Hypersonic Aviator EX7: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX First Look
by Josh Venning on October 10, 2005 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The System and The Card
We mentioned earlier that there are some differences between the Go 7800 GTX and the 7800 GTX. The most important difference is the fact that the Go 7800 GTX is clocked slightly lower than a normal 7800 GTX, with a core clock of 400MHz and memory clock of 1.1GHz. Other than that, they are essentially the same, with 8 vertex pipelines and 24 pixel pipelines. The Go 7800 GTX does employ NVIDIA's PowerMiser technology in order to manage heat more effectively than its desktop counterpart, which is a good thing, given the limitations of a notebook in that regard. The power budget given to the Go 7800 GTX is the same as it is for the earlier Go 6800 Ultra.
For testing, we used a Hypersonic Aviator EX7 notebook fitted with a GeForce Go 7800 GTX. Here are its specifications:
P4 670 (3.8GHz)
2 Gigs DDR2-533 CAS4 RAM
2 100 Gig Hard drives striped in RAID 0
1920x1200 17" display
The system is fairly large, as are most notebooks with displays like this. Not only is it very heavy (about 13 lbs), it generates lots of heat and will burn your lap up if you keep it there for very long. That said, it has all the benefits of a mobile system and was made for serious gaming. The Aviator EX7 is easier to transport than even a small form factor system and packs quite a few high powered components.
We are very impressed with Hypersonic's offering. With a 3.8GHz Pentium 4, this system should outperform those other notebooks that run Pentium M parts. The Dell notebook in which the Go 7800 GTX launched for instance supports at most the 2.26GHz Pentium M, which does perform very well, but isn't quite as the desktop 3.8GHz part.
The one complaint that we have about the Hypersonic Aviator EX7 is that it gets incredibly hot. After long hours of operation, the surface on which it sits also gets very warm and just using the keyboard was able to make our palms sweat. Or maybe that was just the incredible performance that we were getting out of the notebook. For those interested in the system, we found it to be very stable when kept well ventilated, and you definitely get what you pay for with this one. We do also like the fact that Hypersonic includes a dead pixel guarantee that ensures your thousands of dollars will not be spent on something less than pleasing to look at.
The desktop system that we used is very similar to the one on which we test most of our graphics cards:
Radeon Express 200 based motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 Processor
1 GB OCZ 2:2:2:6 DDR400 RAM
Seagate 7200.7 120 GB Hard Drive
OCZ 600 W PowerStream Power Supply
Now, let's take a look at performance.
We mentioned earlier that there are some differences between the Go 7800 GTX and the 7800 GTX. The most important difference is the fact that the Go 7800 GTX is clocked slightly lower than a normal 7800 GTX, with a core clock of 400MHz and memory clock of 1.1GHz. Other than that, they are essentially the same, with 8 vertex pipelines and 24 pixel pipelines. The Go 7800 GTX does employ NVIDIA's PowerMiser technology in order to manage heat more effectively than its desktop counterpart, which is a good thing, given the limitations of a notebook in that regard. The power budget given to the Go 7800 GTX is the same as it is for the earlier Go 6800 Ultra.
For testing, we used a Hypersonic Aviator EX7 notebook fitted with a GeForce Go 7800 GTX. Here are its specifications:
P4 670 (3.8GHz)
2 Gigs DDR2-533 CAS4 RAM
2 100 Gig Hard drives striped in RAID 0
1920x1200 17" display
The system is fairly large, as are most notebooks with displays like this. Not only is it very heavy (about 13 lbs), it generates lots of heat and will burn your lap up if you keep it there for very long. That said, it has all the benefits of a mobile system and was made for serious gaming. The Aviator EX7 is easier to transport than even a small form factor system and packs quite a few high powered components.
We are very impressed with Hypersonic's offering. With a 3.8GHz Pentium 4, this system should outperform those other notebooks that run Pentium M parts. The Dell notebook in which the Go 7800 GTX launched for instance supports at most the 2.26GHz Pentium M, which does perform very well, but isn't quite as the desktop 3.8GHz part.
The one complaint that we have about the Hypersonic Aviator EX7 is that it gets incredibly hot. After long hours of operation, the surface on which it sits also gets very warm and just using the keyboard was able to make our palms sweat. Or maybe that was just the incredible performance that we were getting out of the notebook. For those interested in the system, we found it to be very stable when kept well ventilated, and you definitely get what you pay for with this one. We do also like the fact that Hypersonic includes a dead pixel guarantee that ensures your thousands of dollars will not be spent on something less than pleasing to look at.
The desktop system that we used is very similar to the one on which we test most of our graphics cards:
Radeon Express 200 based motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 Processor
1 GB OCZ 2:2:2:6 DDR400 RAM
Seagate 7200.7 120 GB Hard Drive
OCZ 600 W PowerStream Power Supply
Now, let's take a look at performance.
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cryptonomicon - Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - link
Wouldn't it have made the benches slightly more accurate if the same processor was used?Don't tell me intel doesnt give parts to AT to review anymore..
fishmonger12 - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link
i did a double take when i first saw the processors used... however, at high resolutions such as the ones used, the game wouldn't be very cpu limited. it still might account for a 3-5 frame difference though...timmiser - Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - link
I'm thinking AT should just redo this just to prove their point!ElFenix - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link
in the second to last article it claims that the power draw for the X1800XT is higher than that of the X850XT. but according to your initial X1800XT review, power draw for that part is lower than the X850XT. i can only imagine that what you really meant is the X800XT mobile part.ElFenix - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link
as was stated early on, far too warm and too big to sit on your lap for any time. they probably shouldn't be called notebooks either. 13 lbs would put your leg to sleep. no, these should be called portables.what i really want, and no one really seems to provide, is a truely mobile notebook computer with good gaming capability. there is a big gap between the x300 type graphics you get on a laptop with good mobility and the 6800gt/7800gt/x800 graphics you can get on a portable that weighs as much as 2 text books and is too big to possibly open on an airplane or a cramped college desk. the acer ferrari/travelmate 8100 laptop is about as close as it gets (x700, under 7 lbs, 15" screen) but i find the warranty to be a bit lacking.
Johnmcl7 - Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - link
Dell have the Precision M70 which comes with a GeForce 6800 class card although since it's a Quadro you obviously pay a lot more for the machine.John
ElFenix - Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - link
hmmm... looks like a latitude d810 with better gfx... i wonder why you can't get that gfx card in a d810? i wonder how much it would be to order the gfx card as a spare part for your d810? actually... comparing prices between the M70 and d810 it isn't that differentbbomb - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link
Didnt they just release the 6100 and 6150 GO mobile parts? And now a week later the 7800GTX Go part? Why did they even bother with the 6x series then?JarredWalton - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link
Because they don't cost $500+ for just the GPU. Those are the budget offerings for laptops. If you want a $1000 lappy with okay graphics, that's what you'll get.yacoub - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link
I'd totally pay $1800 for one of those. Sadly, it probably retails for almost three times that much. Laptops are the ultimate rip-off. Shame, 'cause it'd be nice to finally replace the desktop with something still decent for gaming. It's simply not worth paying three to four times as much though. $1500 will get you a high end AMD-based system with a real 7800GTX.