Chaintech Computer plans to introduce a four-layer graphics card line based on Nvidia’s new NV17 chip in late February or early March. By using a four-layer design, instead of the originally planned six-layer design, and changing some layouts and components, Chaintech hopes to reduce costs. The card has already entered the product design stage.
It is not the first time that Chaintech adopted such a cost-down strategy. When manufacturing its M400 cards, Chaintech also rearranged layouts to create more cost-competitive products.
Other graphics card makers said that rearranging some designs to enable more economical production is rather common in the industry. However, as the performance will be inevitably undermined, such redesigned products are usually made to fulfill OEM orders, instead of being shipped to the much more performance-sensitive clone market.
To increase profits, Chaintech will focus more on high-end products such as the NV17 cards this year.
The new card will be produced at Chaintech’s Dongguan, Guangdong Province (China) plant, as are all of its graphics cards. Chaintech expects to ship 2.5 million graphics cards this year, up from 1.8 million units in 2001. According to sources, Chaintech has landed considerable orders this year, and its January shipments are likely to set a record and surpass 300,000 units.
Article translated by Christy Lee and edited by Richard So
