| ASUS EN7800GT TOP Silent |
| |
|
| Brand |
ASUS |
| Model |
EN7800GT TOP Silent |
| Graphics Chip |
G70 |
| Graphics Memory Type |
DDR3 |
| Memory (MB) |
256 |
| Graphics Core Clock (MHz) |
420 |
| Memory Clock (MHz) |
1620 |
| Memory Speed (ns) |
1.6 |
| RAMDAC Frequency (MHz) |
Dual 400 |
| Active Cooling on Graphics Chip |
No |
| Heatsink on Memory |
Yes |
| Video Capture |
Yes |
| Ports |
|
| Dual Monitor Support |
Yes |
| VGA Out |
DVI-Ix2 |
| Video In and Out |
S-Video Out |
| Package and Support |
|
| Printed Manual |
Yes |
| Driver CD |
Yes |
| Performance Tool Software |
Overdrive |
| Major Games |
King Kong |
| Major Software |
PowerDirector Medi@Show |
| VR Glasses |
No |
| DVD Player Software |
ASUS DVD |
| Video Recording Software |
N/A |
- DirectX 9.0c
- Pixel Shader 3.0
- Vertex Shader 3.0
- HDR
- Multisample AA (up to 8XS)
- Render to Texture
- 20 Pixel Pipelines
- 5 Vertex Shader Pipelines
- 16 ROPs
- 420MHz core speed
- 620MHz memory speed
- 302 million transistors
- 0.11 micron process
NVIDIA introduced the 7800 series in the middle of last year to a lot of accolades and no competition (the X1800 series from ATI was released in October). NVIDIA's 7800GT is based upon TSMC's 0.11 micron process and has over 300 million transistors. The 7800GT has 20 Pixel Pipelines, 4 less than the 7800GTX, but 16 outputted pixels per clock. With 5 Vertex Shader pipelines means that over 420 million vertices a second are outputted by the 7800GT.
Silent Cool features
Microsoft released DirectX 9.0 in late 2002, almost 4 years ago. DirectX 9.0 contained both Pixel Shader 2.0 and 3.0 along with Vertex Shader 2.0 and 3.0. I've covered the main features of Shader Model 3.0 in previous reviews, but important features include nearly unlimited Shader length programs, the ability to use dynamic branching in the pixel and vertex Shader and 128-bit color precision.
HDR or High Dynamic Range lighting is the latest craze in games. Games like Oblivion, Serious Sam 2, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and more use HDR to show off the natural lighting effects of sunlight and lighting in a natural environment. Oblivion gives the choice of running with HDR or with AA on, on the 7800GT. ATI cards can run both at the same time but only with the "Chuck driver."
ASUS decided to up the clock speed on the 7800GT compared to the reference clock. 420MHz is 20MHz higher than the reference card, giving the 7800GT Silent a theoretical fill rate of 8.4 Gigatexels a second (20 Pixel Pipelines). I think a 20MHz overclock with a passive cooling solution is excellent. Using Coolbits I was able to overclock the 7800GT a further 25MHz.
