NVIDIA planning NV50 for mid-2006

ATI accelerated production of its R580 (Radeon X1900) and NVIDIA is planning to roll out three new 90nm GPU by the latter half of Q1 2006, DigiTimes reports.

The site claims ATI and NVIDIA made these moves to offset the impact of Intel's Broadwater chipsets which include the Graphic Media Accelerator (GMA) integrated graphics solution.

Intel’s upcoming 965-series chipsets, the G965, Q965, and Q963 series all integrate its GMA graphics core. Introduction of the chipset is reportedly slated for the second quarter of next year.

NVIDIA is working on the 90nm G71 (high-end), G72 (mid-range) and G73 (entry-level) GPUs and is aiming to launch the NV50 by mid-2006. The NV50 will be NVIDIA's next-generation flagship but I don't really understand why they decided to codename it NV50. About a year ago NVIDIA also had a GPU codenamed NV50 but according to a couple of reports it was cancelled because it didn't fit well in NVIDIA's picture.