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In a world of paper launches and missed availability dates, NVIDIA pulled a stunt that left us in ecstatic joy. Not only were many GeForce 7800 GTX review samples were available to press representatives on NVIDIA Editor’s Day, but in the very same 24 hours that NDAs were lifted on NVIDIA’s exciting new graphics card, limited quantities were available in retail all over the United States. Gamers eager to get their hands on the smoking new hardware wouldn’t have to wait weeks on end while the manufacturers got their act together to get some supply moving.

The card I speak of, the GeForce 7800 GTX, is based on NVIDIA's next-generation Shader Model 3.0 G70 GPU. A great deal of the new technology and features were covered in our GeForce 7800 GTX Preview -- we suggest you take a quick look at that article in order to get familiar with what you can expect from a G70-based video card.

To summarize, the pixel pipelines of the NV40 have been redesigned, and there are now 24 of them (as opposed to 16). Pixel processing power has increased two-fold over a GeForce 6800 Ultra. The number of vertex shaders has also been increased – from 6 to 8. A number of other tweaks were also implemented in the FP HDR, geometry setup, and anti-aliasing units. As a result of process technology refinements, as well as an intelligent clock design, the G70 is claimed to consume less power and be able to be cooled by a less noisy cooling solution than its distant sibling, the NV40.

All of this magic is happening on a core running at a “primary” clock speed of 430 MHz, and memory speed of 1.2 GHz. It has recently come to light that there are at least three (and possibly more) independent clock speeds present on the G70 – all running asynchronously and attached to different units of the over 300-million-transistor GPU.

These facts all culminate to result in the (current) fastest video card in the world. In a twist of irony, our reference NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX will most likely be giving up its short-lived performance crown to BFG Technologies’ latest beast -- the BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC.

Before we discuss the BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC in detail, let’s discuss the company behind it, and their popular “OC” series of video cards. Branding themselves as “By Gamers, For Gamers”, BFG Technology, Inc. has made a name for themselves as providers of high-end graphics cards. Professionally boxed along with a full set of accessories and backed by a lifetime warranty, BFG’s products set a bar for other NVIDIA card manufacturers to meet.

The “OC” series of cards, for which BFG is most well-known, are overclocked out of the box – but with a difference. Not only does BFG fully support these overclocked cards, they also retain the same lifetime warranty, and it’s all done without any form of esoteric cooling. These overclocked cards are provided to gamers at the same prices as stock-clocked competitor’s cards, raising that bang-for-the-buck bar yet again. Higher resolutions/quality settings for the same price? You can bet that a lot of gamers are eager to get signed up.

Read on to find out about BFG Technologies’ new GeForce 7800 GTX OC!