Overclocking Results:

stock overclocked gpu (core) speed: 430 MHz 479 MHz Memory Speed: 1200 MHz 1347 MHz

Just because PCSTATS is testing the fastest videocard on the market doesn't mean it's going to be spared the overclocking tests. ;-)

This is the first GeForce 7800 GTX videocard to make it by the test bench, so it will be interesting to see what nVidia has in store for enthusiasts...

Remember, the Geforce 7800GTX core is clocked at 430 MHz, and memory at 1200MHz by default, so how much further can we push things?

Let's find out by increasing the speed of the GPU first, in 5 MHz intervals all the way to 500 MHz. Well... it almost reached that point, unfortunately the highest the core would run by itself was 497 MHz, anything higher and the RivaTuner would complain about it not passing the driver test. I actually was expecting more from the 0.11 micron TSMC core, but it looks as though we'll have to wait and see what the future has in store.

The Albatron GeForce 7800 GTX uses Samsung GC16 GDDR3 BGA DRAM modules with a 1.6 ns rating. The memory hums along at a speed of 1200 MHz by default, so we increased its pace in 10 MHz jumps; 1250, 1260 and 1270 MHz fell by the wayside easily enough. The 1300 MHz mark was also cracked quickly before the Samsung GDDR3 topped out at 1390 MHz, or 1.39GHz. Attempts at higher memory speeds caused RivaTuner to complain about "failing hardware" tests.

While overclocking the clock speed of the core and memory independently is quite easy to do, getting the two to run overclocked together is a whole other story. I did try running both the Albatron 7800GTX's core and memory at the maximum overclocked speeds, but that only produced a screen full of artifacts. After much frustration, I found that I had to lower both the core and memory speed quite significantly. Stability required the core to drop down to 479 MHz and the memory to fall back 1347 MHz.

I suspect that better cooling would have helped, which is almost always the case when overclocking. While running overclocked, the memory heatspreader on the back of the 7800GTX videocard was too hot to touch, and the core was running around 73 degrees Celsius! Still, the reference card based Albatron GeForce 7800GTX produced pretty good overclocking results.

PCStats Test System Specs:

processor: amd athlon64 4000+ clock speed: 12 x 200 mhz = 2.4 ghz motherboards: dfi lanparty nf4 sli-dr (nf4-sli) videocard: msi rx850xt-td256e msi rx800xt-vtd256e ati radeon x800 xl powercolor x700 pro powercolor bravo x700 geforce 7800 gtx sli gigabyte gv-nx78x256v-b msi nx6800gt-t2d256e msi nx6800-td128e (single) msi nx6800-td128e (sli mode) gigabyte gv-3d1 (single mode) gigabyte gv-3d1 (sli mode) msi nx6600gt-td128e (single mode) msi nx6600gt-td128e (sli mode) msi nx6200tc-td32e albatron geforce 7800 gtx memory: 2x 512mb mushkin pc3200 l2 v2 hard drive: 74gb wd raptor 10k rpm sata hdd cdrom: aopen 52x combo powersupply: seasonic super tornado 400w heatsink: prometeia mach ii gt (review) Software Setup WindowsXP Build 2600 nForce Catalyst 5.7 Detonator 77.72 Benchmarks 3DMark2001SE 3DMark05 CodeCreatures Gun Metal 2 X2 The Threat UT2003 Doom3 AA Test, AF and AA+AF Test 3DMark2001SE UT2003

The AGP and PCI-E systems use a different motherboard but results are shown for reference. Unfortunately there are no AquaMark3 numbers for this review, we could not get the benchmark working.