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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mrdeez - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
also:maybe gaming in hi def......ona big screenmrdeez - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
#114Dude just stfu......we are here to comment what we want and say it freely......minus threats and name calling....as i said before this card is not for gamers...maybe elite gamers that have a monitor that does these resolutions but most gamers i know have went to lcd and i have yet to see any lcd[im sure there are some]do these resolutions so this card really is a card for crt elite gamers......lol with those resolutions on a 21 inch monitor you would need binoculars as glasses to play the game....the tanks on bf2 would be ant like small....
bob661 - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
#114I am SO glad that Anand remains in business despite all the bitches that are in these comment sections.
Locut0s - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
Those who are complaining that they should have reviewed at lower resolutions should think for a minute. First of all you are talking about a 600 buck card, most people who have that kind of money to spend on a card also have a monitor that is capable of 1600x1200 or better. Also benchmarking at any lower resolution on a card like this in todays games is almost pointless as you are almost entirely CPU bound at those resolutions. Do you really want to see page after page of 1024x768 charts that differ by only 4-5 percent at the most?Also give the editors a break when it comes to writing these articles. As others have said this is not a subscription site and given the number of visitors and the quality of the articles I'm amazed, and gratified, that the people of Anandtech keep putting out article after long article despite all the winning that goes on over spelling mistakes and graph errors that more often than not are corrected within a few hours.
SDA - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
That's a really great comparison, #112, especially seeing as how we pay for AnandTech and any problems with it could leave us stranded in the middle of nowhere. And so witty, too!Jarred, ah, thanks.
Questar - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
"Our Web Editor is on vacation and we are all doing our own HTML and editing for the next 10 days. In our usual process, the article goes from an Editor to the Web Editor who codes the article, checks the grammar, and checks for obvious content errors. Those steps are not in the loop right now."" do know Derek as a very conscientious Editor and I would ask that you please give him, and the rest of us, a little slack this next week and a half"
Dear Mr. Fink,
I am sorry to hear about the problems you have had with your vehicle breakdowns. You see, our quality inspector was on vacation that week, so we just shipped our vehicles strait off the assembly line. Please cut us a little slack, as we usually build much better vehicles.
Sincerly,
Buncha Crap,
CEO
Crappy Moters Inc.
frisbfreek - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
my question is how did they do hi res 2048x1536 when the card is only single-link DVI? Shouldn't either an analog connection or dual-link be necessary?yacoub - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
#108 - what do you want, a $2000 CPU to go with your $1200 in GPUs? =PCtK - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
so dual display is still not available with dual 7800s?!?!?!?!?smn198 - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
Come on Intel & AMD. Keep up!