Nvidia Corp., one of the world’s leading suppliers of graphics processing units (GPUs), reportedly plans to release its GeForce 7900 GS graphics card in the retail market after offering the model through system builders for several years now. A report suggests that the GeForce 7900 GS offer pretty high speed amid very low price points.

According to a news-story by HKEPC, the GeForce 7900 GS will emerge in late August while being priced in the range between $179 and $199. The part is mainly needed by Nvidia to compete with ATI’s Radeon X1650-product series known under RV560 code-name. Earlier only large system integrators, such as Dell, sold GeForce 7900 GS graphics cards.

The GeForce 7900 GS has 20 pixel processors, 7 vertex processors and 256-bit memory bus. The GeForce 7900 GS is powered by the latest graphics chip code-named G71, thus, comes with dual-link DVI outputs and other advantages the G71 has over predecessors, particularly, very low power consumption. Earlier it was reported that the model 7900 GS has GPU clocked at 470MHz and memory operating at 1320MHz.

By launching the GeForce 7900 GS ahead of ATI Radeon X1650-series products launch Nvidia puts serious pressure on its rival, particularly, on the Radeon X1800 GTO, which will have to be sold for the price below $179, something, which may not be easy for ATI Technologies, who was planning to increase its gross margins this quarter.

Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.