Several online publications are reporting that Nvidia has backed down from its planned GTS 240 rebrand following an outcry by some of its AIB partners who thought it was a very bad idea, and were fed up by the company's rebrands already.

The GTS 240 was to be a 9800 GT rebrand. The fact that the 9800 GT itself is a rebrand of the 8800 GT, and that this was to be its third rebrand in the past 18 months seems to have made some AIBs quite cross. The AIBs reportedly complained to Nvidia, and the company realized it's better to retain the old brand than to loose face with its consumers and partners. Nvidia's recently announced GTS 250 rebrand didn't go down well in the tech press, and it is quite possible that negaive publicity generated by its recent rebrands may have contributed to its decision to leave the 9800 GT be.

According to TC magazine, Nvidia chose to offer three versions of the 9800GT instead. Obviously there will be the plain, regular version, an overclocked version, and a green edition with reduced power consumption. The good thing about the green version is that it won't require external power via a 6-pin PCIe connector, meaning that it will run at 75W from the slot. This fact, coupled with its affordable price will make it a bit more appealing in the upgrade market. Despite that, we would not be surprised to see the GTS240 brand at least for OEM machines.

More here.