Gigabyte GV-NX78T256V-B 7800GT
Introduction
The big headlines in today's video card related articles almost always come down to seeing double; whether it's two NVIDIA GeForce cards connected in SLI or two ATi Radeons running in CrossFire mode. Perhaps it's justified in that people always want to see higher framerates and increased performance, regardless of the cost. Just look back at what they did to our pal, Steve Austin. When they "rebuilt" the Six Million Dollar man, they didn't just give him the powers of an everyday man. They made him "faster, stronger, better".
While those kind of articles always make for exciting reading, the average PC user knows that at the end of the day, their purchases are going to invariably fall in below these heady systems that get all the fanfare. It's simply not feasible to consistently upgrade to the fastest or most powerful hardware on a semi-regular basis for most enthusiasts. So today, we're not looking at dual-core, dual-GPU monster machines, but instead a powerful video card from Gigabyte, that hummed right through our benchmark suite. We present the Gigabyte GV-NX78T256V-B...
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| Core GPU Clock - 405MHz 256MB - GDDR3 Memory @ 1 GHz (500MHz DDR) NVIDIA CineFX 4.0 Shading Architecture •_Vertex Shaders ·_Support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Vertex Shader 3.0 ·_Displacement mapping ·_Geometry instancing ·_Infinite length vertex programs •_Pixel Shaders ·_Support for DirectX 9.0 Pixel Shader 3.0 ·_Full pixel branching support ·_Support for Multiple Render Targets (MRTs) ·_Infinite length pixel programs •_Next-Generation Texture Engine ·_Accelerated texture access ·_Up to 16 textures per rendering pass ·_Support for 16-bit floating point format and 32-bit floating point format ·_Support for non-power of two textures ·_Support for sRGB texture format for gamma textures ·_DirectX and S3TC texture compression •_Full 128-bit studio-quality floating point precision through the entire rendering pipeline with native hardware support for 32bpp, 64bpp, and 128bpp rendering modes API Support • Complete DirectX support, including the latest version of Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 •_Full OpenGL support, including OpenGL 2.0 64-Bit Texture Filtering and Blending •_Full floating point support throughout entire pipeline •_Floating point filtering improves the quality of images in motion •_Floating point texturing drives new levels of clarity and image detail •_Floating point frame buffer blending gives detail to special effects like motion blur and explosions NVIDIA Intellisample 4.0 Technology •_Advanced 16x anisotropic filtering (with up to 128 Taps) •_Blistering- fast antialiasing and compression performance •_Gamma-adjusted rotated-grid antialiasing removes jagged edges for incredible image quality •_Transparent multisampling and transparent supersampling modes boost antialiasing quality to new levels •_Support for normal map compression •_Support for advanced lossless compression algorithms for color, texture, and z-data at even higher resolutions and frame rates •_Fast z-clear NVIDIA UltraShadow II Technology •_Designed to enhance the performance of shadow-intensive games NVIDIA Digital Vibrance Control (DVC) 3.0 Technology •_DVC color controls •_DVC image sharpening controls NVIDIA SLI Technology •_Patented hardware and software technology allows two GPUs to run in parallel to scale performance •_Scales performance on over 60 top PC games and applications |
NVIDIA PureVideo Technology •_Adaptable programmable video processor •_High-definition MPEG-2 and WMV9 hardware acceleration •_Spatial-temporal de-interlacing •_Inverse 2:2 and 3:2 pull-down (Inverse Telecine) •_4-tap horizontal, 5-tap vertical scaling •_Overlay color temperature correction •_Microsoft Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) supports multiple video windows with full video quality and features in each window •_Integrated HDTV output Composited Desktop Hardware Engine •_Video post-processing •_Real-time desktop compositing •_Accelerated antialiased text rendering •_Pixel shader-driven special effects and animation Advanced Display Functionality •_Dual integrated 400MHz RAMDACs for display resolutions up to and including 2048x1536 at 85Hz •_Dual DVO ports for interfacing to external TMDS transmitters and external TV encoders •_Full NVIDIA nView multi-display technology capability Advanced Engineering •_Designed for PCI Express x16 •_Designed for high-speed GDDR3 memory Operating Systems •_Windows XP/Windows XP 64 •_Windows ME •_Windows 2000 •_Linux •_Macintosh OS X Software Bundle •_SpellForce - The Order of Dawn
•_Xpand Rally •_Power Director 3 •_Gigabyte Driver CD Adapter/Cable Bundle •_VIVO cable w/ breakout box
•_DVI adaptor •_Power cord
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The GV-NX78T256V-B is one of Gigabyte's latest video cards powered by an NVIDIA GPU, the 7800 GT. The 7800GT differs from the 7800GTX by having four fewer pipelines and one less vertex shader, as well as having core and memory speeds that are typically about 30MHz slower for the GPU and 100MHz for the memory, when comparing NVIDIA's reference specifications. There doesn't seem to be any way to "turn on" those extra pipelines just yet, so if you want the extra bandwidth you'll need to pay the price for the GTX model. However, the lower price point of the 7800GT has made it a prime candidate for SLI users. Buying two 7800GTs over two 7800GTXs can often result in a savings close to $200 dollars. Keeping with our theme of keeping costs down, we've only included single card performance on the pages to come, comparing the 7800GT to the card it supplanted, the 6800GT, as well as one from the competitors: ATi's Radeon X850XT.
