[H]ard|OCP

Navigation

• [H] Forums
• Archives
• Search
• [H] Folding

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX Preview

NVIDIA is today launching their next generation video card, codenamed “G70.” Inside we cover what this new NVIDIA powerhouse is bringing to the table and how it stacks up against other high-end video card solutions in true gaming experience.

Introduction:

NVIDIA launched the GeForce 6 series video cards (NV40) over a year ago (fourteen months to be exact). The GeForce 6 series initially debuted with the GeForce 6800 Ultra. The GeForce 6800 GT, GeForce 6800 and then later the GeForce 6600/GT and GeForce 6200 followed it. In the past year, NVIDIA did not launch any architectural refreshes for the 6800 family. We did see the introduction of PCI-Express parts and even a BFGTech 6800 Ultra with 512MB of GDDR3. However, we did not see any changes to the 6800 Ultra or 6800 GT’s base specifications. ATI, on the other hand, refreshed their entire lineup with the X850 series bringing new models and faster clock speeds during that same time.

NVIDIA has been hard at work improving drivers and preparing the launch of their next generation video card. NVIDIA has worked hard on availability so that this new video card would be ready for purchase at the same time it was launched. We are so used to paper launches or technology previews that having a product actually available at launch is a major event. This kind of availability is unprecedented and is great news for consumers; a paper launch this is not.

The GeForce 6 series family of video cards was very important for NVIDIA. It was that series of video cards that dug NVIDIA out of the rut that the GeForce FX series put them in. The NV40 (GeForce 6800 Ultra) was a very ambitious GPU. It was a completely new and re-designed GPU with features never seen before on a consumer level graphics device. The level of parallelism, programmability, and sheer transistor count was unprecedented, and, as you will see on their next generation GPU, this is the case once again.

With Shader Model 3.0 support, NVIDIA was able to support the very latest that DirectX 9 has to offer. It opened up shader programming to game content developers so that they did not have to think about the length of their shaders, they just simply let creativity take control. In addition, SM 3.0 also brought features such as Dynamic Branching, Vertex Texture Fetch, and Geometry Instancing to game content developers. The NV40 was the first GPU to support FP16 textures and blending in the framebuffer. This allows correct and precise High Dynamic Range Rendering (HDR), which we are just now starting to see games utilize. HDR truly is the future of gaming special effects. Many of the game demos previewed at this past E3 employ HDR.

NVIDIA has had both a feature rich and fast performing platform for over a year now. The GeForce 6 series has been very good for NVIDIA. Think about this, all the games in development now that will support Shader Model 3.0 have been developed using NVIDIA hardware under the hood since there has been nothing else to run Shader Model 3.0 code on.

For gamers, the GeForce 6800 GT has been a very popular video card. It is appealing because it has all the features of the GeForce 6800 Ultra, but it has slightly lower GPU and memory clock speeds and, best of all, a lower price. NVIDIA has recognized that the “GT” brand name has garnered a lot of attention and popularity. To that end, NVIDIA has decided to give their current top-end product the “GT” moniker and adding an “X” at the end to distinguish it.

Today NVIDIA is announcing their 2nd generation Shader Model 3.0 hardware, codenamed G70, known as the GeForce 7800 GTX. Right now, this is the only video card NVIDIA is announcing and releasing. Remember that NVIDIA only initially released the 6800 Ultra and then followed that card with the more mainstream cards. You can expect that the GeForce 7 series will follow a similar path.

In this review, we have many performance and image quality comparisons for you to look at. Before we get into that, however, let’s go over what the GeForce 7800 GTX is all about. If you wish to skip the technical information and proceed straight to the performance comparisons, you may do so with the bottom right drop-down box where each section and game is listed.