NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT: Rounding Out The High End
by Derek Wilson & Josh Venning on August 11, 2005 12:15 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Everquest 2 Performance
EQ2 is still probably the most demanding game that we test in terms of graphics, which is interesting because it is an MMORPG. Like the Ultra High quality setting in Doom 3, the highest quality settings in EQ2 put even the best graphics cards out there to the test.
With the settings that we used, the 6800 Ultra couldn't provide playable framerates with AA enabled, and struggled to run smoothly even without AA. The 7800 GT results aren't much better in some cases. Compared to the 6800 Ultra framerates, the 7800 GT is around 20% faster in both resolutions with AA enabled, but at 19 and 16.6 fps it, it is hardly playable. Without AA, 2048x1536 gets a 40% increase from 21.2 fps to 29.6, which may offer an acceptable level of smoothness. There's only about a 14% increase between the two cards at 1600x1200 without AA, and it's clear that we're becoming CPU bound as all the G70 configurations perform within 3% of each other. The 7800 GT is still better than the 6800 Ultra, though (37 fps to 42.4 fps).
For some reason, the 7800 GT handles these two resolutions better than the 6800 Ultra in SLI mode without AA enabled, while the opposite is true when AA is 4X. While the framerates are still quite low (EQ2 seems to have a tough time with AA), there is a 56% increase in fps with the 6800U SLI at 16x12, and a 65.4% increase at 20x15. However, it would still be a challenge to have an enjoyable gameplay experience with framerates of 24.8 and 22.5, respectively.
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MemberSince97 - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
I hear these OC pretty well, how about some comparisons.adonn78 - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
First off, no gamer plays videogames at resolutions above 1600x1200! Most of us stick to 1024x768 so that we can get high framerates and enable akk thge features and play the game on the highest settings. In addition you did not show how the GT and GTX stacked up against the previous generation suchs as the 6800 ultra, GT and the 5950 ultra. And Where is the AGP version? My computer is 2 years old and I am upgrading my graphics card soon. I guess I'll wait to see if ATI makes AGP cards for their next generation. And where the heck is the R520? ATI is really lagging this time around. Hopefully we will get some AGP love. AGP still got a good 2 years of life left in it.Locut0s - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
Speak for yourself but as an owner of a 21" CRT, and I know I'm not the only one, I can see using resolutions above 1600x1200 quiet easily.JNo - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
"no gamer plays videogames at resolutions above 1600x1200!"Er, I have a Dell 2405 monitor running at 1920x1200 and I always run it native where possible (even with my 6600GT, many modern games are *playable* including CS Source, Far Cry) so this statement is complete balls. Obviously I would like a faster card to run games as smooth as possible so the tested resolutions are extremely pertinent to me.
DrZoidberg - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
The high resolutions are needed cause at 1024x768 there will hardly be any difference between 6800GT, 7800GT, x850xt, 7800GTX cause all these cards handle this resolution easily and they will give similar fps cause they will all be CPU limited.vijay333 - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
I believe the higher resolutions are used because at the lower ones there really isn't much differentiation between the various cards. The article title is "Rounding Out The High End" so hopefully there'll be another comparing the performance against mid-range cards (high-end from previous generation). AGP is missing, but is there really that much difference between the AGP and PCIe versions of the same card?vijay333 - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
Cool. very recently bought an eVGA 6800GT. given their step-up program, plan on paying the difference and getting the 7800 GT in 2-3 months when the price is bound to be lower.John - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
Josh/Derek, please add 6800 Ultra benchmarks to this review for a comparison.GoatMonkey - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
They at least have ATI 850 benchmarks on there. You can approximate where the 6800 series cards are going to be from that. It would be nice to see them on there also though if possible.Lonyo - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
They have, just not for BF2.