NVidia unwraps graphics cards

High-end GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and 5700 available immediately

NVidia is aiming to leave rival ATI standing in the run-up to Christmas by announcing the immediate availability of its latest graphics processors.

The company recently unveiled its new high-end GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and 5700 series of processors, and claimed there will be no delay in delivering the processors to partners.

Major card manufacturers, including Gigabyte, LeadTek, Creative and MSI, are among many card manufacturers that have already begun to release cards based on the new chips.

Delivery issues seem to have been overcome thanks to a dual-manufacturing approach. The 5950 is being manufactured by long-time nVidia partner TSMC, while the 5700 is the first nVidia product to be turned out by IBM, nVidia's new manufacturing partner.

"The simultaneous introduction and availability of the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra is an unprecedented achievement in the graphics industry," said Jeff Fisher, executive vice-president of worldwide sales at nVidia.

UK customers and system builders will not have to wait long for the new cards, confirmed Peter Stern, sales manager at Realtime Distribution.

"Cards based on the 5950 Ultra are arriving this week, and those based on the 5700 are expected in two weeks. NVidia has got its delivery up to speed to attack the Christmas market," he said.

"There is a lot of demand in the market for graphics cards at the moment, and we see no reason why business will not be good."

Stern added that system builders tend to opt for cards one step down from the top-end when it comes to the ones they put in their systems.

"We expect they will probably go for the 5700 and 5700 Ultra-based cards," he said.

The GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and 5700 are the first nVidia chips to boast faster GDDR2 memory, something the company had tried before but abandoned earlier in the year due to cost and technical difficulties.