NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB Preview @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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NVIDIA pulls out all the stops and shows us what the GeForce 7800 GTX GPU can really do. We take a look at the 512 MB GeForce 7800 GTX and compare it to the Radeon X1800 XT 512 MB video card in eight games. We even get to play F.E.A.R at 1600x1200 with 4X AA.

NVIDIA set out to top the Radeon X1800 XT, and, from our game play testing, they have managed to do so. By our count, three of the games from our test evaluation suite showed the Radeon X1800 XT and 512 MB GeForce 7800 GTX at “equal” playable settings, Battlefield 2, EverQuest II, and Serious Sam 2 (when HDR is disabled with AA). The remaining five games showed the 512 MB GeForce 7800 GTX offering a higher level of game play with more performance. None of the games we evaluated showed the Radeon X1800 XT performing at a higher level than the 512 MB GeForce 7800 GTX, — they performed equally well or the Radeon X1800 XT was slower. We were quite impressed by the Quake 4 and F.E.A.R. results in particular.
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Definitely looks like nVidia has yet another winner on their hands. I really hope ATI can pull something out, because things are looking bleak for pricing if nVidia keeps winning ;). I just read through the whole review as it was posted (someone on XS had posted the link at 9am Eastern roughly), and am now debating whether an overclocked 512MB GTX will beat out my moderately-overclocked eVGA 256MB GT @ 485/1160 speeds by a large margin (60% or more). I am considering using the step-up program to get this. SLI is not an option for me, as I have an SN25P chasis for my rig. Any thoughts, anyone? One review I read said that they got the 512MB GTX to 620/1930! I would think at those speeds, it very well may.
 
620/1930 wow that is a pretty high overclock .. hmm dunno
bfg or maybe xfx .. so far the bfg is clocked the highest with the mem at 1750 while xfx is 1730 .. evga is only 550/1700 .. still waitin to hear on leadtek .. looks like i will getting a bfg one
 
I am waiting all day if I have to on evga's site to step up to two of these bad boys NOW.

If you read how the ATI cards seem to have problems or bugs what have you with certain games I was reminded of why I always had a nvidia card on my main gaming rig.

Two of these cards is worth ignoring the wife for a month mmm.
 
i was really hoping for a stomping with those estimated BW/fillrate, how ever what is the expected pricing on these things?
 
Trimlock said:
i was really hoping for a stomping with those estimated BW/fillrate, how ever what is the expected pricing on these things?
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I think the MSRP is $649.00 But I also think that nVidia and it's board partners will get the price down as soon as possible.

 
Tiger Direct has the BFG and XFX listed for 699! :eek:
 
Damn what a BEAST.....imo i think ati just got there ass handed to them...ouch ati...


Come on ati do somthing....i don't want another GF3/4 days.... ;)

I like my high end cards somewhat cheap... :D
 
The AT article made the 512mb card literally trounce the XT card like it was 128mb gf4 ti4400 seriously the AT graphs made it looks so bad lol.
 
oneils said:
I think my 6800GT will have to last me for at least another year...sniff.
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Me too. I am gonna have to get more ram and an fx processor just take advantage of a card like that. But man, what a beast. Anybody know where I can sell a kidney? :D
 
Replicant1911 said:
Me too. I am gonna have to get more ram and an fx processor just take advantage of a card like that. But man, what a beast. Anybody know where I can sell a kidney? :D
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Yeah, tell me about it. I probably won't be able to perform a simple upgrade then, looks like a brand new system build! :)

Great review by the way. Had a look at the reviews at Anandtech and the Tech Report. I can't believe some of the benchmarks we are seeing - Tech Report has three or so pages dedicated to 3dmark05 alone, who needs a break down of every freakin' 3dmark test and what exactly does it tell me?

I remember when I built the system I currently use (my first build actually). Everyone still used quake III, 3dmark2001se, and 3dmark03 as their benchmarks. All the cards were benching 200-400fps in QIII, 10,000+ in 3dmark 2001 and 5,000+ marks in 3dmark03...you get the idea. It was so damn hard deciding on a card. When I finally stumbled upon HardOCP's hard analysis of Doom III and HL2 I finally had some concrete information to choose my video card ...and settled on a 6800GT to replace my 9600np. Skipped ATI last generation, and it looks like I will end up skipping them again.

