System Setup and Notes
| NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT Preview Test System | |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 FX 2400MHz, 1MiB L2 |
| Mainboard | ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe |
| Memory | 2 x 512MiB Corsair XMS3200 XL DDR-400 2.0-2-2-5 @ 400MHz |
| Disk Drive | 36GB Western Digital Raptor SATA |
| Graphics Cards | XFX NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256MiB (G70) (450/525) NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 256MiB (G70) (430/600) ATI Radeon X850 XT PE 256MiB (R480) (540/590) PCI Express 16X |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional, SP2 |
| Mainboard Software | NVIDIA nForce4 Platform Driver Version 6.39 |
| Graphics Driver Software | NVIDIA ForceWare Release 75 77.77 |
Notes
Whilst a DFI LanParty mainboard was used for our 7800 GTX preview, along with an AMD Athlon 64 FX-57, we decided to benchmark on a slightly different system for the GT. An AMD Athlon 64 FX clocked at 2400MHz to simulate FX-53/4000+ was used instead, on an ASUS A8N-SLI. For the record our choice of motherboard for this article doesn't imply anything; it was simply the easiest board for us to utilise for testing, the DFI being occupied with other things. However the CPU clock was chosen to better match what a majority of users considering a GT might have, and to satisfy a curiosity about CPU limitations with these new new graphics boards that's been bugging us for a while.Note the XFX's clocks of 450/525, too. They're higher, some 12.5% in the case of the GPU clock, than the reference clocks of 400/500 that NVIDIA have set for the GT. You'll therefore see benchmark results from the board clocked at both frequency sets.
We additionally threw an ATI Radeon X850 XT PE in for good measure too, instead of the 6800 Ultra used last time. How far away at a more reasonable CPU clock is the 7800 GT from ATI's finest is a question we thought worth answering. Overall our testing was fine, bar some overheating issues the X850 XT PE had. It absolutely needs decent airflow across the board from your chassis, to work properly at its clocks. Naked on a test bench with no fan to move air over the board, the X850 XT PE acts like the author without having a morning coffee; nothing gets done.
Over and above the basics covered in the HEXUS preview of the GeForce 7800 GTX, we need to do a little more investigation into the texture filtering of the NVIDIA G70, so as yet we haven't had a proper look with the GT. Otherwise we've run the same tests for the GT as we did for the GTX. Stay tuned for an interview with someone at NVIDIA and some more investigation on the texture filtering done by G70 and current drivers, in the future.
