While some argue that Nvidia is treading in deep water (what with AMD's current lead in the graphics market and all), most can agree on one thing: Nvidia's rebranding policies are annoying and misleading. For instance, the company's G92 GPU made its way into GeForce 8800, 9800, GTS 200, GTX 200M products. More recently, the GT218 has appeared in GeForce 200, 300 and Ion 2 lines.
Facing strong criticism among enthusiasts, Nvidia addressed concerns in a chat with Bit-Tech. The company said that it only rebrands products at the request of large PC OEMs. Nvidia also said that despite how much consumers complain about its rebranding exercises and how confusing it makes buying a new graphics card, most rebrands are OEM-only products and will "never be seen within the retail space."
Unfortunately, Bit-Tech couldn't get the names of companies asking Nvidia to rebrand its graphics solutions. Rebranding a product creates demand without the expense of actually building something new, and Nvidia isn't the only one who does it. The Tech Report notes that AMD appeased the requests of partners with its Mobility Radeon HD 5165 and 5145, which are simply faster 4000-series products.