Product Reviews

The original 7800 GTX (see issue 131, p82) was the card we'd been waiting for: Shader Model 3 compatibility, high clock speeds and 24 pixel pipelines, all on a PCB that only required one PCI Express slot and a normal cooler. Then there was the 7800 GT (see issue 132, p66), which answered dreams we didn't know we even had: nearly as quick as the GTX, yet £100 cheaper.

So it's difficult to know how to react to the N7800GTX 512MB. Take a look at the picture: it's the biggest card nVidia has released this year, requiring two PCI Express slots and a 90mm fan. It's also even faster than the 7800 GTX, which means that, unless your monitor is capable of some unusually high

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resolutions, you won't be able to push this card to its limits for at least a year.

But it's difficult not to feel enthusiastic about such a no-holds-barred piece of hardware. There's the design, for a start. Double-height cards, such as ATi's brand-new X1800 XT (see p66), tend to be noisy, so it's incredible that nVidia has reduced noise levels to barely louder than a case fan.

It was immediately clear that the 550MHz core and 512MB of RAM (clocked at 850MHz) would need more than our standard Half-Life 2 and Far Cry tests, in which it scored 88fps and 56fps respectively. So we threw Call of Duty 2, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and F.E.A.R. at it too. At 1,280 x 1,024, it didn't drop its average below 30fps once. Even at 1,600 x 1,200 with the highest quality settings, F.E.A.R. averaged 35fps, and Call of Duty 2 32fps. All of this means the N7800GTX 512MB is even quicker than ATi's X1800 XT card.

It's all highly impressive. But to even consider this card being worth buying, you'll need to be a committed gamer with a high-resolution monitor, access to all the latest titles and, needless to say, very deep pockets. If either you or your monitor won't play games at more than 1,600 x 1,200, there's simply no point wasting the extra power.