Nvidia's new GeForce 7800 GT features the same accoutrements as its older brother, the GeForce 7800 GTX, but with a slightly less powerful GPU. The card will be available for purchase at an MSRP of $449. Following the tradition started with the GTX launch, GeForce 7800 GT based cards are available for purchase right now.

　　The GeForce 7800 GT is slightly smaller than the GTX.

　　Nvidia didn't design a new GeForce 7800 GT chip from the ground up. Much the same way that CPU manufacturers practice speed binning, GPU manufacturers create new, lower-priced products using chips that couldn't quite make it to flagship status. The GeForce 7800 GT has the same 302 million-transistor GPU as the GeForce 7800 GTX, except portions of it have been shut down.

　　The PCI Express GeForce 7800 GT has 20 pixel pipelines, four pipelines fewer than the flagship GeForce 7800 GTX, but that's still four more than the GeForce 6800 Ultra. The GeForce 7800 GT also has seven optimized vertex pipelines, compared to the eight that are available on the 7800 GTX. Nvidia also dropped the core speed of the GeForce 7800 GT down to 400MHz; the 7800 GTX, in comparison, has a 430MHz core.

　　The GeForce 7800 GT comes with 256MB of DDR3 memory, like the 7800 GTX, but the GT's memory runs slightly slower. Memory will be clocked at 1GHz (500MHz double-data rate).

　　Since the GeForce 7800 GT has the same core as the GeForce 7800 GTX, you'll find all of Nvidia's new technologies onboard. Support for Shader Model 3.0 will come standard. Other Nvidia-specific features include HDR (high dynamic-range lighting), transparency sampling, and PureVideo. High dynamic-range lighting is used to simulate a wide range of light intensities, ranging from blinding sunlight to the darkest shadow, in a single scene. Transparency-sampling technology allows the card to clear up jaggies for lines drawn in the middle of a polygon instead of on an edge. PureVideo allows the GPU to output progressive video and to encode up to 1080i for HDTV output, as well as to accelerate and improve the quality of video playback for MPEG-2, WMV, and WMV HD on the video card.

　　Nvidia recommends a 350W power supply for single-card GeForce 7800 GT systems and a 500W power supply for SLI systems with two GeForce 7800 GT cards. The single-slot GeForce 7800 GT requires the same 12-volt power connector found on other high-end Nvidia-based cards.

　　The GeForce 7800 GT puts up serious performance numbers at the $450 price point. The ATI Radeon X850 XT PE offers some fierce competition, but the card simply can't compete at the same price point as the GT. In every single one our tests, the GeForce 7800 GT comes away the clear winner against the Radeon X850 XT. With the release of the GeForce 7800 GT, be on the lookout for falling prices from both GPU manufacturers. The GeForce 7800 GT will push GeForce 6800 series GPUs down the price ladder one notch, and ATI's Radeon X800 lineup will have to match the drops to remain competitive.

　　AMD Athlon 64 4000+ CPU, Asus A8N SLI Deluxe, 1GB (512MB x 2) Corsair XMS Memory, 250GB Maxtor Maxline III SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows XP Professional.

　　Graphics Cards: GeForce 7800 GTX, GeForce 7800 GT, GeForce 6800 GT, Radeon X850 XT PE.

　　Graphics Drivers: Nvidia ForceWare 77.77, ATI Catalyst 5.7.