As promised, graphics chip maker Nvidia used PAX East as a way to launch their first DirectX 11 graphics cards, the high end GeForce GTX 480 at $499 and the less powerful GeForce GTX 470 at $349. While this was their "launch" event, graphics cards with these chips won't actually go on sale until April 12.

The first reviews of the cards are somewhat mixed. While the GeForce GTX 480 is now considered to be the fastest graphics card you can buy, its performance was just a little bit faster than its comparable ATI competition which came out six months ago. On the other hand if you got $1,000 to spend, a SLI set up of two GeForce GTX 480-based cards cleaned house against ATI's CrossFireX. The cards will also come with some tech demos including a free game, Supersonic Sled, that's designed specifically for DirectX 11 and other high-end graphics features.