NVIDIA is now an old stalwart in the video card business with well over 2 Billion USD in revenue annually, and over 2000 employees, NVIDIA is part of a duopoly with ATI in the standalone video card market. Between them, the two companies control over 90% of the standalone video card market, with companies like Matrox, SIS, S3 and the others barely a blip in the radar.

NVIDIA first introduced their GeForce 7xxx series in the middle of last year with the introduction of the GeForce 7800GTX and 7800GT. Based upon a budget 110 nanometer process, the 7800GT had no peer for performance and features for its price range until ATI introduced the X1800XL late last year. ATI released the refresh to their x1K series, the x1900 series early this year.

In many respects the video card market is fragmented into different market segmentations, the hardcore enthusiast, willing to spend $500+ on a video card, the performance segment willing to spend in the range of 300-499, the mainstream segment from 150-299 and the value segment from 49-149. These figures are generalizations, as often there is overlap between the segments as older products get moved down in the chain and newer products take their place. Today, I’m reviewing the GIGABYTE 7900GT video card, the NX79GT.