Nvidia launches 512MB Geforce 7800GTX

[waheed]

GPU upgrade boosts clock speeds and increases onboard memory from 256MB to 512MB.

Holiday shopping for the PC enthusiast just got much more expensive.

Graphics manufacturer Nvidia has added a new flagship GPU to its current line of GeForce 7800 graphics processors. The new GPU features higher clock speeds and support for up to 512MB of GDDR3 memory--and a higher price tag.

Manufacturing improvements have allowed Nvidia to increase the GPU clock speeds from 430MHz to 550MHz, and the card can now handle up to 512MB of faster 850MHz GDDR3 memory thanks to a new dual-slot board design. The core clock and memory bandwidth increases will provide immediate performance benefits over other video cards in the latest, hardware-intensive PC games including F.E.A.R. and Quake 4.

The GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB has a $649 MSRP from Nvidia, but actual retail prices will vary since the GPUs have to pass through a board manufacturer and a retailer before it reaches the customer.

A quick check of various online retailers reveals that cards are in stock with prices ranging from $699 to $749.

Source

[Faustus]

There is not an emoticon to express how jealous I am of anyone who gets a card that insane.

[ROF]

When you pay as much or more than a decent sized monitor for a graphics card you have issues to say the least. I'll wait a year and buy the card for under $100.

[shelbyGT]

well either that or you are rich.

[Treebeard]

You can wait a year and the card will not be $100, no way. 2year old cards are still over $100.

Sidenote - Imagine the performance of this in SLI mode - 1gb total memory!!! wow.

[ROF]

You can wait a year and the card will not be $100, no way. 2year old cards are still over $100.

I don't know where you shop but most 2 year old GPUs are available for dirt cheap prices. In most cases, last years cards can be purchased at under $100 whereas 2 year old ones are usually given away when you purchase other equipment.

[Treebeard]

okay, the 5900xt is over 2 years old and still in the $150 range. Oh and the 9800xt, also 2 years old and in the $150 range also.

go check for yourself
http://www.pricewatch.com/

[ROF]

Good point, thanks for showing that, but it also proves the waste of money on such cards when something better and newer is available for cheaper. Knowing Nvidia I'd imagine this card will stay overpriced for quite sometime too.

[Treebeard]

I agree that buying 2 year old card for that price is beyond stupid. I usually upgrade my vid card every couple years and buy in the $130 range, I purchased a 6600gt for that price and passed on more expensive older models

[ROF]

My current recommendation for those still stuck with an AGP port is the radeon 9550 256MB which can be had for under $75.

[shelbyGT]

I've got a 5900GT 256bit/256MB card that at the time was really expensive. However, I got it as a bundle with my computer and so it was actually pretty well priced. I should be set for most games for awhile. HL2 still runs at above 60fps, and I don't really need higher than that for me.

[Gregg]

Not playing games is one of the things that makes my life much more easier.

[slimmx]

My current recommendation for those still stuck with an AGP port is the radeon 9550 256MB which can be had for under $75.

What do you mean for those stuch with AGP? Is there something better than AGP?

[kush]

Stuck with AGP as in neither the red or green team are making AGP cards anymore - it's all PCI Express (PCI-E not to be confused with the PCI-X bus).. So for ATI the X800/850 series and NV's 6800 are the end-of-the-line.

There were rumors of both the X1000 and/or 7800 series having AGP, but nope - didn't happen.

ps - If you do any amount of gaming a 9550 is a waste of time - you'd be lucky to get 800x600 on those things. If you just want a cheap AIW card fine..

[slimmx]

SO wait,

PCI Express is better than AGP?

Isn't pci slot on old computers?

[yoda313]

Isn't pci slot on old computers

No you're thinking of ISA. PCI is still a standard on all computers (PC computers that is).

PCI-E is strictly dedicated to VIDEO as is AGP as far as I know.

PCI is the default standard for card slots in the pc/windows world.

EDIT - KUSH

ps - If you do any amount of gaming a 9550 is a waste of time - you'd be lucky to get 800x600 on those things. If you just want a cheap AIW card fine..

I can get 1024x768 on a 9250 in the medium mode on Battlefront 2 - what are you talking about????

[waheed]

PCI-E is strictly dedicated to VIDEO as is AGP as far as I know.

Not reallly. PCI-E is also set to replace the regular PCI slot. This is the white small slots on newer motherboards (see picture, circled in red).



In the future, sound cards, TV cards, capture cards, etc.. should be taking advantage of the PCI-E just like graphics card have done.

Currently, at the moment, i not aware of any cards made for this PCI-E slot. (known as PCI-E X 1)

[yoda313]

Not reallly. PCI-E is also set to replace the regular PCI slot

Really???

Why didn't agp ever go that route??? Oh yeah the "g" stands for graphics doesn't it???