<p>NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processing, today unveiled the NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX graphics processing unit (GPU), the new flagship of the NVIDIA GeForce GPU line-up. Available immediately to consumers, GeForce 7800 GTX GPUs feature a completely redesigned architecture that brings with it a number of groundbreaking achievements, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>A brand new programmable shader architecture, with more than twice the shading horsepower of the previous generation</li>
<li><a name="OLE_LINK5">Film-quality, high dyna</a>mic range lighting support—the must-have developer feature for the latest games</li>
<li>Second-generation NVIDIA SLI™ technology, for the absolute highest performance and best image quality</li>
<li>Second-generation NVIDIA PureVideo™ technology, for home theater-quality video on the PC </li>
<li>Release 75 of NVIDIA ForceWare™ driver, for improved control of SLI profiles and support for OpenGL® 2.0</li>
</ul>
<p>“With more than 300 million transistors, the GeForce 7800 GTX GPU is the most advanced graphics processor ever built,” stated Ujesh Desai, general manager of desktop graphics at NVIDIA. “With this new graphics architecture, we are able to create a GPU so powerful that game developers can start to make their visions a reality, and real-time gaming can now rival offline film rendering.”</p>
<p><strong>Full-Throttle Graphics Performance</strong><br>
The single slot GeForce 7800 GTX features measured game application throughput up to 2.3x the dual slot GeForce 6800 Ultra. A testimony to the breakthrough in GPU architecture, the single slot 7800 GTX achieves this while consuming 50% less power than a single slot GeForce 6800 Ultra.</p>
<p><strong>Advanced Visual Effects</strong><br>
GeForce 7800 GTX's all-new Microsoft® DirectX® 9 Shader Model 3.0 engine features a new 128-bit floating point core. This powerful design provides film quality visual effects, such as high dynamic range (HDR) lighting, at real-time frame rates.</p>
<p>“High dynamic-range lighting and parallax mapping make a huge difference in the way a game will look, and will ultimately bring a whole new level of realism and polish to <em>The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion</em>,” said Todd Howard, executive producer at Bethesda Softworks. “NVIDIA continues to deliver the caliber of GPUs that support these tech features and more, which is exactly what we need to create true next-generation games today.”</p>
<p>In addition to HDR support, the GeForce 7800 GTX GPU also enables new image quality features such as transparency supersampling and multisample antialiasing. Through these new methods, high quality antialiasing is applied to entire scenes, not just edges of polygons. These new antialiasing modes help improve the image quality of outdoor scenes that make heavy use of transparent or semi-transparent objects such as fences and vegetation. The result is stunning lifelike images and improved realism. </p>
<p><a name="OLE_LINK8">“New antialiasing </a>modes from NVIDIA enable us to deliver even more realism in <em>Battlefield 2</em>,” said John Vifian, Sr. Development Director at Electronic Arts. “These new modes provide stunning visual quality without sacrificing performance, and that is a real testament to the new GeForce 7 architecture.”</p>
<p>GeForce 7800 GTX GPUs also support NVIDIA SLI technology, which allows users to combine the power of two GPUs in a single PC system for the absolute highest frame rates and 3D rendering quality attainable today, allowing for super-high quality settings in even the most demanding games. With two GeForce 7800 GTX GPUs and SLI technology, gamers can now crank their screen resolutions up to 2560x1600 with 4X antialiasing.</p>
<p><strong>Tomorrow’s High-Definition Video Now!</strong><br>
A home theater PC outfitted with a GeForce 7800 GTX GPU featuring NVIDIA PureVideo hardware and software technology will offers superb picture clarity and precise, vivid colors across all high-definition (HD) ATSC video formats. </p>
<p>The highest quality 1080p HD-output is made possible through three separate PureVideo engines, support for both 3:2 and 2:2 pulldown (inverse telecine), and a host of other features. The advanced scaling and deinterlacing capabilities offered by NVIDIA PureVideo technology allow DVD and other non-HD interlaced content to display incredibly clear, smooth, and artifact-free video on progressive displays, ranging from PC screens to large-screen HDTVs. </p>
<p><a name="OLE_LINK1"><strong>ForceWare</strong></a><strong>™</strong><strong> Release 75 Graphics Driver</strong><br>
In conjunction with the announcement of GeForce 7800 GTX GPU, NVIDIA announced immediate availability of its new Windows Hardware Qualification Labs (WHQL)-certified NVIDIA ForceWare Release 75 graphics driver. The new driver supports more than seven different operating systems and more than 250 NVIDIA products. This new driver features:</p>
<ul>
<li>Support for OpenGL 2.0—the latest API<strong></strong>and new<strong></strong>extensions enable rich shader effects on NVIDIA GPUs</li>
<li>Improved control for SLI Profiles and Rendering Modes—Allows end users to completely control SLI technology for all games and applications, affording them maximum flexibility in creating application profiles for all current and new applications</li>
<li>Improved video functionality—including support for inverse 2:2 pull-down detection and correction, high definition 1080i deinterlacing, HDCP support, and more</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Availability</strong><br>
The NVIDIA ForceWare Release 75 driver is available immediately at <a href="http://www.nvidia.co.uk/drivers">www.nvidia.co.uk/drivers</a>. NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX GPUs are available immediately on graphics cards from leading add-in card partners such as Gainward, Point of View and XFX at major online retailers. NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX GPUs are also powering systems from Europe’s leading systems builders including Atelco, Bow.it, Hyrican, IHDE, ISM, Kraftway, Komplett, LDLC, Paradigit, Scan, Top Notch Infotronix and Vobis Poland</p>
<p>“We've never seen this sort of volume availability at launch from any vendor. The fact that we are selling PCs today with the awesome new GeForce 7800 GTX GPU is a testament to the flawless execution that NVIDIA is known for,” said Elan Raja III, director of Scan UK.</p>
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<p>“NVIDIA redefined high-end gaming PCs with the introduction of their SLI technology last year, and their technology leadership has never been more evident than in the powerful GeForce 7800 GTX GPU,” added Paolo Chiaramida, general manager of BOW.IT</p>
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