Nvidia 7950GX2 priced up at $600

Double-barrelled GeForce with 1GB of GDDR-3 memory

By Theo Valich in China: Monday 15 May 2006, 16:13
IN AN INTERESTING chat with a rep from one of Nvidia's far eastern partners, we heard tales of the great yields that G71 allegedly achieves in TSMC fabs. The yields are so great, our source claimed, that the company is able to put aggressive price tag on its products across the board.

If you have been following the prices of G71-powered products, you would have seen how the price has gone down by 60, 70 or even more UK pounds recently. The agressive pricing will also help accommodate the 7950GX2, which is scheduled to be launched sometime during this month.

Now, we learn that a 1GB GDDR-3, two-G71-GPU-powered product will be available at least from one manufacturer at amazingly low $600, or Euros, in the Eurozone. We expect the UK price to end up in between 399 or 449 squids.

The only problem which comes to my mind is that shelling out $600 for a DX9 GPU in a year in which at least one manufacturer will launch a DirectX 10 capable product... may not be the smartest thing if you're gunning for the absolute performance. Even if it is double-barrelled.

But if you want to play the games with all the effects on, there really isn't any other reason why you should not consider a Dual-PCB, 143Watt board. We suspect Nvidia will advertise this product as "The Way It's Meant To Be Played in 8xAA/16xAF", but it's just a guess.

We expect that the 7950GX2 will be the fastest AntiAliasing and Anisotropic Filtering product out there, and that it will feature amazing frame rates at 8xAA/16xAF. Expect top performance in Oblivion or World of Warcraft in 1920x1200 with AA and AF all cranked out. µ

there really isn't any other reason why you should not consider a Dual-PCB, 143Watt board