually tend to tweak their offerings till several weeks before the commercial launch.

The release of the new DirectX 10-supporting graphics cards from Nvidia is likely to increase pressure on ATI, graphics product group of Advanced Micro Devices, who has not yet unveiled any DirectX 10-compliant offerings.

Officials from Nvidia never comment on unreleased products.