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Hypersonic Aviator EX7: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX First Look
Hypersonic Aviator EX7: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX First Look
Date: October 10th, 2005
Topic: Video Card
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Author: Josh Venning
 
 

Introduction

When thinking about the ideal gaming system, your first choice probably wouldn't be a laptop. It's common sense that desktop systems are better suited to meet the requirements needed for serious gaming. Lately though, we've been seeing some notebook systems that try to tackle this preconception, with interesting results. One of these systems, made by Hypersonic, does the job very well. While it is an excellent laptop, one part on the inside really caught our attention.

Any gaming system needs a good graphics card, and if you were thinking about the most powerful one right now, you'd be thinking about NVIDIA's 7800 GTX. (The X1800 XT might surpass it, but it will be another month before you can purchase such cards.) We've reviewed many of these cards and given their huge power draws, high heat levels, and generally monstrous size (for a graphics card), the thought of one of these cards in a notebook would have seemed a bit ludicrous. But it looks like NVIDIA has managed to fit one in there with their mobile version of the card, the GeForce Go 7800 GTX.



The system that we're reviewing is the Hypersonic Aviator EX7, and it appears to be the most powerful gaming notebook on the market at this time. The GeForce Go 7800 GTX does differ slightly from its desktop counterpart, and we'll be talking about those differences in the next section. We'll also be looking at some performance test results to give us a better idea of how the Go 7800 GTX compares with a normal 7800 GTX. Rest assured, the Go 7800 GTX lives up to its name and the results are impressive indeed.

Notebook gaming is, by no means, new. Both NVIDIA and ATI have been making quality mobile versions of their most popular parts, which we've looked at in the past. Specifically, the Mobility RADEON X800 XT by ATI and NVIDIA's GeForce Go 6800 Ultra. Now, we have a chance to look at the performance of the mobile version of the 7800 GTX: the most powerful mobile graphics card currently on the market.

The System and The Card   Next Page

 
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52 Comments - Last by timmiser, 1581 days ago
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Dell GTX offers? by rqle, 1583 days ago
Is dell the only one that offer PENTIUM M with the 7800GTX?

Reply
RE: Dell GTX offers? by Johnmcl7, 1583 days ago
No, Clevo have produced a chassis which offers the Pentium-m and 7800go which should be available from Sager in the US although I don't know the name of the chassis. Similar to the Dell XPS M170 it's a 17 inch laptop around 3.8kg weight with the usual notebook options.

In the UK, it's available as the Rock Xtreme CT and Evesham C720 although many will probably follow.

John

Reply
Comparisons by Degrador, 1583 days ago
I've seen the posts for other articles saying the Anandtech has dropped a bit in their reviews, and I was a bit sceptical of that, but with this one I just can't hold back. The systems are way too different to give much of a comment about anything. Yes, I realise we're comparing a desktop to laptop systems, but would it have been that hard to get a desktop system and put a P4 670 in it with 2GB of DDR2-533? These are desktop parts... not exactly uncommon... The Athlon 64 has been shown time and time again to be the performance leader for gaming, and there's no reason why this review couldn't have been done properly. You didn't even have the same amount of RAM between the systems - wtf is up with that? Other reviews have shown that some games do depend on RAM, while others don't, which is now adding more variation to the results.

It may sound arrogant, but this truely is a poor review... Can these reviews please be a little more scientific next time?

Reply
RE: Comparisons by Warder45, 1583 days ago
I have to agree. When I saw the desktop system I didn't understand what the point of the comparison would be. Also why not wait to throw the Dell machine in? Then compare the differences between the two, with heat, speed, and battery life.

Reply
RE: Comparisons by bob661, 1583 days ago
They're testing the graphics, not the systems. What you want is to minimize the effect the CPU has on performance here. Memory has VERY little impact above 1GB. 1 fps doesn't count.

Reply
RE: Comparisons by Degrador, 1583 days ago
Yes, they are meant to be testing graphics. As you say, they should be minimizing the impact any of the other system components have on the results. Hence my point of why not keep the cpu and the memory the same - whether it's 1GB or 2GB, equal memory would make the results more applicable to finding the difference between the chips.

Reply
RE: Comparisons by Johnmcl7, 1583 days ago
I fully agree - the review appears to be aimed at comparing the desktop 7800 to the mobile 7800, not the notebook as a whole against powerful desktop. If it was a Pentium-m system I can appreciate it's more difficult to match a desktop system but using an FX-55 against a P4 670 makes the performance figures almost useless, we have no idea if the performance differences are due to the faster processor or differences in the 7800.

John

Reply
RE: Comparisons by bpt8056, 1583 days ago
This is a high-end notebook and it should be compared against a high-end desktop system. While it may not be a good indicator of raw graphics power, it does show what you'll get with this notebook compared to an uber-fast desktop system. Frankly, I'm impressed with the numbers that the GeForce Go 7800GTX put out in a system with obvious limitations.

Reply
RE: Comparisons by DerekWilson, 1583 days ago
quote:

This is a high-end notebook and it should be compared against a high-end desktop system. While it may not be a good indicator of raw graphics power, it does show what you'll get with this notebook compared to an uber-fast desktop system. Frankly, I'm impressed with the numbers that the GeForce Go 7800GTX put out in a system with obvious limitations.

This was our take on comparing the systems -- gamers will really want to know if a notebook will be able to perform as well as the highest end desktops. The tradeoff in performance is important even if mobility is helpful. That's a lot of money to drop on a notebook, and I could build our desktop box for much less.

The point is this: just because it's got a desktop processor and a Go 7800 GTX does not mean it will perform the same as the highest end desktops out there.

Note that this was also billed as a first look.

Reply
RE: Comparisons by yacoub, 1583 days ago
Well there are two reviews much more useful that AT will hopefully conduct with this laptop soon:

*Comparison against the previous desktop replacement gaming laptop which I believe sported some sort of high-end ATI Mobile GPU. This shows how it compares to what else is up for comparison to potential buyers. Let's see just how much this new GPU boosts performance versus the previous champions.

*Comparison with a desktop with the same CPU, RAM count, and a real 7800GTX, to get a better idea how much performance is lost if someone goes with a laptop instead of a desktop for their next upgrade. Let's see just how much performance is lost and price is increased for the same parts in a laptop, because it's a joke how much they charge for those things. (okay the last bit is just my opinion.)

Reply
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