Originally posted by: Genx87
I am trying to figure out why anybody would expect a mid ranged card to be a worthy upgrade from the previous generations highend card?
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You have your cards mixed up. The 7900GT was never the high-end card of its series. It was the highest of the mid-range, as is the 8600GTS as of today. The previous gen's high-end cards were the 7900GTX, 7950GTO, etc. Look at the coolers used on them to help clue you in... in the 7900 series the ones with the dual-slot cooling happened to also be the ones that were their highest-end products.