NVIDIA reverts to supplying high end GPUs, not the reference boards
 

For years Nvidia Corp. has not sold its high-end graphics processing units separately, but supplied its add-in card partners complete reference graphics boards that were made under Nvidia’s supervision by contract manufacturers. This ensured rapid time-to-market as well as high quality of graphics cards, but also reduced abilities of graphics cards suppliers to differentiate themselves. Under the new policy, Nvidia will allow its partners to acquire GeForce GTX 260 or GeForce 285 graphics processing units and built their own solutions based on them. Potentially, this will allow creating more affordable or higher-performance products powered by existing chips, which may spur demand towards high-end graphics cards.

One of the first high-end non-reference Nvidia GeForce graphics card will be Zotac GeForce GTX 285 powered by G200b graphics chip made using 55nm process technology. The new graphics board will feature re-worked power supply circuitry, which is believed to be a little cheaper to make, even though it is based on the same Intersil ISL6327 processor, just like reference model GTX 285.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/d..._Business.html