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Summary

This is a basic preview of this product intended for readers who just want the quick look at the new product.  If you are interested in the full review, with all the technical data and benchmarks that you are used to seeing on PC Perspective, please click on this link to get to that article.

When NVIDIA launched the 7800 GTX graphics card back in June 22nd it was by far the fastest GPU on the market and ATI had nothing to counter it with.  ATI finally did launch a counter in the form of the X1800 XT on October 5th and was able to return to the neck and neck race that we had expected.  But ATI's card was using 512 MB of memory and a very high frequency while the NVIDIA 7800 GTX GPUs were only using 256 MB and still quite a bit of headroom in them for overclocking as many of our reviews have shown. 

NVIDIA readied a new competitor that would match the X1800 XTs specs.  What I expected was a 7800 Ultra; but we got the 7800 GTX 512 MB.  Or something like that...  First, note that the basic architecture of the 7800 GTX 512 MB remains unchanged from the previous 7800 GTX models.  We are still dealing with the same 24 pixel shader and 8 vertex shader architecture that we discussed in great detail in our initial 7800 GTX review. 

As you can see, the 7800 GTX 512 MB makes a return to a two slot cooling solution with a heatpipe design that moves heat to a much larger heatsink area than what covers the GPU.  A single large, but impressively quiet fan, is centered on the heatsink and blows air both out the back of the card and out through the front. 

• Core clock: 550 MHz
• Memory clock: 850 MHz (1.70 GHz DDR)
• 512 MB / 256-bit memory
• Dual DVI-I and HDTV/VIVO

Those are very impressive clocks!  Basically we have a 7800 GTX on steriods; nothing wrong with that!  Let's see some performance numbers.

There is no doubt that the new NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB is the fastest consumer level graphics card you can buy.  In every single one of our 10 benchmark configurations it was able to best or match the ATI X1800 XT 512 MB card where it counts.  In Doom 3, Far Cry, Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2, FEAR and Call of Duty 2 the 7800 GTX 512 MB GPU has the performance crown; in many instances by a considerable margin.

Final Thoughts

NVIDIA has hit one out of the park with the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB GPU.  If you want the ultimate gaming PC, you now have a new card to put on your list.

For more detailed information on the NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB GPU, please check out the full, detailed review on the next page.

Click here for the Detailed Review