Nvidia launches $599 GeForce 7800 GTX

In San Francisco last night, Nvidia took the wraps off its latest graphics chip, the GeForce 7800 GTX. Nvidia's Ujesh Desai, general manager of desktop GPUs, introduced the chip formerly known as the G70 to a packed house filled with press, industry partners, and gamers attending the GeForce LAN party planned around the event.

In addition to touting all the details about the new GPU, Ujesh also wowed the crowd with the announcement that GeForce 7800 GTX cards are shipping immediately. Nvidia also announced that it's bringing SLI to the masses with more affordable SLI motherboards and adding SLI compatibility to basic GeForce 6600 cards. The mainstream SLI system is primarily designed to give system owners an easy upgrade path to more powerful graphics cards.

According to Nvidia, the new graphics card is available for purchase with an MSRP of $599. For a complete rundown--including benchmarks--check out GameSpot Hardware's GeForce 7800 GTX Revealed feature.