S.O.
 
This is the nVidia I used to know (before the FX disaster)... :D Untouchable by the competition, mowing down anything and everything in its path :p , totally obliterating previous scores...simply outgunning everyone with its latest GPU. :cool: It's good to have nVidia back! ;)
 
OK so where are all the people who said there would be no "ultra" that the GTX 256 would be NVIDIA's top card. Also, the people who said that even if they put out a 512 part it would not be clocked higher..... :rolleyes:

All hail the king :D
 
anyone know where does TigerDirect ship their items from? (as in the location of their warehouse?)
 
Also where are all the people that said this would be another case of Ultra extreme edition vaporware of the 6800? What are they to say now? :eek:
 
ozziegn said:
anyone know where does TigerDirect ship their items from? (as in the location of their warehouse?)
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The Canadian warehouse is in Markham - near Toronto, while the American warehouse, I believe, is in Florida...not too sure.
 
Lol...I feel like a little kid reading this review! I cannot wait to order two at the end of the month!
 
TD's main warehouse is in Naperville IL.

For those who can afford to pay to play, the 512MB 7800GTX is indeed king of the hill. We all know that ATI and NV are both working on [H]ard at knocking it off though, and the consumer is the real winner as the makers continue ot deliver more performance.
 
Nice review. And what a beast.
Where can i find these 81.89 drivers? They don't seem to be released just yet (and i thought HardOCP never used unreleased (beta) drivers).
 
I hate to ruin everyone's fun, but I don't see this as such a great 'hard launch' considering how fantastically well nVidia put the 7800 GT and GTX 256 out the door. At the moment, we have two retailers selling a gouged prices and we only seem to have three AIB partners with cards in retail.

It's possible this situation may change by the end of today, but I'm somehow doubting it.

Oh yeah, and it seems the Inquirer was correct on ALL counts. Take that, you damn Inq naysayers.
 
roflcopter said:
Nice review. And what a beast.
Where can i find these 81.89 drivers? They don't seem to be released just yet (and i thought HardOCP never used unreleased (beta) drivers).
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For a REVIEW we will never used drivers that are not officially released by the company. Now that companies will release beta drivers, we will use those too, if available to the public on official company websites.

That said, I am unsure as to exactly why we used 81.89s for this preview, but it is not unusual for a preview at all. I am sure Brent can key us into that when he comes along.
 
phide said:
I hate to ruin everyone's fun, but I don't see this as such a great 'hard launch' considering how fantastically well nVidia put the 7800 GT and GTX 256 out the door. At the moment, we have two retailers selling a gouged prices and we only seem to have three AIB partners with cards in retail.

It's possible this situation may change by the end of today, but I'm somehow doubting it.

Oh yeah, and it seems the Inquirer was correct on ALL counts. Take that, you damn Inq naysayers.
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I could care less whether you want to categorize it as "great" or "terrible". The fact is that it is another hard launch and that is what counts. NVIDIA does not control prices beyond MSRP, so blame supply and demand on that. The fact is that you can buy them if you have the cash.
 
phide said:
Oh yeah, and it seems the Inquirer was correct on ALL counts. Take that, you damn Inq naysayers.
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And on this point, you got to hit the target once in a while. The odds play out over time.

Now I would ask that you stop trolling in this thread or you will be banned. I see you doing nothing but trying to stir up trouble. Let NVIDIA have their day, as they ahve done another great job at bringing a product to market.
 
phide said:
I hate to ruin everyone's fun, but I don't see this as such a great 'hard launch' considering how fantastically well nVidia put the 7800 GT and GTX 256 out the door. At the moment, we have two retailers selling a gouged prices and we only seem to have three AIB partners with cards in retail.

It's possible this situation may change by the end of today, but I'm somehow doubting it.

Oh yeah, and it seems the Inquirer was correct on ALL counts. Take that, you damn Inq naysayers.
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Try 3

The thing was announced 2 hourse ago give the sites a couple minutes maybe a few hours and they will get this stuff listed. Then they will all sell out and about a week from now prices will go down as they won't sell as well, and places will have 30-40 always instock.
 
