Nvidia 7800GTX delivers

TODAY, NVIDIA LIFTS the veil on the first of the 'next gen' video cards, in this case, the G70. It will go on sale, and in the probably most welcome change, they will actually be available on the release day. This is a monumental difference from the woeful 'release' schedules of the last generation cards on both sides. Hopefully, this card will set a precedent in more ways than performance.

On the performance side, the G70, going on sale as the 7800GTX, does not disappoint. Subjectively, it sped up Guild Wars, my current gaming crack of choice to a fairly noticeable degree, it was a bit less choppy when a lot of stuff is flying around the screen. The 6800Ultra and the X850XT I was swapping between before were not exactly slow, and to make a visible difference is quite a testament to the new card.

To be more objective, NVidia literature that came with the card promised up to 80% single card improvements on specific games. The fine print shows that the games they benched range from 1.1x to 2.1x the performance of a 6800U, with the majority coming in around the 1.4x. All tests were done at 1600x1200.

Card and Driver	Test	Score
	3DMark05	5267
6800U/71.89	CS:S Stress	99.89
	Sisoft Sandra	3727
	3DMark05	5426
6800U/77.62	CS:S Stress	101.36
	Sisoft Sandra	3727
	3DMark05	7125
7800GTX/77.62	CS:S Stress	146.99
	Sisoft Sandra	3727
	3DMark05	5979
X850XT/5.6	CS:S Stress	85.28
	Sisoft Sandra	3733

So, does the card measure up? In a word, yes, but due to lacking parts, I have to run some more tests in the coming days. For now, I tested a single 7800GTX on an Abit Fatality AA8XE i925 based mobo. The CPU was a P4/3.46 on a 1066FSB with 1GB of 4-4-4-12 OCZ value series DDR2-4300 RAM and a WD 74GB 10K Raptor drive. Overall, not the fastest system in the world, but by no means a slow machine.

I ran three tests each looking at a given aspect of performance. I used 3DMark05 for the obvious video card test, it is pretty much mandatory if only for comparison between sites. For gaming, I picked the Video Stress Test from CounterStrike Source, something that ATI cards usually shine on. Lastly, I tested SiSoft Sandra, not because it tests video card performance, but because I wanted to see if any of the cards or drivers had a negative impact on non-gaming system performance.

The cards were a 7800GTX with the pre-release 77.62 drivers, a 6800U with both the current 71.89 and the upcoming 77.62s, and an ATI X850XT with Catalyst 5.6 drivers. All were running at stock speeds, and nothing was overclocked or tweaked.

So, where did they end up? All of the below scores were run at least three times, and the median score was used. No scores were separated by more than two per cent on the given runs, with most much closer than that.

So, what can we pick out from these numbers? First, the new drivers are worth about three percent in 3DMark05, two per cent in the Half-Life2 engine, and do all of zero to Sandra. In fact, just about nothing having to do with video cards affect Sandra. While some may see this as a disappointment, I look at it as a positive, nothing the new cards or drivers do have a detrimental effect on unrelated programs. Other than that, you can pretty much ignore the Sandra numbers.

Back to the real story. The performance of the new card. On identical drivers, the 7800GTX scores a whopping 45 per cent higher on the CS:Source test. The most promising thing about this number is not that it is a huge frame rate increase simply by upgrading the video card, but it is almost dead on what NVidia promised it would be. That makes me very confident in the other numbers presented. As an aside, for some reason, the ATI numbers for this test are abnormally low. I would not put any faith in those numbers, but for now, I don't have an explanation as to why they are so low.

Moving back to 3DMark, the 7800GTX delivers a 31% bump in the score, ending at 7125. With a stronger CPU and lower latency RAM, 8000 should be in reach, and well over 12000 in SLI mode should be a piece of cake. This again lines up exactly with the main number NVidia gave me at E3, a 1.3x gain per pipe.

These are simply amazing numbers with bone stock cards, and what make this even more impressive is the power use. The 6800U is not exactly a stingy card when it comes to electricity, the quoted range at full boil is 110-120W. The 7800GTX absolutely destroys this when it comes to efficiency, for a third or so more performance, this card amazingly uses less power. It only uses 100-110W going flat out, not miserly, but a vast improvement over it's predecessor.

More features galore, less power and actual availability, can you ask for more? Sure, and I have this feeling that NVidia will deliver a few surprises in the not so distant future. The reason I say this is that the documentation is somewhat ambiguous when it comes to pixel pipes. NVidia claims 16 pipes, as does a bunch of partner literature, but in some of the presentations, the 7800GTX is listed as 24 pipes. Could this mean there are 16 enabled on the current version with an Ultra part waiting in the wings for ATI to tip their hand?

Either way, the new 7800GTX delivers a substantial performance increase over it's predecessor the 6800U, and you can actually buy it. As we have previously written, this card does everything better, and somewhat incredibly does it while using less power. It is the first shot in the next generation card wars, and when companies go to war, users win. In my book, the 7800GTX is a clear win for users. µ

* MORE TO ENSUE