Introduction and Specifications

XFX has readied two spectacular GPUs for us today — both of them overclocked right out of the box. The fastest GPU in the world lies inside!

Introduction

If you remember correctly, when we first reviewed the reference NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX graphics card at the end of June, you could already purchase the cards online, that very same day.  It was the first time that I can remember a major hardware release having availability on the day of announcement.  NVIDIA has set a very high bar for the rest of the graphics and PC industry, and I hope everyone intends to match it.

Besides the feat of availability, NVIDIA also raised the bar in terms of graphics performance.  The 7800 GTX is the fastest GPU on the market and since the SLI technology that NVIDIA introduced with the 6xxx series of cards is still going strong on the 7 series, NVIDIA is not just one, but two full steps ahead of the competing answer from ATI: the X850 XT.  Yes, they have announced CrossFire, and yes we are expecting the R520 soon, but they aren’t here yet.  The 7800 GTX is.

It should come as no surprise then that we are already reviewing a barrage of retail cards that have hit the PC Perspective lab very soon after launch date.  The first to arrive here was the XFX model that I will be showing today, that actually comes in a couple of different flavors, which I will differentiate below.

Specifications

In a somewhat confusing manner, XFX has a couple different 7800 GTX models for sale that each has their own perks.  The first one, and the model we were actually sent, is the ‘PV-T70F-UNF7’ model and is the ‘standard’ XFX model.  Its specs are:

  • 450 MHz core clock
  • 625 MHz / 1.25 GHz memory clock
  • 256 MB GDDR3 on a 256-bit memory interface
  • DVI, DVI, HDTV / VIVO outputs
  • Single slot cooler
  • NVIDIA SLI Support

This model also comes with an XFX T-shirt and an XFX PC controller, which we will show you on the next page. 

The other model is the ‘PV-T70F-UND7’ and is considered to be the newer, overclocked version.  Yes, that’s right, even faster.  Here are the specs:

  • 490 MHz core clock
  • 650 MHz / 1.30 GHz memory clock
  • 256 MB GDDR3 on a 256-bit memory interface
  • DVI, DVI, HDTV / VIVO outputs
  • Single slot cooler
  • NVIDIA SLI Support

This one doesn’t come with the fluff of the previous one, but its all power baby.  This is the current fastest stock 7800 GTX card on the market, beating out the 460 MHz of the BFG Tech unit and the 480 MHz of the Gainward card recently announced.

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