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Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX

More evolution the revolution?

Benchmarks

ShaderMark 2.1 tests shader-bound performance using nearly two dozen small shaders. The shaders perform a number of common shader tasks that you might find in games. The geometry the shaders shade is very simple, to text pure shader throughput.

Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX - ShaderMark

The results show that, on average, the 7800 GTX is around 1.6 times faster than the 6800 Ultra. The 7800 GTX was never slower, and on a couple of occasions, like those shaders utilising FP filtering, it's over twice as fast. Nvidia's focus on pixel shader throughput for G70 is clearly shown to be working in this synthetic test.

Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX - Half-life 2

Outside of the theoretical tests, we start to see CPU limitations creep in. A single 7800 GTX is faster in our Half-Life 2 benchmark test than SLi 6800 Ultras, with 7800 GTX in SLi pegged against a CPU limitation. That's a CPU limitation with a 2800MHz Athlon FX, incase you needed reminding. At 1600 x 1200 with 4AA and 16AF, 6800 Ultra SLI, 7800 GTX and 7800 GTX SLi have monsterous performance. Everything is faster than 60fps on average, at all settings.

Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX - Riddick

Riddick's SLI support thankfully seems correct in the 77.62 driver, for both 6800 Ultra SLI and 7800 GTX SLI. 6800 Ultras in SLI best a single 7800 GTX by a fair margin with 7800 GTX SLI standing far and away above the rest. With the lowest framerate for the 1600x1200 4AA 16AF test for 7800 GTX SLI being just under 60fps, Riddick works well with both graphics card and CPU.

A single 7800 GTX is nearly 1.6 times (60 per cent) faster than a single 6800 Ultra at the highest settings with the average performance increase being just over 1.4 times (40 per cent faster). With Riddick's engine being similar to Doom 3's (hardware stencil shadows, Z-only pre-pass, shadow volume extrusion done on the CPU), you can imagine Doom 3 performance, too.

Next page: Verdict

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