Japanese add-in maker IO Data will this month ship an graphics card based on Nvidia's GeForce 7600 GS, this time with support for the HDCP anti-piracy technology. Alas, there's no HDMI connector to go with it.

That said, the passively cooled GA-7600GSH2 card does provide an HDMI-compatible DVI port, along with standard VGA and s-video ports. It's not clear whether the HDCP support is integrated into the GPU. Certainly, HDCP-compliant Nvidia graphics chips have been the subject of rumour of late. Last week, Nvidia announced a version of the GeForce 7600 GT with integrated HDCP support.

IO Data refers to its board's GPU as the "GeForce 7600 GS HDTV" - the suffix suggesting the part does indeed support HDCP.

HDCP is required to allow some HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc content to be played back at full HD resolution. Without the copy-protection system present, movies may be displayed at sub-standard resolutions.

The GA-7600GSH2 contains 256MB of DDR 2 video memory clocked to 800MHz. It's due to go on sale in Japan mid-October for ¥24,200 ($205/£109/€161). ®

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