30 MA XIMUMPC NOVEMBER 2005
$600 SHOWDOWN
Throwing ATI’s X850 XT Platinum Edition into
the ring against nVidia’s powerhouse GeForce
7800 GTX would have been like pitting Bill
Gates against Butterbean. So until ATI ships
its R520 GPU, the best we can do is to pit one
GeForce 7800 GTX board against another!PNY VERTO GEFORCE 7800 GTX
PNY’s GeForce 7800 GTX implementation is
a straightforward nVidia reference design: The
graphics core is clocked at 430MHz and the
256MB of memory hums along at 600MHz.
You’ll fi nd dual DVI outputs as well as a VIVO
port on the mounting bracket.
But when we’re handed a $520 videocard
that boasts a 24-pipe GPU, we’re not about to
sniff about a reference design. And while PNY’s
Verto didn’t turn in benchmark numbers that
compete with Asus’ wildly overclocked imple-
mentation; the Verto isn’t weighed down by a
fan that consumes two expansion slots.
If we had pitted this card against ATI’s cur-
rent best, ATI would have left the ring in a body
bag. Playing Doom 3, the PNY board turned
out 53.6fps, compared with the ATI’s 40.2fps.
Running 3DMark03, PNY scored 16,074 to ATI’s
13,170. No, a 24-pipe GPU is no match for a
16-piper.ASUS EXTREME N7800 GTX TOP
Word on the street is that Asus pays nVidia a
premium to get pick-of-the-litter GeForce 7800
GTX GPUs, with the express intent of using
them to build over-the-top videocards. Whether
that’s gospel truth or just marketing hype, Asus’
Extreme N7800 GTX Top is the fastest video-
card we’ve ever tested.
We thought the 7800 GTX marked the endof two-slot cooling solutions, but
Asus has so overclocked this board’s
memory and graphics core that a stock cooler
just wouldn’t do the job. We measured the core
running at a whopping 486MHz and the DDR
memory cruising along at 675MHz. How do
those specs translate into performance? How
about Doom 3 at 1600x1200 resolution with
4x AA at 60.5fps—a full 7fps faster than PNY’s
more conventional design, and nearly 4fps
faster than the overclocked XFX GeForce 7800
we reviewed in September.
PNY VERTO 7800 GTX
9
MA XIMUMPC
KICKASS$520, http://www.pny.comBest scores in each category are bolded.BENCHMARKS
DOOM 3 FAR CRY HALO 3DMARK05 3DMARK03 3DMARK03 3DMARK03 HQV
(fps) (fps) (fps) (fps) Game 2 (fps) Game 4 (fps) ScoreSPECS
LEADTEK PX6600 nVidia GeForce 6600 GT $165 128MB 8 500 500
SAPPHIRE X800 GT ATI Radeon X800 GT $1 70 256MB 8 486 506
MSI NX6800 nVidia GeForce 6800 $285 256MB 12 325 300
CONNECT3D X800XL ATI Radeon X800 XL $285 256MB 16 398 493
XFX 6800GT nVidia GeForce 6800 GT $345 256MB 16 350 515
SAPPHIRE X850 XT ATI Radeon X850 XT $440 256MB 16 533 554
BFG 7800 GT OC nVidia GeForce 7800 GT $420 256MB 20 425 525 O
ATI X850 XT PE ATI Radeon X850 XT PE $480 256MB 16 547 594
PNY 7800 GTX nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX $520 256MB 24 430 600
ASUS N7800 GTX nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX $570 256MB 24 486 675VIDEOCARD GPU PRICE MEMORY PIXEL CORE MEMORY
PIPELINES CLOCK CLOCKBENCHMARKS
DOOM 3 FAR CRY HALO 3DMARK0 5 3DMARK
(fps) (fps) (fps)
LEADTEK PX6600 34.0 37.3 77.4 6,523 14,
MSI NX6800 44.7 76.7 76.7 7,137 15,
XFX 6800GT 68.7 111.3 93.4 9,234 19,
BFG 7800 GT 81.2 124.1 124.5 11,047 24,
PNY 7800 GTX 84.4 128.6 129.1 11,379 26,GEFORCE SLI
BENCHMARKSHOW WE TESTED
VIDEOCARD SHOWDOWN
TEST SYSTEM: Athlon FX-55, nForce
SLI motherboard, 2GB DDR RAM
DOOM 3: Timedemo 1 tested at
1600x1200, High Quality, 4x AA
FAR CRY: Boat level tested at
1600x1200, all settings on High (water
at Ultra High), 4x AA, 8x aniso
HALO: Timedemo script tested at
1600x
3DMARK03 GAME 2 AND GAME 4:
Tested at 1600x1200, 4x AA,
8x aniso
3DMARK03 AND 3DMARK05: Tested
using default settings
HQV: See page 31 for detailsASUS EXTREME N7800 GTX
10MA XIMUMPC
KICKASS$570, http://www.asus.comTHE TITLE BOUT!
LEADTEK WINFAST PX6600 TDH 18.1 35.1 44.0 3,626 8,562 12.9 15.4 73
SAPPHIRE RADEON X800 GT 18.3 49.4 42.7 4,213 9,566 12.2 23.0 55
MSI NX6800 RIDDICK 24.6 46.4 42.6 3,887 9,218 15.8 22.3 73
CONNECT3D 3028 X800XL 31.0 60.2 58.6 5,092 10,921 22.3 32.2 55
XFX GEFORCE 6800GT 39.8 71.2 63.3 5,145 11,945 24.6 28.1 78
SAPPHIRE RADEON X850 XT 37.9 80.8 78.0 6,189 12,648 26.5 38.3 65
BFG GEFORCE 7800 GT OC 49.7 84.2 87.4 6,911 14,894 32.2 46.2 83
ATI RADEON X850 XT PE 40.2 87.1 80.2 6,468 13,170 28.4 41.1 65
PNY VERTO GEFORCE 7800 GTX 53.6 81.5 102.6 7,648 16,074 33.8 47.9 83
ASUS EXTREME N7800 GTX TOP 60.5 91.3 111.2 8,560 17,698 39.8 58.7 83