NVIDIA GeForce 7 Phase 2 Review :: Introduction

NVIDIA is a company that has grown from a small company with less than 100 employees and revenue of 100 million a year to a company with over 2700 employees and revenue of over 2 billion a year. Every 6 months or so, without fail, NVIDIA releases a new video card, whether it's a new architecture like the GeForce 6xxx series (NV40) or a clock speed increase like the GeForce2 Ultra from the Fall of 2000. I'll cover a short history of NVIDIA video cards a little later in the review.

XFX 7600GT

XFX 7900GTX 512MB

EVGA 7900GT CO SuperClocked

Today, NVIDIA is announcing their spring lineup of video cards. This consists of 3 cards, the 7900GTX, the 7900GT and the 7600GT. EVGA and XFX have provided samples (XFX a 7900GTX and a 7600GT, EVGA a 7600GT) so today I will cover all three of the cards being released together. The 7900, the 7600 and 7300 series represent NVIDIA's top to bottom lineup based upon their G7x architecture. One big issue I have with modern video cards is their insane prices and the insane numbering schemes that both NVIDIA and ATI have developed to sell the cards. Today, the highest-end video card from ATI has a MSRP of $649. The last NVIDIA video card was the 7800GTX 512MB had a MSRP of $699, but sold in quantity for higher than that due to very limited availability.