NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX Hits The Ground Running
by Derek Wilson on June 22, 2005 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Performance
As an older OpenGL game that lacks any fragment programs (OpenGL's equivalent of DirectX Pixel and Vertex Shaders), most of these setups breeze through it, even at high resolutions like 2048x1536. The only setup that doesn't provide smooth frame rates with AA/AF enabled is the 6600GT. There is clearly a problem with the SLI support in Wolfenstein 3D, as both the 6800U and 7800GTX both run slower in SLI mode than in single card mode. We would assume that the 6600GT SLI is also failing to take advantage of the second card, so the relatively low frame rates in AA/AF mode are due to driver problems more than anything. Also of note is that despite the lack of advanced pixel effects, Wolf3D is relatively CPU limited. 120 FPS even with an FX-55 appears to be the maximum.The one noticeable advantage of the 7800GTX is that it makes 2048x1536 4xAA a truly playable resolution, even for competitive online gamers. The speedup at 1600x1200 4xAA is only 18%, but 2048x1536 runs almost 50% faster. If you have a monitor capable of running such a resolution, the 7800GTX is one of the few cards that can actually handle it. When (or perhaps if) NVIDIA fixes the SLI support for Wolf3D, we should also see acceptable frame rates out of the SLI setups even at the maximum resolution, though given the popularity of the game we have to wonder why NVIDIA hasn't already included proper SLI support.
The ATI side of the equation is once again lacking. While it is more or less able to match the 6800U, ATI clearly has no current answer to the 7800GTX. We'll have to see if Crossfire does better with accelerating Wolf3D than SLI. If it does, we expect NVIDIA to suddenly find the impetus to actually get SLI support working properly.
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Regs - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
Yikes @ the graphs lol.I just came close to pushing the button to order one of these but then I said...what games can't play on a 6800GT at 16x12 res? There is none. Far Cry was the only game that comes close to doing it.
Bravo to Nvidia, his and boo @ lagging game developers.
bob661 - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
#19Are you new to this market or do you have a short memory? Don't you remember that the initial 6800 Ultra's cost around $700-800? I sure as hell do. Why is everyone complaining about pricing? These are premium video cards and you will pay a premium price to buy them.
Barneyk - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
Yeah, not a single comment on any of the benchmarks, what is up with that?There were alot of wierd scenarios there, why is there NO performance increase in SLI some of the time?
And why is 6800Ultra SLI faster then 7800GTX SLI??
Alot of wierd stuff, and not a singel comment or analysis about it, I always read most new tests here on AT first becasue its usually the best, but this review was a double boogey to say the least...
Dukemaster - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
@21: The score of the X850XT PE in Wolfenstein still looks messed up to me...shabby - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
Ya some of the scores dont make much sense, 7800 sli loosing to a single 7800?yacoub - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
Hey, looks great! $350 and you've got a buyer here!Lifted - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
Guys, they simply reversed the 6800 Ultra SLI and 7800 GTX SLI in all of the 1600 x 1200 - 4x AA graphs.Now everthing is kosher again.
Johnmcl7 - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
To 18 - I have to admit, I didn't bother looking closely at them, seeing the X850XT supposedly beating all the other cards by such a margin at those resolutions showed they were completely screwed up! I didn't notice the performance increase as you go up the resolution, maybe it's something I missed on my own X850XT? ;) I wish...that would be a neat feature, your performance increases as your resolution increases.I agree it needs pulled down and checked, not to be harsh on AT but this isn't the first time the bar graphs have been wrong - I would rather wait for a review that has been properly finished and checked rather than read a rushed one, as it stands it's no use to me because I have no idea if any of the performance figures are genuine.
John
RyDogg1 - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
Wow, who exactly is paying for these video cards to warrant the pricing?Lonyo - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
To #14, the X850XT performance INCREASED by 33% from 1600x1200 to 2048x1536 according to the grahics, so to me that just screams BULLSH!T.I think the review needs taking down, editing, and then being put up again.
Or fixed VERY quickly.
AT IMO has let people down a bit this time round, not the usual standard.