Now we don't have any additional details, but sometime in December we should finally see NVIDIA's refresh of the GT200 series and this time it will be a 55nm chip. The introduction might even take place in November, but the real McCoy will come in December. Naturally, it should end up cooler and faster, probably clocked a bit higher than the current GT200, and it could be paired up in a dual card, the rumoured dual GT200 55nm card that is. NVIDIA hopes to narrow the gap between ATI cards and their own or if all goes well to get the performance crown back. If you recall, the original plan was to have them out for the Nehalem launch, an ambitious goal considering the timing on the last respin. - FudZilla

NVIDIA 55nm GT200 Again Confirmed But Not Ready

This is NVIDIA's only hope as its real hope, the 40nm chips, are coming March 2009 at the earliest, and we suspect that second quarter 2009 is a much more realistic time frame. Until then they have to try to fight ATI with all they have. There are many people that feel NVIDIA are in the hurt wagon. ATI has been dropped two single card solutions that make light work of the GeForce GTX 280. Looking for any hand hold to get back in the race it seems that the Green team will be refreshing the GT200 just in time for Christmas, with a possible release later this month if all goes well that is, with a next die shrink respin.

Since this is a simple optical shrink, there are going to be no new features, so that leaves better power, higher clocks, and lower prices as an option. Since most if not all GT200 based parts are selling at little if any profit don't look for price being the point that will go down really. That leaves power and speed. Unfortunately, the shrink is a mess and not working out well at all, so neither of those features panned out. Where does that leave us? With a shrunken GT200 that doesn't really perform any better or worse than the current part, but gives NVIDIA a little better breathing room. That is the current best case.

With that in mind, NVIDIA is probably going to slipstream 55nm parts into their mix, likely without much fanfare. Anything more would get an eventual launch, if they can get the shrink done right, and that is a big if right now. The other tactic, and don't put it past them, is to launch an upclocked 55nm part to try and gain back the halo. That brings us to the GX2, the dual GPU card. Suppliers tell us that it is quite dead. We thought it was an impossible thing to pull off when we first analysed the part, and well it looks like several universal physical constants agreed with us. Thermodynamics is a bitch.