Rumour control: Nvidia GeForce 9 in February 2008

High end 65nm chip is alleged to support DirectX 10.1

The beginning of next year looks set for the next generation of high-end graphics cards, with ATI launching its dual-chip Radeon HD 3700 X2 cards and, so the rumour goes, Nvidia bringing out its next generation GeForce 9 series of GPUs in February.

Like the new Radeon HD 3800 chips, DigiTimes says that the GeForce 9 series will support DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1. The site claims to have spoken to graphics card makers over in Taiwan, who say that the first chip will be codenamed D9E, and will be a ‘high-end product that adopts 65nm manufacturing.’ The site’s sources also said that a mid-range 55nm GeForce 9 part, codenamed D9P, will be released later in June 2008.

We’ve seen very little action in the high-end graphics arena since Nvidia completely misjudged its spoiler for ATI’s Radeon HD 2900XT launch with the overpowered GeForce 8800 Ultra. Instead, the last few months have seen the main focus shift to mid-range graphics cards, such as the GeForce 8800 GT and Radeon HD 3850.

Nvidia refused to comment on the story, simply saying that 'we do not comment on unnanounced products or rumours.'