Lately, NVIDIA has somehow developed the rather bad habit of renaming previous generation models and then trying to really pass them off as part of the latest generation of graphics cards. Previous examples include the GeForce 8800 GS becoming the GeForce 9600 GSO edition, but also the GeForce 8800 GT being rebranded as the GeForce 9800 GT, both of which resulted from the G92 chip. The latest spate of renaming stems largely from NVIDIA's difficulty in getting a scaled down version of the GT200 out the door to cater to the lower segments of the market, where the majority of sales reside. Consequently NVIDIA has no choice but to let the G92 live on and to fill in this part of the market. - VR-Zone

NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB Graphics Style Review

We have no issue with allowing an architecture to live longer than what would be expected, but NVIDIA has plans just to rename most of their GeForce 9 series according to their new naming convention. NVIDIA argues that the new names of the cards reflect their positioning in the current lineup of models. Their argument, however, falls flat when you consider that price already serves as a pretty decent indicator of a model's positioning in the performance spectrum. Anyway, back to the GeForce GTS 250, it's just a renamed GeForce 9800 GTX+ version. The only thing that we expect to change is power consumption, due to a PCB redesign.

Note that, while 1GB versions of the GeForce GTS 250 will at release already be using the new reference design or manufacturers' own custom designs, a 512MB card might be a GeForce 9800 GTX+ with a BIOS flash, at least until old stocks are cleared out. So if you must have a shorter board to fit into your small form factor PC or something like that, go for the 1GB version of the GeForce GTS 250 or wait some time for the old design to be cleared out of existing stocks. The cards from Galaxy and TwinTech that we have here today are not reference cards though, and both do come with 1GB of memory and custom heatsink.

The raw processing power of the Radeon HD 4870 512MB exceeds that of the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, so NVIDIA is obviously banking on the extra 512MB to give it an advantage. Unfortunately this just doesn't happen much at all. Moving slightly down the price range, we have the GeForce GTS 250 512MB and the Radeon HD 4850 512MB neck and neck in terms of both performance and price. If you are going to base your purchase solely on those two factors, then go for whichever brand you like. And if this article shows anything apart from NVIDIA's desperation, slapping on more memory can't make up for raw processing power.

Some time back, several AMD partners released 1GB versions of the Radeon HD 4850. These cards turned out to be nearly as expensive as the Radeon HD 4870 512MB versions. Quite unsurprisingly, those models flopped. And the GeForce GTS 250 1GB from NVIDIA follows in their footsteps.