GeForce GTS250 hating time...

Nvidia is about to issue another rebrand of their G92 chips, this time calling GTS 240 at the GeForce 9800GT and GTS 250 at the GeForce 9800GTX+.

Charlie at the Inquirer is rather irritated with this, especially because Nvidia seems to be trying to throw some serious bias at reviewers:

Just what are the green fumblers doing this time? Two things: one bad, the other downright deceptive. The bad one is simple, if you don't review Nvidia cards and say that PhysX is the greatest thing since sliced bread and CUDA makes sex better, you aren't doing a good enough job. They will gently nudge you to change your tune, basically praise PhysX and CUDA until you wear the letters off your keyboard.

And that is bad, very bad, if there's some thruth to it. We're facing some rather though times - Nvidia especially - which usually leads people to desperate acts.

Thing is, if the price is competitive, this isn't a dispicable rebranding, yet again. Nvidia is marketing these cards at the mainstream, not the high-end, and people seem to forget that - if anything there's a hint of honesty this time around. Whereas the G92 was branded as the 9 series 800 model, both in GT and GTX form, these are being explicitely positioned below the raining GTXs, where cut down chips like the 600 models usually end up. (Still, this will all come down to price, not model numbers)
While the 9600GT was quite a decent performer, some 600 series cards aren't usually that good, especially when Nvidia is on top - you have the 8600GT as the best example and the 5600 as a similar one.
This time around, they're being marketed as the 240 and 250, which is not what Nvidia should be wishing for cards that still cost a considerable amount of money - this is price range is usually left for the very cut-down 8500GTs, 7600GSs and 9500GTs. Remeber that, once upon a time, the 8800GTX cost $500 and what you could buy for $200 was an 8600GT with 1/4 of the performance.

ATI currently has a very competitive range of cards and Nvidia is hurting. Still, if the price is right, these will still be cards to consider for some people:

Click to enlarge

Performance per buck, the 9800GTX+, err... GTS250, reigns in Crysis Warhead. This isn't the situation in most games, but it's still far from the worst card in the wide range of benchmarks that Anandtech has done.

Forget the marketing, the cut-throat blackmail with review sites, PhysX, CUDA and what not, as a card, what does the GTS 250 pack? Price conscious buyers (and Linux users) may still want to take a better look at this old dog.
ATI is on top but price still plays a major role and that's a card that Nvidia must play well.