It is no big secret that NVIDIA is set to launch their next generation video card, at their annual new product launch party at GeForceLAN 3 in San Francisco. They launched GeForce 6800 at the first GeForceLAN, and they launched their 7800GTX at the second GeForceLAN event. The third GeForceLAN, according to the official GeForceLAN 3 website will be host to a World Premiere Event, logically the next series is 8800.
The high-end of the market, which the card launching next week will likely address is only a small portion of the overall video card market. Traditionally, NVIDIA has launched a high-end part, then a mid-range level card, and a mainstream or value part. The 6800 had the 6600 series for the mid-range and the 6200 for the mainstream. The 7800 series had the 7600 series for the midrange and the 7300 series for the mainstream. It logically follows that sometime next year that there will be a 86xx card and a 82xx or 83xx card for the mainstream.
But that's the future, and not relevant to this review. The $199~ price point is dominated today by two players, the 7900GS and the X1950 Pro. NVIDIA launched the 7900GS a month or so ago, and it is one of the best cards on the market. The ATI counterpart is just now hitting store shelves. Unfortunately, for ATI the X1950 Pro is also being sold at higher prices than they suggested at launch. I'll cover the X1950 Pro card once I review that thing next week. Today I'm reviewing ASUS's EN7900GS TOP card.
