The Test, Card, and High Resolution

Before we get down to the performance tests, let's look at our test system.

ASUS nForce 4 A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard
AMD FX-55
1GB DDR3200 2:2:2:8
120GB Seagate 7200.7 HD
OCZ PowerStream 600W PSU


The card this time around is a single slot solution. With the process shrink to 110nm an insignificant increase in clock speed, NVIDIA has produced a chip that runs at lower power and temperature than NV40. At the same time, the increase in parallelism has served to boost performance.

Layout of the card is relatively similar to the 6800 Ultra, but there are a few differences. We've still got 2 DVI slots (both single link), but the solder point for the silicon image TMDS chip for dual-link DVI is either missing or moved. We will certainly be interested in seeing a workstation version of this part.

Here's a quick recap and summary of the G70 and GeForce 7800 GTX:

302M transistors
Over 300mm^2
110 nm TSMC fabrication process
Single Slot HSF
430MHz Core clock
600MHz GDDR3 256MB/256-bit
8 vertex shader units
24 pixel shader units
16 ROP units
2 DVI and one HDTV / VIVO connection
PCI- Express (demand for an AGP part will be determined and addressed if necessary)
~100W Power
350W Power Supply Recommended (500W for SLI)

So what is all the fuss about? Here's a look at the NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX card:





Why high res?

It is important to remember that we tested at resolutions of 1600x1200 and higher because lower resolutions are CPU limited without AA and AF enabled. In many cases the GeForce 7800 GTX don't show much difference in performance with and without antialiasing at lower resolutions. This kind of data doesn't give us much useful information about the card. We have truly reached another plateau in graphics performance with this part: pushing the card to the max is all but necessary in order to understand its performance characteristics.

Transparency AA, Purevideo, and HDTV Battlefield 2 Demo
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  • mrdeez - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    also:maybe gaming in hi def......ona big screen
  • mrdeez - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    #114
    Dude just stfu......we are here to comment what we want and say it freely......minus threats and name calling....as i said before this card is not for gamers...maybe elite gamers that have a monitor that does these resolutions but most gamers i know have went to lcd and i have yet to see any lcd[im sure there are some]do these resolutions so this card really is a card for crt elite gamers......lol with those resolutions on a 21 inch monitor you would need binoculars as glasses to play the game....the tanks on bf2 would be ant like small....
  • bob661 - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    #114
    I am SO glad that Anand remains in business despite all the bitches that are in these comment sections.
  • Locut0s - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    Those who are complaining that they should have reviewed at lower resolutions should think for a minute. First of all you are talking about a 600 buck card, most people who have that kind of money to spend on a card also have a monitor that is capable of 1600x1200 or better. Also benchmarking at any lower resolution on a card like this in todays games is almost pointless as you are almost entirely CPU bound at those resolutions. Do you really want to see page after page of 1024x768 charts that differ by only 4-5 percent at the most?

    Also give the editors a break when it comes to writing these articles. As others have said this is not a subscription site and given the number of visitors and the quality of the articles I'm amazed, and gratified, that the people of Anandtech keep putting out article after long article despite all the winning that goes on over spelling mistakes and graph errors that more often than not are corrected within a few hours.
  • SDA - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    That's a really great comparison, #112, especially seeing as how we pay for AnandTech and any problems with it could leave us stranded in the middle of nowhere. And so witty, too!

    Jarred, ah, thanks.
  • Questar - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    "Our Web Editor is on vacation and we are all doing our own HTML and editing for the next 10 days. In our usual process, the article goes from an Editor to the Web Editor who codes the article, checks the grammar, and checks for obvious content errors. Those steps are not in the loop right now."


    " do know Derek as a very conscientious Editor and I would ask that you please give him, and the rest of us, a little slack this next week and a half"


    Dear Mr. Fink,
    I am sorry to hear about the problems you have had with your vehicle breakdowns. You see, our quality inspector was on vacation that week, so we just shipped our vehicles strait off the assembly line. Please cut us a little slack, as we usually build much better vehicles.

    Sincerly,
    Buncha Crap,
    CEO
    Crappy Moters Inc.

  • frisbfreek - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    my question is how did they do hi res 2048x1536 when the card is only single-link DVI? Shouldn't either an analog connection or dual-link be necessary?
  • yacoub - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    #108 - what do you want, a $2000 CPU to go with your $1200 in GPUs? =P
  • CtK - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    so dual display is still not available with dual 7800s?!?!?!?!?
  • smn198 - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link

    Come on Intel & AMD. Keep up!

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