Just over a day after the launch of Nvidia's GeForce 7900 GS and GeForce 7950 GT graphics cards, the guys over at Beyond3D have learned that ATI plans to do some fiddling with its Radeon X1900 GT.

The new spec lowers the clock speed by 63MHz, from 575MHz to 512MHz, while increasing the memory speed by 60MHz from 600MHz to 660MHz (1320MHz effective). A PCB redesign is also included to accomodate a fan change anticpated to produce improved accoustics, and HDCP capability is included by default on the new boards. So, in exchange for a modest core decrease, purchasers of the new board will get faster memory, a hopefully quieter fan, and HDCP. As partners are expecting overall performance to remain pretty close, this doesn't sound like an unreasonable set of tradeoffs to be making.

Unfortunately, by deciding against a new name ("X1900 GT SE", anyone?) the situation becomes rife for some confusion for individual purchasers. There will be two signficantly different "X1900 GT" abroad in the land, and consumers who care about the difference between them should be careful to determine they know which they are purchasing until the stock of the old model disappears completely. The new model is not yet available in the channel, but it shouldn't be much longer before it makes its appearance.