Nvidia Corp. plans to re-name its graphics cards once again in a bid to spur interest towards its products and try to simplify its product lineup. However, graphics cards that are hardly different from those available a year ago, but which carry new names, will cause a mess on the market.

According to Nvidia’s recently released ForceWare 178.15 drivers, the company plans to quietly unveil GeForce GTS 150, GeForce GT 130 and GeForce GT 120 graphics cards shortly. Unfortunately, the new products will be hardly different from already available graphics cards, however, they will attract attention of end-users and system integrators, something that Nvidia needs these days.

The GeForce GTS 150 will be based on code-named G92 chip that powers massive amount of graphics cards, including GeForce 8800 GT, 8800 GTS, 8800 GS, 9600 GSO, 9800 GT, 9800 GTS, 9800 GX2. Actual configuration of the graphics card is unknown, but it would be logical to expect its characteristics to resemble those of 9800 GTX.

Nvidia’s GeForce GT 130 will be powered by the G94 that is also available on GeForce 9600 GT, 9600 GS, 9550 GT, 9800 S, 9700 S and so on.

The GeForce GT 120, which features code-named G96 chip onboard, will be the successor of such graphics cards as GeForce 8600 GT, GeForce 8600 GTS, 9400 GT, 9500 GT as well s 9500 GS.

The new graphics cards will support DirectX 10 as well as hardware decoding of high-definition video streams along with advanced video post-processing, however, they will not bring any new features or considerable performance improvements. For example, the GeForce GT 120 will deliver the same functionality and performance as the GeForce 8600 GT, which was made available in April ’07.

It is unknown whether Nvidia plans to reconsider pricing of new graphics cards compared to existing ones.

With the new renaming, this will be the third re-branding of Nvidia GeForce graphics cards without substantial improvements of feature-set or performance.

Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: Nvidia, Geforce