NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512

Gameplay Summary:

F.E.A.R.: There were some huge differences in performance between the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB and the chasing pack in F.E.A.R.. We saw a 29% average frame rate increase over XFX's Extreme Gamer Edition at the XFX's best-playable settings, which equated to a 32% average frame rate increase over the X1800XT.

The minimum frame rate was where we were really impressed, though. We saw a 133% performance increase over XFX's Extreme Gamer and a 115% increase over the Radeon X1800XT. Even with 4xTSS AA, we experienced a higher minimum frame rate than what was experienced on the X1800XT 512MB and XFX 7800 GTX Extreme 256MB cards at 2xTSS AA!

Quake 4: We played Quake 4 at 1600x1200 0xAA 8xAF, which were the same settings that we found to be best-playable on the Radeon X1800XT 512MB when using Ultra Quality mode. We were more than surprised at the gaming performance at these settings. The average frame rate was a massive 58 frames per second, compared to the 43 fps that we experienced on the Radeon X1800XT. The minimum frame rate increased from 19 fps to 29 fps, which is another impressive frame rate increase.

However, when we reviewed the Radeon X1800XT, we felt that 1600x1200 2xQA AA 4xAF High Quality looked better than 1600x1200 0xAA 8xAF Ultra Quality because we feel that the game needs at least 2xAA. We found that we were able to play Quake 4 at 1600x1200 2xTSS AA 8xAF Ultra Quality on the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB. This was with smoother gameplay than we experienced on the XFX 7800 GTX Extreme Gamer at 1600x1200 2xTSS AA 4xAF High Quality.

Day of Defeat: Source: In Day of Defeat: Source, we found that we could not increase the quality settings above 4xTSS AA 16xAF with maximum in-game details, including full HDR, but we were able to use High Quality driver settings for free. Even with high quality driver settings, the gaming experience was smoother than we have seen on any other single GPU solution.

Battlefield 2: Battlefield 2 proved to be very similar to Day of Defeat: Source. We found that we couldn't increase the Anti-Aliasing quality any further, but we were able to increase the texture filtering quality by turning off driver optimisations. Even after turning the driver optimisations off, we still maintained a smoother gaming experience than we have seen on any video card that we've looked at previously.

Value:

Unfortunately, this kind of performance comes at a price. We've been informed by NVIDIA that they are expecting board partner cards to be selling for around £430 including VAT. Compare that to the likes of the Radeon X1800XT 512MB for around £386 on Scan, with the question of widespread availability still hanging around its neck. Gainward's Ultra/3500PCX Golden Sample is very competitively priced at £358.89 on Udiggit.com, while the XFX Extreme Gamer Edition is going to cost you £410.

If you are going to be spending £410 on the XFX 7800 GTX Extreme Gamer Edition, we'd recommend topping that up with another £20-30 in order to buy one of the new GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB's - it's considerably faster for that little bit extra cash. However, if you are happy with the performance of the XFX Extreme Gamer Edition, you might want to look towards Gainward's Ultra/3500PCX Golden Sample.

Gainward's Golden Sample delivers nearly the same gaming experience as the XFX Extreme Gamer for over £50 less. There's only a 20MHz core speed deficit, whilst the memory clocks are exactly the same. As we've shown, the XFX Extreme Gamer performs very similarly to the Radeon X1800XT 512MB, so Gainward's Ultra/3500PCX Golden Sample isn't a far behind the pair.

Initial Thoughts...

Even at this early stage, where we've only managed to complete about half of our normal gameplay evaluations, we think it is fairly safe to say that this video card is the fastest video card on the planet with no exception to that fact. In newer DirectX 9.0c titles that have come out over the last few weeks and months, we have seen that the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB is considerably faster than the Radeon X1800XT 512MB.

Older, slightly less intensive multiplayer games like Battlefield 2 and Day of Defeat: Source don't display quite the same differences in gameplay experience, because the game is already running at close to its maximum settings. In these situations, we found that that the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB was just not fast enough to be able to deliver smooth gaming experiences at 1600x1200 with 8xAA couple with some degree of transparency Anti-Aliasing for good measure.

It is strange to say that this card was 'not fast enough', because it is officially the fastest video card on the planet as of this moment. We don't think ATI has a direct response to GeForce 7800 GTX 512 until R580 comes around sometime after the New Year. We have heard that ATI's board partners will be shipping faster-than-stock Radeon X1800XT's at some point. However, we're still waiting for widespread availability on the XT's clocked at reference speeds, so we'll reserve our judgement on that when it becomes a reality.

We continue to be impressed by NVIDIA's strategy this year - major online retailers should have GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB cards available by the time you've read this. We will be keeping an eye on that over the course of the afternoon and will keep you updated. If you want the fastest video card on the planet, you're going to have to sell both kidneys for one of them, and you can add a lung onto the list too if you want to grab a pair for SLI.

Good? Nah... Absolutely Fantastic? Hell yes.