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It used to be common for graphics cards to go through what we would call a “spring refresh” period. New products would hit the market that use new chips based on the same architecture of the chips released in the previous Fall. The new chips would have a few simple changes designed mostly to juice-up clock speeds, or to bring a high-end chip down to a more affordable level, offering more bang for the buck.

These days, we see various “refresh” products, re-branded products, and new architectures released at any time of the year.

This week, Nvidia and ATI are taking the wraps of their new spring products. Nvidia is taking their high-end GT200 chip down a level from the GeForce GTX 285, or perhaps up a notch from the GeForce GTX 260 (core 216 version). The GeForce GTX 275 has the full complement of 240 processing cores like the GTX 280 and 285. However, it has the same number of enabled render back-end units as the GTX 260 core 216—28 instead of the 32 of the “full” GT200 chip.

ATI is taking a slightly different route with the Radeon HD 4890. It is based on a new chip, the RV790, but this new chip is logically identical to the RV770 that powers the Radeon HD 4850 and 4870. New physical layout changes enable higher clock speeds and better power management, but other than that, it’s the same chip.

With both cards hitting the market around the $250 price point, which one should you slap in your gaming rig? Continued…