Sparkle has officially beaten all the other NVIDIA manufacturers to making a card based on an 80nm GPU. The first 80nm GPU from NVIDIA is a blue 7600GT, based off of the G73 (there is no information on what NVIDIA calls the 80nm version of the G73). The card comes clocked at 650MHz, a full 90MHz faster then 7600GT stock specifications. The memory and memory controller is still the same. The memory is clocked at 1600MHz DDR, and is only 128 bit. The card comes with 12 ROP's, 256MB of memory, and a PCI Express x16 interface. The card should be available in 2007, and offers significant performance benefits when compared to the 90nm version of the same card (roughly 500 points in 3Dmark06).

Feeling lucky? Want to win a GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card, an NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI motherboard, or perhaps 2GB of high performance DDR2 system memory? Starting December 22nd, you have 365 chances to WIN SLI-Ready hardware! It's simple, easy, and open to everyone who has an SLI-Ready or SLI-enabled PC (in qualifying countries*). Prizes include an XFX 8800GTX, a BFG nForce 680i SLI motherboard, a PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 Quad, and 2GB of OCZ DDR2 PC2-7200 SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel RAM.

To register for the giveaway, simply go here if you own an SLI ready desktop, and here if you own an SLI ready notebook.

After [H]ard|OCP has published an article that discusses NVIDIA's nForce 680i chipset problems, NVIDIA stated that they have a BIOS for the reference 680i motherboards design that they "believe resolves the SATA problem." EVGA and others are working with 680i motherboard owners to validate if the fix actually works for all of those folks having issues. The P23 BIOS for EVGA motherboards can be found here for download.

PC Partner is a very large manufacturer of ATI (AMD) cards, and has a huge name in Asia for themselves, as well as their own factories. While PC Partner is known for being a long time maker of only ATI cards, they have decided to begin making NVIDIA cards. PC Partner now offers NVIDIA cards that range from a low profile 7100 to the latest G80s. You can get the latest PC Partner cards with NVIDIA chips here. NVIDIA has not yet convinced Sapphire, the sister site of PC Partner, to make NVIDIA cards.

NVIDIA Corporation, today announced that the Adobe Acrobat 8 product family and Adobe Reader 8 now offer a new page display rendering mode, which uses the graphics processing unit (GPU) to accelerate the drawing and display of pages in PDF format. Building upon the recent performance improvements of Adobe Acrobat 8 and Adobe Reader 8, Adobe has leveraged the power and programmability of the GPU to further turbocharge the display of 2D content in PDF documents.

NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today announced that the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) presented the Company with the "Most Respected Public Fabless Company" award during the annual FSA Awards Dinner on Thursday, December 7, 2006 in Santa Clara, Calif.

When NVIDIA first released the G80 series, they forbid all manufacturers from factory overclocking the cards. With the coming of ATI's R600 cards, NVIDIA has decided to allow manufacturers to overclock the G80 series. There is no mention on how high manufacturers will be allowed to overclock the cards.

According to the Inquirer, NVIDIA, ATI and AMD could be in trouble for apparently conspiring to keep prices high. Allegedly executives of the companies have met to discuss the price of graphics processor units and therefore have received a summons by the Department of Justice, being asked to present data going back into the 1990s.

NVIDIA Corporation, today introduced the immediate availability of the new NVIDIA nForce 680a SLI media and communications processor (MCP), designed specifically for the new AMD Quad FX Platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture. The exclusive core-logic launch partner for AMD Quad FX processors, the NVIDIA nForce 680a SLI MCP provides processing capabilities on a massive scale, by allowing multimedia and megatasking users to harness the power of up to 4 GPUs, 8 displays, 12 SATA hard drives, and 4 gigabit Ethernet connections, all from a single consumer desktop PC.

It was only a matter of time before ATI starts losing market share after the AMD acquisition. According to Jon Peddie Research, ATI's share of the computer-oriented graphics market dropped from 28 per cent in Q2 to 23 per cent in Q3. Market leader Intel's share remained at 40 per cent, but NVIDIA, VIA and SiS all recorded rises, reaching 22 per cent, ten per cent and five per cent, respectively. NVIDIA's market share rose two percentage points. NVIDIA also grew its share of the desktop graphics market, to 25 per cent, JPR said. ATI still holds leader position in the mobile market. Its share fell to 24 per cent, while NVIDIA reached 19 per cent in the quarter.

NVIDIA Corporation, today announced the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500M, a high-performing mobile workstation graphics solution for CAD, Digital Content Creation, and Scientific Visualization.Engineered to deliver unprecedented performance for accelerated workflow and shortened design cycles, the Quadro FX 3500M with support for OpenGL and DirectX, offers up to 512MB G-DDR3 memory, a 256-bit memory interface, up to 38.4GB/s memory bandwidth, and up to 2GB/s pixel read back. The Quadro FX 3500M includes adaptive power management tools designed to provide performance scalability and visualization of extensive datasets with extremely high image quality.

While the 8800 series is the only DX10 capable GPU available on the market, it is too expensive for the mainstream consumer. NVIDIA hopes to fix this issue by developing the G84 series. It is a clocked down version of G80 with less pipes, which means the G84 will be smaller then the G80. It should be available for around $200 to $250 USD, and will be available in late March or early April 2007. ATI (AMD) will not have any mainstream DX10 parts available at that time.

The Inquirer learned that NVIDIA plans to release the G80 driver for Windows Vista, DirectX10 enabled and fully functional, in mid December. NVIDIA is not giving away "review samples" of the driver, but internal sources say that the driver is very nice and works quite well. NVIDIA hasn't released a public Vista driver yet because the mainstream version of Vista is not due for release until January 30th, and NVIDIA wants time to work all the bugs out.

NVIDIA Corporation has received a subpoena from the San Francisco Office of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection with the DOJ's investigation into potential antitrust violations related to graphics processing units and cards. No specific allegations have been made against NVIDIA. NVIDIA plans to cooperate with the DOJ in its investigation.