Round Up of GeForce 7 Series
PCI Express x16 graphics cardsChipset GeForce 7800GT / 7800GTX 256 MB, 256 bit
After our last round up, we're pretty dismayed with both the performance of GeForce 6800GT and Radeon X800XL in newer games. For the most part, these cards are just barely making the grade with minimum fps of 30 fps (with AA and AF) or even less than that. So, like most gamers out there, we want an even faster card, 30 fps minimum is just too low for real fluid gaming. Obviously, this means taking a look at the even faster GeForce 7800GT and GTX. Newer cards such as the GeForce 7800GTX 512 MB and the Radeon X1800XL / X1800XT are just around the corner, but these cards are not yet available worldwide right now. Hopefully, we will getting some samples soon, but for now let's take a look at what's available.
Of course, we expect more from the GeForce 7 series. After tasting what the GeForce 6800GT and Radeon X800XL has to offer, we want more than just higher frame rates, but higher frame rates with AA and AF as well. This time, we put more emphasis on performance test results with AA and AF. We also want to see if these cards have what it takes to push high frame rates with newer games coming out within the year. That's why we've decided to only publish results with F.E.A.R, Serious Sam II, Quake 4, Brothers In Arms and Battlefield 2. The other games in our benchmark suite proved to be system limited with these cards, so there's no point of publishing the results in these games (the frame rates are similar to the GeForce 6800GT - you can check those scores here).
As usual, we decided to postpone our more in-depth coverage for now, into another article (hopefully next week). Right now, let;s take a look at offerings from different vendors we've managed to get samples from. There are at least two versions of the GeForce 7800GTX, those with reference clocks and those with slightly higher core and memory clocks. On the other hand, the GeForce 7800GT only comes in one flavor. This time, we put three GeForce 7800GTX and two GeForce 7800GT to the test, they are the ASUS EN7800GT TOP, Gigabyte 7800GTX Turbo Force, WinFast GeForce 7800GTX TDH and ASUS EN7800GT and Gigabyte 7800GT.
Overview
ASUS EN7800GTX TOP
485/675 MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 7800GTX, 256 MB GDDR3Core Clock : 486 MHz
Memory Clock : 675 MHz (1350 MHz GDDR3)
Overall Score: 92.5 points
The ASUS EN7800GTX TOP is the only GeForce 7800GTX in this round up to have dual slot cooling. Its basically the reference dual slot cooling solution that was also used by the Galaxy Glacier 6800GT. Unlike single slot solutions, this dual slot solution use a single copper base to cover both core and memory chips on the card, thus giving it a very large heat dissipation area. Naturally, this lets the card runs cooler than cards with single slot cooling solutions. If you want to use two of these cards in an SLI setup, you might find it to be a a tight squeeze indeed (depending on your motherboard). The air intake's is positioned in a way to avoid taking in hot air from the second card.
On the back of the card, you can see back plates for both core and memory chips. It's a pretty solid mounting and ASUS have managed not to bend the PCB in the process. We seem to be seeing more of that lately. You could see below, the copper base made good, solid contact with both core and memory chips.
Just like their other graphics cards, the EN7800GTX TOP comes with the standard ASUS utilities. Unfortunately, like the EN6800GT, the SmartDoctor hardware monitoring functions is non existent, probably because none are present on the card. So, it's merely an overclocking tool, which you can either set it manually (via sliders) or automatically by turning on HyperDrive. There's also ASUS enhanced drivers, offering OSD control to adjust brightness / contrast / gamma in game. These drivers now automatically adjust colors, brightness and contrast for both video and gaming. However, now they display a 'Splendid' logo on the upper right edge of the screen which may become annoying for some gamers. If you want to remove it, you should uninstall the enhanced driver. The downside to this is that you have to manually adjust the colors, brightness and contrast either on the monitor or the driver control panel.
The EN7800GTX TOP is running at a slightly higher MHz than the reference specification. You can see this in the RivaTuner graph below, the card scales down to just 275 MHz when you're on the desktop and quickly revs up to 486 MHz when running 3D applications or playing games. By the looks of it, it also scales down, albeit slightly, when you're viewing in game menus. Core temperatures can reach 50° Celsius or more (53° Celsius to be exact), still well below other GeForce 7800GTXs with single slot cooling solutions.
Equipment wise, the EN7800GTX TOP is pretty standard - TV / HDTV output and video input are supported. It also comes with the necessary accessories (cables and dongles). ASUS was nice enough to include a five games bundle with this card (Project Snowblind, Expand Rally, Joint Operations, Second Sight and Power Drome). However, except for the game bundle, there's really nothing extra in the bundle, you can get them all with a standard GeForce 7800GTX. ASUS didn't even bundle a second DVI to analog dongle, a fair request for the price they're asking for this card.
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