LOSTCIRCUITS

Summary

Currently the undisputedly best bang for the buck in 3D Rendering appears to be nVdia's n7800 GT series. Slightly scaled down from the more than $100 (on average) more expensive GTX offering, the more plebeian "GT" still offers blistering fast performance, besting essentially everything in the ATI camp - with perhaps the exception of the RADEON X1800. Moreover, the cards are SLI enabled, which in some applications effectively doubles the frame rates. Amongst the various manufacturers that are partnering with nVidia, ASUS carries a slightly modified version of the reference design, using a blue PCB, a chrome side bar and - noteworthy here, Infineon memory instead of the dominant Samsung components. Bundled with a number of proprietary software utilities like video security and game face, plus a few games and the ubiquitous video editing and DVD software, the Extreme n7800GT is something definitely worth looking at.

nVidia has dominated the midrange sector with the GeForce 6600GT series for quite some time while ATI still maintained the lead in the high end market segment. However ATI's lead vanished into thin air few months ago with nVidia's introduction of the 7800 series of GPU based on the G70 core. The original offering dubbed GTX featured eight vertex shader units for geometry processing, and six pixel pipeline quad-blocks for a total of 24 pixel pipelines. Shortly thereafter, nVidia came out with a slightly down-scaled unit, namely the "GT" version of the same G70 core with one of the vertex pipes disabled and running on only five pixel quad-blocks. Whereas the GTX core runs at 430 MHz and usually features memory running at 1200 MHz, the more plebeian GT has to content itself with a mere 400 MHz core speed and usually runs at only 1000 MHz memory data rate.

For a few months, the 7800 GT series sufficed to secure a rather comfortable performance lead over even the top grade of ATI GPU, only recently challenged by the RADEON X1800. nVidia naturally countered with a respin of the G70 core capable of running in excess of 550 MHz and incorporating 512 MHz of the latest generation of GDDR3 memory on the cards, comfortably outputting data at 1700 bps. All of that goodness was introduced last week in the form of the GeForce 7800GTX-512. As the GPU turns, though, not everybody is willing and able to shell out US$700 for this kind of beast, particularly in light of the fact that a major part of the performance can only be utilized at resolutions above and beyond 1600x1200 pixels. By themselves, the capabilities of the monitors used are, therefore, already a limitation for the usefulness of the $700 investments but, of course, there are also the bragging rights….

There is also SLI, short for scalable link interface and it has developed already into something close to becoming a household item - arguably, the legacy of the acronym didn't hurt. Then there is crossfire, which is supposed to do the same, just better and easier - alas, except for on paper, it really does not appear to exist.

Realistically, the most economic solution at this point appears to be either the original 7800GTX or, for the more budget-oriented, the 7800GT that is currently found below $300 (on a good day anyway) - with the possibility of literally doubling the performance my migrating to SLI. By now, every single one of nVidia's partners carries the GeForce 7800 GT in their repertoire and it is simply a matter of pick and chose, which of the manufacturers will be the lucky one. Amongst the manufacturers of choice are XFX, ASUS, BFG, ASUS, MSI, ASUS, Jaton, eVGA and others - including ASUS. Today, we are looking at the ASUS Extreme n7800GT, in single and SLI configuration.

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