Gigabyte GV-NX78X256V-B 7800GTX Video Card Review :: The Card

Gigabyte GV-NX78X256V-B
Brand	Gigabyte
Model	GV-NX78X256V-B
Graphics Chip	7800GTX
Graphics Memory Type	DDR3
Memory (MB)	256
Graphics Core Clock (MHz)	430
Memory Clock (MHz)	1200
Memory Speed (ns)	1.6
RAMDAC Frequency (MHz)	Dual 400
Active Cooling on Graphics Chip	Yes
Heatsink on Memory	Yes
Video Capture	Yes
Ports
Dual Monitor Support	Yes
VGA Out	DVI-I, DVI-I
Video In and Out	TV Out
Package and Support
Printed Manual	Yes
Driver CD	Yes
Performance Tool Software	V-Tuner
Major Games	Xpand Rally, Joint Operations
Major Software	PowerDirector 3.0 ME
VR Glasses	No
DVD Player Software	Power DVD 6.0
Video Recording Software	PowerDirector 3.0 ME

The 78000GTX card from GIGABYTE is a standard reference card in many respects. GIGABYTE uses the standard 30-pin radial fan to cool the graphics unit. The heat sink is similar to the reference card, even down to the pattern of the cut of the design. GIGABYTE's name adorns the heat sink instead of NVIDIA's on the reference design. There are designs out there with different modifications like eVGA's ACS card, but generally all 7800GTX cards have similar cooling.

The length of the card is longer than NVIDIA's 6800 Ultra card by at least 1cm. In actual use, I had to move one of my SATA drives in my computer in order to install the GIGABYTE card, and other 7800GTX cards, which are the same length. The 7800GTX is a native PCI Express x16 card. When Intel launched the LGA-775 platform last year, NVIDIA released cards with a bridge chip called HSI (High Speed Interconnect).

PCIe Power

PCIe Connector

I/O

SLI Bridge

GIGABYTE outfits the PCB with 8 32MB 1.6ns memory chips rated for 600MHz (1.2GHz effective) DDR3 memory. This is only a slight increase in memory bandwidth over the previous generation's GEFORCE 6800 Ultra and its 550MHz memory. Theoretical memory bandwidth is 38.4GB/second compared to the 36.3GB/second found on the 6800 Ultra. The input output ports found on the card are two DVI-I ports, with the ability to use 2 CRT monitors, 1 LCD and one CRT or 2 LCD monitors available on the card through DVI-I to D-Sub adapters.

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