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Usually, the newest generation of videocards are only marginally faster than the previous, but this time around the nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX blows the doors off of everything else.
93% Rating: 
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Image Quality Tests
Easily
one of the biggest features of the GeForce 7800 GTX series of graphics cards is
the new Transparency Antialiasing feature. If you are interested in the
technology behind please check out PCSTATS' GeForce 7800 GTX
technology preview.
 (click to see full-screen image)
Between regular AA and Transparency Multisampling AA is
very little but compared to Transparency Supersampling AA is quite pronounced.
Look specifically at the fence, AA and Transparency MSAA methods still produce
quite a bit of jagged lines because the pixels are not at the edge of the
polygon. With Transparency SSAA however, SuperSampling renders each entire frame
at a higher resolution then blends the colour and shade of areas where there is
a large amount of difference between pixels.
4x AA With MSAA |
4x AA With
SSAA |
The fence section was blown up to 200% to
show the difference between the AA modes and here we see that the fence and
branches from the tree still have jagged lines despite AA being enabled. With
Supersampling, the edges are much smoother and easier on the eyes.
SLI of the future
The
GeForce 7800 GTX will be fully SLI compatible, as evidenced by the Albatron
GeForce 7800 GTX videocard. The potential of this unholy union should have game
fanatics drooling. Apparently, future versions of nVidia's Forceware will also
allow SLI with cards from different manufacturers (provided they use the same
GPU). With the current drivers, this is possible but not all the time.
Also in
store for SLI enthusiasts with future Forceware versions is a new 16xAA mode.
The video memory requirements for 16xAA are huge, so it's no surprise that
nVidia has chosen to restrict it to SLI. Once we begin to see videocards
shipping with 512MB of memory as a standard, 16xAA might move into the
mainstream.
Purevideo: not new, but improved
The
nVidia PureVideo video capture/playback technology that debuted on the 6xxx line
of GPUs is back on the 7800 with some enhancements and a new feature. The new
feature is High-Definition Spatial-Temporal
De-Interlacing, a mouthful which boils down to better high-definition video
playback. The additional horsepower of the 7800 GPU is used to improve other
facets of video playback and capture also, which should lead to the new graphics
processor being a mean multimedia machine.
 Not a power
hog
The 7800
GTX does not require any more power than the 6800 Ultra, at least according to
nVidia.
The minimum required power supply wattage for a
7800 GTX system is 350Watts, same as the the 6800 Ultra. How is this possible?
nVidia has used a combination of the lower power requirements of the 110nm
process and a clock gating mechanism (clock gating involves turning off or
slowing the clock signal to certain units of an integrated circuit when they are
not being used), to achieve a notable milestone: Higher performance at slightly
lower power levels.
This means that nVidia was able to make their
reference 7800 GTX card without using an enormous cooler, so it will not
dominate the empty slot next to it on your motherboard. The 7800 GPU might have
a bright future with nVidia's mobile line of graphics products too. And now, on
to overclocking!
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