GeForce 7800 GTX 512 A Unicorn And Where's X1800 CrossFire?

by Dave Altavilla — Tuesday, January 03, 2006, 09:04 AM EDT

As our good friend Scott over at Tech Report points out in his "TR Awards 2005", both ATi and NVIDIA have been more than capable of earning the infamous "meaty middle digit" award with product launches that equate to nothing more than science projects or noise-makers. Evidence of this you ask? Well the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 is scarcer than hen's teeth although NVIDIA launched it in November and the late December release of ATi' Radeon X1800 CrossFire still has yet to produce available stock in the retail channel.

Hopefully ATi can react in short order, since clearly these versions of CrossFire products are much more competitive versus the X800 series solutions out there. Only a couple of weeks, with the holidays mixed in, have passed since the X1800 CrossFire launch, so we're hoping ATi gets their rear-in-gear real soon. However, the 7800 GTX 512 nowhere to be found over a month after launch? What's up with that??

Last year, we extended a meaty middle digit towards ATI and NVIDIA for their respective paper launches and vaporware. Both companies improved in 2005, with NVIDIA notably having plenty of GeForce 7800 GT and GTX graphics cards available at launch. In fact, some of those cards were selling for less than their suggested retail prices. Bravo. Unfortunately, our praise for NVIDIA's 2005 product launches was tempered with the release of the GeForce 7800 GTX 512. The ultra high-end card was launched in November with a suggested retail price of $649. It was supposed to be available at launch, too, but the cards are still nowhere to be found. Online retailers do list GeForce 7800 GTX 512 cards from several manufacturers, but none have stock, and prices have climbed to $750 or more - just when NVIDIA was doing so well. I guess old habits die hard.

They certainly do...

Tags: GeForce, Fire, Nic, CrossFire, GTX, SSF, x1, OS, force, OSS, GT, here, 7800, 780, 180, ICO, and

GeForce 7800 GTX 512 A Unicorn And Where's X1800 CrossFire?

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