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Asus Extreme N7800GTX TOP Video Card Review :: Setup, Bundle, and Gameplay

Author: Benjamin Sun · 08-31-2005 · Category: Hardware - Video Cards

Setting up a video card is as easy as unplugging your computer, finding an open PCI Express x16 slot, and plugging the card into that slot. On the ABIT NI8-SLI board I used for testing I set the SLI card to Single mode, plugged the ASUS 7800GTX into the top PCI Express x16 slot, and booted the computer. After installing the latest 77.77 Forceware drivers off NVIDIA's website, the card was ready to go.

Drivers on NVIDIA cards are easy to navigate and use. There's a little NVIDIA icon in the taskbar you click it and from that icon you have access to nView, changing screen resolution, the refresh rate, the color depth, the antialiasing and anisotropic filtering settings, rotate the screen 0, 90, 180, 270 degrees, and choose which monitor to use as the primary monitor. The alternative to this is right clicking your desktop, going to settings then advanced.

ASUS EN7800GTX TOP card
2 DVI-I to D-sub adapters
Power Cable
Xpand Rally
Project Snowblind
Second Sight
Chaos League
PowerDrome
Drivers CD
PowerDirector 3DE
ASUSDVD
Medi@Show
Virtual Drive
GameFace

ASUS includes 5 full version games with their EN7800GTX TOP. Project Snowblind is a FPS (first person shooter). In this game you take the role of a lieutenant in a futuristic storyline. Second Sight is a sort of fps where you control a psychic character who has powers like psi-blast and healing and others to help you along through the missions. PowerDrome is a sort of Episode 1 "Pod-Race" game. Chaos League is a combat football game, where you take out enemy players by fights, weapons and more. Xpand Rally is a racing game. I give ASUS high props for including 5 games with their 7800GTX card.

ASUS really went all-out in the bundle with their 7800GTX card. Hardware-wise you get the 7800GTX, a TV-Out dongle with HDTV Out, TV-In and TV-Out connectors, 2 DVI-I to D-Sub adapters for dual monitors, and a power cable to provide the card with the additional power the PCI Express x16 slot does not provide for the card. The manual for the card is quite extensive, with instructions for ASUS's webcam (not included with this card), gamepad installation and more.

Software-wise, the ASUS 7800GTX TOP card comes with a bundle that can't be beat. PowerDirector 3DE is a video editing software you can make home movies with. ASUS DVD is PowerDVD 5.0 with a ASUS interface. Medi@Show is a photo editing and slideshow program from Cyberlink. The last piece of software ASUS includes is VirtualDrive, a CD or DVD emulation tool. Once you make a ISO of a disc, you can burn it or mount it like Alcohol 120% to use the software without the CD in the drive.

I spent a few days fooling around with the ASUS Extreme N7800GTX TOP card playing games. The card was completely stable at the default clock speed of 486MHz/1.35GHz in every game I tried it on (Chronicles of Riddick, Second Sight, Power Drome, Chaos Legion, Project Snowblind, Xpand Rally, Battlefield 2) and the card performed great in each and every game. In most instances, I was able to game with 1280x1024 with 4x AA and 16x AF. There is an anisotropic filtering bug with the new NVIDIA cards and several games. NVIDIA has stated publicly that they are working on a fix. Texture shimmering is noticeable in games like Counter Strike Source and GTA: San Andreas among the recent games released. The shimmering effect does not appear in game screenshots and hopefully NVIDIA will correct the issue ASAP.