NVIDIA is continuing the infuriating practice (though they aren’t alone in doing so) of re-branding older graphics cards into the following generation to present “new” cards (or to confuse consumers and tech journalists to no end, though I suspect that’s just a side benefit). Specifically, they are taking two lower tier desktop OEM cards and rebranding them as 600 series "Kepler" cards. The NVIDIA GT 520 and GT 510 will be renamed the NVIDIA GT 620 and GT 605 respectively. Even more confusing is that the “new” cards will have less hardware, and the only addition is the support for the OpenGL 4.2 standard (versus 4.1 on the 520 and 510).  Other than that, they are two Fermi based cards in Kepler clothing.

The NVIDIA GT 620 replaces the GT 520 and features half of the graphics memory as the 500 series card, meaning that users will get 512 MB or 1 GB on the 620 instead of the 1 GB / 2 GB options of the GT 520. The card still features VGA, DVI, and HDMI video outputs. The remaining specifications can be seen in the chart below. Despite halving the memory, the new card has a very slightly higher TDP at 30 watts versus the rated 29 watts of the GT 520.

geforce-gt-520-oem-f-1000x580-gallery-preview.png

On the other hand, the NVIDIA GT 605 is the new version of the GT 510. The 600 series part also halves the amount of memory of the GT 510 counterpart with 512 MB and 1 GB versions compared to 1 GB and 2 GB versions of the GT 510. The GT 605 also has VGA, DVI, and HDMI ports. It is rated at a TDP of 25 watts like the GT 510.

  GT 510 GT 605 GT 520 GT 620
Graphics Clock 523 MHz 523 MHz 810 MHz 810 MHz
Processor Clock 1046 MHz 1046 MHz 1620 MHz 1620 MHz
Memory Clock (up to) 898 MHz 898 MHz 898 MHz 898 MHz
Memory (DDR3) 1 or 2 GB 512 or 1024 MB 1 or 2 GB 512 or 1024 MB
OpenGL 4.1 4.2 4.1 4.2
Maximum Resolution 2560×1600 2560×1600 2560×1600 2560×1600

Reference GT 500 and GT 600 Series Specifications (changes in bold).

According to Tom’s, the “new” cards are still Fermi based despite the new implied Kepler generation naming scheme. Granted, these are OEM cards but it still is a bit dishonest to rebrand them, especially in the case of the GT 620 where it is the same rank but with the Kepler generation digit at the beginning. There have been some comments around the Internet that the two new rebranded cards were brought into play to allow OEMs to sell PCs with new 600 series discrete graphics. At this level, it really doesn’t matter per se as they will still do HTPC and desktop graphics well enough and are not going to be purchased by customers directly, but it’s still annoying (heh). What do you guys think about the graphics card rebranding in general, whether it’s on the desktop or mobile market?