W
hat could be better than running two GeForce 7800 GT cards in SLI? How
about two GeForce 7800 GTs and 512MB of memory in a single card? Asus
has built just such a beast, albeit in very limited supply, with a couple restric-
tions, and at a relatively high price.
Gigabyte went down this road last year, with the GV-3D1-68GT (featuring
dual 6800 GTs). Asus takes the concept a couple steps further: Not only does
the N7800GT Dual feature a faster GPU, but Asus tells us its working on a
new motherboard design that will enable you
to run two of these cards in SLI to create a
quad-GPU system.
Asus recommends running the card with
only Asus’ own driver, which is based on
nVidia’s ForceWare version 77.77. But we also
tested the card with nVidia’s ForceWare 81.95,
and the card obediently delivered slightly bet-
ter benchmark numbers (leaving us to wonder
why Asus made such a recommendation in
the first place. For the record, the benchmarks
published here are based on Asus’ drivers.)
The N7800GT Dual has other limita-
tions, too: It’s compatible with only certainnForce4 motherboards, including Asus’ own P5ND2-SLI and A8N-SLI series, and
Gigabyte’s K8NXP-SLI. The card ran fine in our A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard
with PC Power and Cooling’s Turbo-Cool 510 SLI power supply, but you also
have the option of plugging the card into an external power supply all its own.
In terms of performance, the N7800GT Dual proved to be slightly faster
than two conventional 7800 GT cards running in SLI. But this card’s $800
price tag renders it about $100 more expensive than a pair of 7800 GT cards
from Asus’ competitors. Buyers should also take the driver restric-
tion into account.
—MICHAEL BROWNAsus N7800GT Dual
Two GPUs, one PCI Express slot
A
TI had no sooner shipped its top-of-the-line X1800 XT—hyper-clocked
and stuffed to the gills with 512MB of memory—than nVidia threw down
its trump card: a hyper-clocked GeForce 7800 GTX stuffed to the gills with
512MB of memory.
One look at this card’s dual-slot cooler, with its mondo fan and octopus-like
heat pipes, tells you eVGA’s implementation doesn’t stray far from nVidia’s ref-
erence design. eVGA didn’t find it necessary to goose clock speeds, either: The
GPU hums along at 550MHz, while the DDR3 memory trips the light fantastic at
a whopping 850MHz.
We attribute this card’s improved bench-
mark scores, which are about six percent
higher than those of the nVidia design we
examined in our January 2006 issue, to
improved drivers. Comparing the perfor-
mance of eVGA’s card to an X1800 XT imple-
mentation from one of ATI’s biggest third-
party manufacturers—namely, Sapphire—
throws nVidia’s accomplishment into even
bolder relief: eVGA’s card wracked up a
3DMark05 score of 10,958, compared with
the Sapphire X1800 XT’s 9,208 3DMarks. And
while Sapphire’s card delivered a respectable
60.1 frames per second in Doom 3, eVGA’scard clubbed it over the head by muscling out 76.8fps.
If you can raid your trust fund, running a pair of these monsters in SLI is
an unabashedly decadent experience—we’re talking Doom 3 at nearly 100fps
(with a link connector—you can run these cards in SLI without a link connec-
tor, but we experienced a significant performance penalty). With numbers like
these, it’s evident that eVGA didn’t really need to move much beyond what
nVidia had wrought. In fact, eVGA’s biggest problem is that nVidia can’t supply
enough GPUs to meet demand.
One area in which ATI has caught up to—and surpassed—nVidia is
video performance. Turn to our review of ATI’s X1800 XT CrossFire
Edition on page 60 for more on
that note.
—MICHAEL BROWNeVGA e-GeForce
7800 GTX
An absolutely great videocard... if you can find one
64 MA XIMUMPC MARCH 2006
reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
Asus’ N7800GT Dual cleverly manages to squeeze two GeForce
7800 GT GPUs onto one circuit board. It delivers a sweet perfor-
mance, but with a few strings attached.The only videocards that can come close to the performance
of eVGA’s e-GeForce 7800 GTX are other cards based on the
same nVidia GPU.eVGA e-GEFORCE 7800 GTX
$750, http://www.evga.com8
ASUS N7800GT DUAL
$800, http://www.asus.comASUS N7800GT DUALHalo tested at 1600x1200 with sound
disabled. Doom 3 tested at High Quality,
1600x1200, 4x AA. Far Cry tested at
1600x1200, 4x AA, 8x aniso. 3DMark03
and 3DMark05 run using default set-
tings. HQV score is derived from the HQV
Benchmark DVD.DOOM3 (FPS) 86.2
FAR CRY (FPS) 141.0
HALO (FPS) 131.3
3DMARK0 5 11,500^
HQV SCORE 56BENCHMARKS
MA XIMUMPC
KICKASSDOOM3 (FPS) 76.8
FAR CRY (FPS) 129.4
HALO (FPS) 129.2
3DMARK05 10,958
HQV SCORE 56BENCHMARKSEVGA E-GEFORCE 7800 GTX (512MB)Halo tested at 1600x1200 with sound
disabled. Doom 3 tested at High
Quality, 1600x1200, 4x AA. Far Cry and
3DMark03 Game 2 and Game 4 tested at
1600x1200, 4x AA, 8x aniso. 3DMark03
and 3DMark05 run using default set-
tings. HQV score is derived from the HQV
Benchmark DVD.