BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC
Introduction, Specs and Bundle
NVIDIA most definitely has been on a roll as of late, with the introduction of a very successful 4th generation motherboard chipset with the nForce 4, and more recently with their GeForce 7 series launch and market introduction of the GeForce 7800GTX. In these launch articles we often times work with platform "reference" hardware for testing direct from the core technology OEM and soon to follow, we cover retail level products from various board partners as they are released into the channel.
With the NVIDIA GeForce 7800GTX launch however, the Silicon Valley based 3D Graphics giant seems amazingly strong and confident in their roll-out, as is evident in the wealth of information we've been receiving on various incarnations of the final retail product from virtually all the top 3rd party Graphics Card suppliers. Not to mention their immediate availability in the retail channel which speaks to the fact that these new GPUs are flowing pretty freely off the line at NVIDIA's fab partner, TSMC.
We have many retail ready GeForce 7800GTX cards in the queue for analysis and showcase here at HotHardware.com and one of the first manufacturers out of the gate was BFG with their "GeForce 7800GTX OC". Sporting a goosed up core GPU clock at 460MHz (30MHz faster than the NVIDIA reference design) and GDDR3 cranked up a notch to 1.3GHz (1.2GHz is the stock GF7800GTX spec), the card is a true testament to the fact that NVIDIA is perhaps holding back a bit, saving some extra juice to perhaps counter whatever ATi's next gen product brings to the fight. For now however, the spotlight is on NVIDIA, or shall we say BFG? Bringing in the "big guns" is what this new graphics card suggests it will allow you in your gameplay. Right then, let's lock and load.
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| Core Engine Clock - 460MHz* GDDR3 Memory Speed - 1.3GHz* 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 externa l 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 * Standard NVIDIA GeForce 7800GTX GPU Engine clock = 430MHz * Standard Memory speed = 1.2GHz |
We've provided the full specifications and features of the BFG GeForce 7800GTX for you here but we won't re-hash what we've already covered in our launch article in terms of the overall architecture. It's very safe to say that literally the only thing that distinguishes this BFG card from the NVIDIA reference card we looked at in June, are its Core GPU and Memory clocks, which as we mentioned BFG has tested and warranted to work at 460MHz and 1.3GHz, respectively. Without even so much as a cooling modification BFG was able to offer these speeds preset and out of the box, which again just goes to show how comfortable NVIDIA is yielding these new 24 pixel pipe GPUs in high volume production.
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Since this is a high end "enthusiast" class card, BFG decided to take the high road as well with the product's pack-in bundle. Included with the GeForce 7800GTX OC are an assortment of cable assemblies, one which is a break-out adapter for connecting the card to a High Def TV via a Component Y/Pr/Pb connection. Also included are two DVI to VGA converters, an S-Video/VGA VIVO dongle, and a dual 4-pin to single 6-pin PCIe Graphics power cable.
Beyond the hardware, BFG tossed in an assortment of software, including NVDVD 2.0 Multimedia Player, Video Studio 7 SE video editing software and GameDrive 9 which essentially allows you to make virtual drive copies of your CDs so that gameplay without the need to have a game CD in the drive is possible. Then of course there's a full-up version of the impressive looking FPS game, Far Cry, which will afford consumers a taste of the benefits of leading edge DX9 graphics in action on your new BFG card. Hats off to BFG for including this great game title. Instant gratification is a beautiful thing. Finally, just to ice what is already a well dressed slice of technology cake, BFG includes a tee shirt and a set of Teflon mouse slick pads, which really worked well in our rigorous and highly scientific frag-a-thons, err... testing sessions.
