All benchmarks were run with the driver image setting configured to High Quality, with the exception of Far Cry which was set to Quality. The highest quality graphics settings were enabled in each game with the exception of water in Far Cry, which was set to Very High as opposed to Ultra High.
Update: A bug in the application profiling system resulted in the benchmarks, with the exception of Doom 3, to be run with a Quality image setting as opposed to High Quality. The bug is a result of the application profile image setting, which was set to High Quality, failing to override the global profile image setting, which was set to Quality. NVIDIA has mentioned this problem in their ForceWare version 77.77 Driver Release Notes. To ensure that settings will work for your application, NVIDIA recommends that settings be changed using the global profile as a temporary workaround.
Image Setting
Take a minute to look over the following benchmark results. You will find that in most cases the GeForce 7800 GTX met or exceeded the performance of the GeForce 6800 GT running in SLI.
Benchmark Results
The results with HDR enabled in Far Cry are by far the most impressive for the GeForce 7800 GTX.
Far Cry with HDR Rendering
Image Provided by Forum Member jAkUp
And finally a few benchmarks with 8XS antialiasing enabled, which became practical to use in newer games when SLI became available.
Benchmark Results
CONCLUSION
Opinions will be formed that the GeForce 7800 GTX is only a minor update to the previous generation GeForce 6800 Ultra. While that depends on what the definition of a minor update is, I believe that the GeForce 7800 GTX represents a significant technology update. It runs faster, it renders higher-quality graphics, and it consumes less power. These benefits are certainly not indicative of what NVIDIA would achieve by only "tweaking" the architecture of the GeForce 6 Series.
PriceGrabber Search
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Let's give NVIDIA a big round of applause for making the GeForce 7800 GTX available to purchase today! I am sure that there are a few gamers who are pulling the credit card out of their wallet right now.
I have only touched on the surface of the GeForce 7800 GTX, but it looks like NVIDIA has followed up on the GeForce 6 Series with another award-winning product. There will be other previews that are more comprehensive and I will be furnishing links to them on this page. As for SLI performance of the GeForce 7800 GTX, I will leave you with the following results, which were furnished by NVIDIA.
Feel free to provide feedback or ask any questions about the preview in this forum thread.
This following is a list of changes that have been made to this preview since it was originally published:
June 27, 2005 - Page 3: Added links to additional GeForce 7800 GTX articles and previews.
June 27, 2005 - Page 3: Provided a link to Chris Ray's GeForce 7800 GTX Antialiasing Investigation.
June 28, 2005 - Page 2: Removed statement mentioning that a number of in-game video clips to demonstrate the effects of antialiasing during motion would be made available as time permits.
August 22, 2005 - Page 3: Mentioned that the benchmark results are based on the Quality image setting as opposed to the High Quality image setting due to a bug in the application profiling system.
