Graphics cards makers Gainward and Leadtek recently initiated countdowns on their web-sites, which may indicate a launch of new products by the companies and their primary supplier of graphics processors, NVIDIA Corp.

Both firms do not give any hints about the launch, but the flash banners that represent countdowns have NVIDIA's logo on them and advice to ?prepare yourself for the ultimate graphics experience? Late on Sunday the banners indicated that the new product was eight days away. Both Gainward and Leadtek use similar flash footages, which may point out that those were originally made by NVIDIA, however, the graphics chip designer did not have similar countdown on its web-site at press time.

It is possible that the time is being counted till the debut of NVIDIA's code-named G70 processor, which is likely to be branded as the GeForce 7800.

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 graphics processor is expected to feature 24 pixel and 8 vertex pipelines and to operate at 430MHz, HKEPC web-site recently informed. It is unknown whether the G70-series of the graphics processing units will get any feature-set upgrade compared to the GeForce 6800-series that supports Shader Model 3.0. Some sources suggest that NVIDIA's code-named G70 chip would be made using 0.11 micron process technology at TSMC. By contrast, NVIDIA's present top-of-the-range chip GeForce 6800 Ultra is manufactured at IBM's facility in East Fishkill, NY, using 0.13 micron fabrication process.

NVIDIA already showcased graphics cards based on the GeForce 7800-series graphics processors at E3 and Computex Taipei shows, but behind closed doors. In San Francisco, California, later this month the company is likely to offer gamers to experience performance of what is expected to become the world's fastest graphics chip to date for the first time.

NVIDIA officials did not comment for this news-story.

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