PRIME1 said:
OK so where are all the people who said there would be no "ultra" that the GTX 256 would be NVIDIA's top card. Also, the people who said that even if they put out a 512 part it would not be clocked higher..... :rolleyes:

All hail the king :D
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Um...nvidia's own website.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_7800_faq.html

Q: Is there a GeForce 7800 Ultra?
GeForce 7800 GTX is our top of the line. We had so much positive response for the GT SKU (single slot, great performance) that we wanted to build upon that success and brand. GeForce 7800 GTX takes NVIDIA's high end performance offering to the next level.
 
PRIME1 said:
Some people were able to buy them last Friday :eek:

That's like a Viagara Hard launch :p
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Indeed, people who can afford to buy them will buy them, good launch. People who play fantasy check out cart on newegg, well, tough.
 
Netrat33 said:
Um...nvidia's own website.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_7800_faq.html

Q: Is there a GeForce 7800 Ultra?
GeForce 7800 GTX is our top of the line. We had so much positive response for the GT SKU (single slot, great performance) that we wanted to build upon that success and brand. GeForce 7800 GTX takes NVIDIA's high end performance offering to the next level.
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You are taking what he said the wrong way, he meant that people said they wouldn't bring out a card better than the GTX 256.
 
ChronicTrees said:
You are taking what he said the wrong way, he meant that they wouldn't bring out a card better than the GTX 256.
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And we all know this should have been called an "Ultra." ;)
 
Well, now I know what I'll be buying in Jan. for the videocard of my complete new build.

P.S. Phide.... click the little Funny: 1 link on my title! ;)
 
One thing that will possibly help ATI, is if their next card is AGP compatible and runs faster than the BFG 6800 Ultra. That would give some of us a final GPU upgrade to our systems we built a year ago. I know the number of people in this situation is small, but we're here none the less. It's very frustrating seeing this new hardware knowing I can't use it unless I get a new MB and reformat. Grrrrrrrrr. Kudos to Nvidia for moving forward.
 
oneils said:
Yeah, tell me about it. I probably won't be able to perform a simple upgrade then, looks like a brand new system build! :)

Great review by the way. Had a look at the reviews at Anandtech and the Tech Report. I can't believe some of the benchmarks we are seeing - Tech Report has three or so pages dedicated to 3dmark05 alone, who needs a break down of every freakin' 3dmark test and what exactly does it tell me?

I remember when I built the system I currently use (my first build actually). Everyone still used quake III, 3dmark2001se, and 3dmark03 as their benchmarks. All the cards were benching 200-400fps in QIII, 10,000+ in 3dmark 2001 and 5,000+ marks in 3dmark03...you get the idea. It was so damn hard deciding on a card. When I finally stumbled upon HardOCP's hard analysis of Doom III and HL2 I finally had some concrete information to choose my video card ...and settled on a 6800GT to replace my 9600np. Skipped ATI last generation, and it looks like I will end up skipping them again.

S.O.
Click to expand...

Glad our evals were of benefit to you :)
 
1c3d0g said:
This is the nVidia I used to know (before the FX disaster)... :D Untouchable by the competition, mowing down anything and everything in its path :p , totally obliterating previous scores...simply outgunning everyone with its latest GPU. :cool: It's good to have nVidia back! ;)
Click to expand...

It certainly seems they are a lot more focused these days.
 
PRIME1 said:
OK so where are all the people who said there would be no "ultra" that the GTX 256 would be NVIDIA's top card. Also, the people who said that even if they put out a 512 part it would not be clocked higher..... :rolleyes:

All hail the king :D
Click to expand...

well technically this is not an "Ultra" it is still a "GTX"
 
DougLite said:
TD's main warehouse is in Naperville IL.

For those who can afford to pay to play, the 512MB 7800GTX is indeed king of the hill. We all know that ATI and NV are both working on [H]ard at knocking it off though, and the consumer is the real winner as the makers continue ot deliver more performance.
Click to expand...

I just hope ATI can compete, cause $700 for a video card is expensive.
 
roflcopter said:
Nice review. And what a beast.
Where can i find these 81.89 drivers? They don't seem to be released just yet (and i thought HardOCP never used unreleased (beta) drivers).
Click to expand...

If we hadn't used this driver we wouldn't have results to show you. 81.89 adds INF support for the 7800 GTX 512. From what I understand 81.89 is undergoing the WHQL process.
 
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