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

Author: Benjamin Sun · 07-29-2005 · Category: Hardware - Video Cards

Half Life 2 was the best game released last year in my humble opinion. You take the role of Gordon Freeman who is trying to stop the forces of the Combine. This is a game that the 7800GTX was made to play! I was able to play HL2 with 1280x1024 32-bit resolution (the maximum refresh rate and resolution my monitor supports) with 4x FSAA (Transparency SuperSampling) and 16x Anisotropic Filtering without much slowdown. The image quality on this setting is incredible.

Fences in the game with TSSAA on show off AA even when there is multiple fences overlapping each other. On a X800XT or 6800 Ultra, the fences look like a big mess. With Transparency AA enabled, the fences look like fences. The best way to show the effect is in screenshots Below are three screenshots all with AntiAliasing enabled. Screenshot 1 shows what happens when multisample antialiasing is enabled. Look where the fences intersect. Screenshot 2 is from the same spot with multisample transparency AA enabled. The last screenshot is shown with SuperSample AntiAliasing enabled.

no TAA

TMSAA

TSSAA

Far Cry was another graphically intensive game released last year. You take the role of an adventurer to escape an island full of enemies. Crytek, the developers of Far Cry have updated the game to support 64-bit CPUs, video cards with Pixel and Vertex Shader 3.0, HDR (High Dynamic Range Lighting) and other advanced features of video cards today. Here's a couple of screenshots of Far Cry with HDR on/off. One thing to notice is how the lighting on the island is more realistic with HDR enabled.

Far Cry HDR off

Far Cry HDR on

Far Cry HDR off

Far Cry HDR on

LEGO Star Wars is a cool game recently released. The 7800GTX is built for high-resolution gaming with AntiAliasing and Anisotropic filtering. LEGO Star Wars has a resolution of 640x480, but has support for HDR lighting and pixel shaders. The 7800GTX was able to handle this game with ease. I played the game at 1280x1024 resolution with HDR enabled 4x AA 8x AF without difficulty. The 7800GTX has little problems with this game.