Gigabyte GV-NX78T256V-B 7800GT Video Card Review :: Features

• .11 micron process
• 302 million transistors
• 20 pixel shader pipelines
• 7 vertex shader pipelines
• 16 ROPs
• Pixel Shader 3.0
• Vertex Shader 3.0
• Vertex Texturing
• High Dynamic Range Lighting
• Transparency Antialiasing
• Anisotropic Filtering
• PureVideo
• SLI

The 7800GT is based upon a modified G70 core. The G70 is NVIDIA's codename for their 7xxx series of video chips. Based upon TSMC's .11 micron process, the G70 has over 302 million transistors. ATI recently announced their R5xx, RV530 and RV515 series of video card chips are on a 0.09 micron process, with over 320 million transistors, but these cards have only now begun entering the market. NVIDIA is working on many .09 micron products and we'll have to see how they progress.

The main features of the G70 include support for Microsoft's DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 standard. SM3.0 includes Pixel and Vertex Shader 3.0 as the main components. Pixel shaders are programs performed on pixels to give special effects including realistic skin, including blood vessels, realistic water (the most common usage for pixel shaders today in games), and other effects. PS 3.0 includes support for dynamic flow control, virtually unlimited shader lengths and vertex texturing. The Vertex Shader 3.0 standard includes dynamic flow control, virtually unlimited shader lengths and more.

NVIDIA announced SLI in November of last year. SLI stands for Scalable Link Interface. The first time I heard about SLI as an acronym was from a company called 3dfx back in 1998. Today, NVIDIA and ATI are following down the same path, i.e. releasing video cards that can work together to render a 3D scene. There are three modes, AFR, SFR and compatibility mode. AFR stands for Alternate Frame Rendering. Each card renders one frame after the other. SFR has both cards working together to render a single frame.

PureVideo is NVIDIA's multimedia hardware and software solution. The PureVideo technology is a combination of the video processor on the GeForce 6 series and 7 series and NVIDIA's PureVideo decoder. The features of PureVideo include High-Definition MPEG-2 Hardware Accelerator, WMV-HD Hardware Acceleration, High-Quality Real-Time Video Recording, Advanced Spatial Temporal De-Intelacing, 3:2 Pull-Down Correction Accurate VMR Up-Scaling, Flicker-Free VMR Down-Scaling, Vibrant Color Temperature Correction, LCD Overdrive, and an Adaptable Programmable Video Processor.

I've covered many aspects of the 7800GT series in previous reviews, except for the latest demos from NVIDIA's software team. Mad Mod Mike is NVIDIA's latest demo from their software application group. MMM uses Pixel Shader 3.0 throughout. The second thing about MMM is the radiant lighting. Every object in the demo is lit from MMM's jetpack. The demo also use depth of field to demonstrate how objects become unfocused the farther away from a focal point you get.

When NVIDIA launched the 5800 Ultra in 2002, they showed off Dawn, a fairy with beautiful skin. Dusk was their demo for the 5900 Ultra in 2003 and Nalu was their demo for the 6800 Ultra from last year. With the launch of the G70 series in June, NVIDIA delivered a new demo with the Nalu girl. In this demo, NVIDIA made pixel shaders with over 300 instructions, used displacement mapping, and other effects. Personally I prefer the look of Nalu the mermaid, but it is a pretty demo.

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