[Dave Baumann]

NVIDIA Redefines High-end PC Graphics With New-Generation GeForce 7800 GTX GPU
Redesigned Architecture Delivers Stunning Image Quality and More Than Twice the Pure Graphics Performance of Its Previous Generation's Top GPU

SAN FRANCISCO, June 22 - NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA - News), 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:

• A brand new programmable shader architecture, with more than twice the shading horsepower of the previous generation
• Film-quality, high dynamic range lighting support-the must-have developer feature for the latest games
• Second-generation NVIDIA SLI(TM) technology, for the absolute highest performance and best image quality
• Second-generation NVIDIA PureVideo(TM) technology, for home theater-quality video on the PC
• Release 75 of the NVIDIA ForceWare(TM) driver, for improved SLI performance with support for the latest games, new HDTV and PureVideo settings, as well as support for OpenGL® 2.0

"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 GeForce GPUs 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."

Full-Throttle Graphics Performance
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 percent less power than a single-slot GeForce 6800 Ultra.

Advanced Visual Effects
The 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.

"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 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion," 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."

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 to the 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.

"New antialiasing modes from NVIDIA enable us to deliver even more realism in Battlefield 2," said John Vifian, senior 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."

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 superhigh-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.

Tomorrow's High-Definition Video Now!
A home theater PC outfitted with a GeForce 7800 GTX GPU featuring NVIDIA PureVideo hardware and software technology offers superb picture clarity and precise, vivid colors across all high-definition (HD) ATSC video formats.

The highest quality 1080p HD-output is made possible through three separate PureVideo engines, support for both 3:2 and 2:2 pull down (inverse telecine), and a host of other features. The advanced scaling and de-interlacing 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.

ForceWare(TM) Release 75 Graphics Driver
In conjunction with the announcement of GeForce 7800 GTX GPU, NVIDIA announces 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:

• Support for OpenGL 2.0-the latest API and new extensions enable rich shader effects on NVIDIA GPUs
• Improved SLI performance and features-Allows end users to achieve incredible performance for games and applications and enable SLI in every game for maximum flexibility; includes broader SLI validation and optimizations for the latest games
• Improved video functionality-including support for PureVideo inverse 2:2 pull-down detection and correction, high-definition 1080i de-interlacing, improved HDTV display setup and calibration and more

Availability
The NVIDIA ForceWare Release 75 driver is available immediately at www.nvidia.com/drivers. NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX GPU-based graphics cards from leading add-in card partners such as BFG, EVGA, PNY and XFX are available immediately at major online retailers. NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX GPUs are also powering systems from the world's leading systems builders including Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Velocity Micro, and Voodoo PC.

"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 Kelt Reeves, CEO of Falcon Northwest.

"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 Ravi Sood, CEO of VoodooPC.

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA Corporation is a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors. The Company's products enhance the end-user experience on consumer and professional computing devices. NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs), media and communications processors (MCPs), and wireless media processors (WMPs) have broad market reach and are incorporated into a variety of platforms, including consumer and enterprise PCs, notebooks, workstations, PDAs, mobile phones, and video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and employs more than 2,100 people worldwide. For more information, visit the Company's Web site at http://www.nvidia.com.