NVIDIA to Phase Out 7800GTX 512MB in February

THG writes "CoolTechZone.com has the latest information from NVIDIA regarding the company's plans to discontinue its top of the line graphics card, the 7800GTX 512MB. The article says, "Well, we've been hearing rumors about this for a while, but we finally heard it from the horse's mouth not too long ago. Recent conversations with insiders at NVIDIA have led us to believe that their top of the line card, the 7800GTX 512MB will be out of production sometime in Q1 next year, most likely somewhere around February '06."

Why?

[Txiasaeia]

I read the article, but still couldn't figure out why they're getting rid of the card. Does it simply cost too much to produce, and nobody's buying it? Is ATI giving them a run for their money, & they're forced to be more competitive? I can't figure out why they'd get rid of their top card. Can somebody please explain why this makes sense?

Re:Why?

[Yocto Yotta]

This is just a guess, but they'll probably announce their new-gen models at CES in January and have them in the stores sometime during February. Technology from the current high-end goes into their "bugdet" line, removing the necessity of the model they are retiring.

Re:Why?

[TinyManCan]

I don't know anything special about this particular situation here, but I'd say that they are worried that a new part they are _about_ to ship for way less money is going to make the 7800GTX look slow.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

A quick google search shows that the 7800 GTX is having memory supply issues and it's quite expensive, some $200 more than the leading ATI.

Re:Why?

[tomstdenis]

Chances are it's just too expensive to produce, sales are not there and finally common sense won a battle.

When people are still buying 6600/6800 cards as their "desired choice" it's not hard to see the 7800 as a failed product in terms of making the company money.

It's along the lines of the AMD FX-57 which most stores don't carry and it can take a week or more to order in. Just isn't much sales for a 1300$ processor :-)

[though I'd get one if I weren't so poor :-)]

Tom

Re:Why?

[Stripe7]

All I know is, voodoopc has gathered all the parts for OMEN system they are shipping me. That will be a FX-57/4GB RAM/2x7800 GTX-512 SLI system. I do not think it is a market limitiation, they can sell more 512 cards than they can manufacture. It is either a supply issue or the G71 will be out in 4 months and trounce the 7800's by a huge margin for a much lower price point.

Re:Why?

[mkosmo]

There may be some unbeknown flaw in the card that is so hard to fix it would take a new GPU, whatever the new card replacing it is. Perhaps it was a flop compared to what it needed to be in order to make the investment venture worthwhile, or perhaps its losing them money, and the faster they yank it, the faster they can sink some money in a new project.

Because a new "Best" card will be out.

[Kelmenson]

The 512MB 7800GTX is currently their "top of the line, money no object" card. In Q1, they will have a new TOTLMNO card. There isn't much market for "2nd place, money no object" video cards.

People either by the consumer cards (6800GS, 7800 GT 256, <$400), or buy the very best.

I'm kind of surprised

[TheAxeMaster]

I would have expected them to keep the 7800 line as the middleman and phase out the 6x series. What I do believe, though, is that the 6x series is plenty of graphics card for the average user/light gamer. The 7800 set is really not that much overpriced from the 4 Ti series when they first came out though (adjusted for inflation). Maybe they're switching to a new process spec (45nm, or a dual+ core setup) and need to dump the 7800GTX manufacturing setup to make room for the new one. I guess we'll find ou

Re:I'm kind of surprised

[xouumalperxe]

dual core? That'd be a step back. They already have what amounts to 20 cores or whatever amount of pipes they have these days!

Probably...

[fitten]

From other rumors, it sounds like they are going to introduce a new graphics core around that time. I saw one rumor that said it was going to be wider and on 90nm. Why have an uber-expensive card like this when you are going to beat it with a cheaper card.