The rate at which the price of video card hardware is falling has been quite astonishing over the past year. Performance that cost around $500 this time last year in the form of NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX, can be had for half that price from the right vendor due to the continuous slashing of GeForce 7900 GT prices. The GeForce 7600 GT can generally be purchased for around $160 but can be found for less than $130 with rebates and careful shopping. Once again, NVIDIA are aggressively moving the entry price for a very capable gaming machine down the ladder and today's launch with not one but immediately two new products only hastens the pace. - NeoSeeker

XFX GeForce 7900 GS 256MB Extreme Edition Review

NVIDIA are officially launching two new products today, both of which are variants of the GeForce 7900 GT core, the G71. Rather than aiming to push the GeForce 7900 GT pricing down further, NVIDIA are cutting the GeForce 7900 GT from their lineup altogether and replacing it with two new SKU's that slot in on either side of the venerable performance segment board. The first board, which we are not covering in details for the very reason that its still under embargo, is the GeForce 7950 GT. The GeForce 7950 GT is ultimately an overclocked GeForce 7900 GT with a couple of tweaks to the overall package.

NVIDIA have boosted the core clock from 450MHz to 550MHz with this card and have tweaked the overall package in a couple of ways. The memory has been boosted from 1320MHz to 1400MHz and along with a better variable speed fan control, they have added full HDCP support. In the meantime, today we are focusing on the second product, the GeForce 7900 GS which is being hard launched today will retail for the $199 sweet spot. XFX have sent us their sexy GeForce 7900 GS Extreme which looks to fill the space between the GeForce 7600 GT and what will be the GeForce 7950 GT.

In creating the GeForce 7900 GS, NVIDIA has tweaked this strong performing platform for use in a lower priced replacement. Seeing as the GeForce 7900 GT has been in production for so long now, it's inevitable that not all chips on the wafer manage full specifications, and as such there are a number of chips that don't quite make the cut. It can be assumed that NVIDIA is using these chips in their latest card as the GeForce 7900 GS features four less texture units and one less vertex shader bringing the final count to 20 and 7 respectively. Clock speeds remain the same as the GT with 450MHz on the core and 1320MHz memory.

Our XFX card, is the GeForce 7900 GS Extreme and runs at an overclocked 480/1400MHz out of the box which should bring some added performance gains over a standard clocked GeForce 7900 GS. The official MSRP of a GeForce 7900 GS board is $199, and while XFX do have a standard clocked board available at that pricepoint, expect the overclocked Extreme version to fetch $219. The most notable aspect of this XFX in particular is the black PCB and black cooler. XFX have gone to good lengths to differentiate this board and the overall impression this board leaves is much larger than that of the usual green PCB variety.

While there isn't anything unexpected about the GeForce 7900 GS, NVIDIA have definitely put together a solid product. The card slots in right between the GeForce 7600 GT and the outgoing GeForce 7900 GT and outruns the Radeon X1800 GTO in almost all cases. As far as performance per dollar is concerned, NVIDIA have a winner on their hands. ATI currently does not have a product that competes with the GeForce 7900 GS however we are expecting the RV570 based mid range card to slot in somewhere close to the GeForce 7900 GS when it launches later this month.

The XFX GeForce 7900 GS is a very nice alternative to the standard clocked GeForce 7900 GS that we expect to see launch at retailers today. If it's attractive looks don't count as a true selling point for some, it's fast standard clocks definitely should. Fortunately, we didn't experience any problems with overheating or artifacting and hopefully this holds true across the entire spectrum of the GeForce 7900 GS products. It would be a shame for another round of cards to go through the same issues that some GeForce 7900 GT owners have experienced. Overall, NVIDIA have done a bang up job with the GeForce 7900 GS.