Today, NVIDIA is announcing the availability of graphics cards based on their recently announced GeForce 7950 GT graphics core. To commemorate the announcement, XFX provided us with their model GeForce 7950 GT Extreme edition clocked 570/1460MHz, which will be carrying a retail price tag of $329. The lower priced GeForce 7950 GT model running at 550/1400MHz will be going for $299. Last week we examined the GeForce 7900 GS, which is becoming firmly positioned as the new mainstream GPU featured in graphics cards ranging in price from $199-229. Today marks the debut of the GeForce 7950 GT, which is replacing the GeForce 7900 GT. - nV News

XFX GeForce 7950 GT 512MB Extreme Edition Review

While the GeForce 7900 GT was initially featured in graphics cards that ranged in price from $299-349, the GeForce 7950 GT is equipped with an additional 256MB of graphics memory. And believe it or not, but both models from XFX are passively cooled! This came as a total surprise and I immediately became interested in the effectiveness of the cooling mechanism. Well in fact, the XFX GeForce 7950 GT Extreme edition performed flawlessly as did the Intel Core 2 Duo, which continues to impress. Being clocked at 570MHz on the core, but only passively cooled the Extreme edition does stand out in the crowd today.

The GeForce 7 series of GPU's that NVIDIA has recently launched confirms that the best time to buy a graphics card is towards the end of a product line. And in many cases, the mainstream gamer does just that. XFX must be commended for taking such a bold move to introduce passive cooling on a high-end GPU. Barring any ramifications that could be associated with the higher than normal GPU temperatures we are accustomed to seeing, they will have delivered a kick-ass product to the masses.