Leadtek WinFast Px7800 Gtx Tdh Myvivo Extreme Grange-over-Sands

When Nvidia unveiled the GeForce 7800 GTX, we were generally impressed with its single-slot cooler. Despite the compact HSF, the GeForce 7800 GTX runs fast and doesn't sound like a strimmer (although it's far from silent). Does this mean Nvidia has gone on an HSF diet? Not exactly; the company's new workstation Quadro FX cards have pigged-out dual-slot HSFs with integrated heatpipes. It's this cooler that Leadtek has used on its new GeForce 7800 GTX, the WinFast PX7800 GTX TDH MyVIVO Extreme.

The HSF in question is a monster. There's a large fan in the centre, four heatpipes and a rear vent to expel the nasty hot air created by the GPU. As the fan is large, it doesn't need to spin at high speed, so the PX7800 is quiet.

The HSF keeps the GPU 10-15ûC cooler than the reference GeForce 7800 GTX. The monster cooler is necessary because Leadtek has pre-overclocked the PX7800 hard. The GPU runs at 490MHz, a big increase over the 430MHz of a standard 7800 GTX. In addition to this, the RAM is clocked at 625MHz (1.25GHz effective), a modest 50MHz faster than that of a stock 7800 GTX. Couple this with the fact that the GeForce 7800 GTX is Nvidia's top GPU, with 24 pixel pipelines (16 ROPS), and that the card has 256MB of GDDR3, and in theory, you have a product that lives up to its 'Extreme' moniker.

In practice, however, we found one serious issue with the PX7800 running in our nForce4 SLI-based test rig: it doesn't like Nvidia's ForceWare 81.85 drivers. The driver installed and games ran, but the PX7800 was far slower than the XFX GeForce 7800 GT. Using the ForceWare 78.01drivers supplied with the card, the PX7800 was much quicker. Not being able to use the latest drivers isn't ideal, but both Leadtek and Nvidia are aware of this problem and are trying to resolve it.

The PX7800 was still blisteringly fast, though not as quick as we'd expect considering the large GPU overclock. Given that we've seen an improvement in frame rates in games such as F.E.A.R. using the 81.85 driver, being forced to use earlier drivers will inevitably cause the PX7800 to suffer.

The PX7800 can play Quake 4 at 1,600 x 1,200 with AA and AF, but only just. It averages just over 40fps with a minimum frame rate of 18fps, which is right on the borderline. Still, the PX7800 is quicker than the XFX in this test, as the XFX couldn't play Quake 4 smoothly at 1,600 x 1,200 with AA and AF.

Battlefield 2 is less demanding than Quake 4 and proved to be no trouble for the PX7800. It produced a smooth average frame rate at 1,600 x 1,200 with 4x AA and 8x AF and a high minimum frame rate of 37fps too. However, the XFX can also easily handle Battlefield 2.

Of our new games, F.E.A.R presents the toughest challenge and, as with all the graphics cards we've seen this month, the PX7800 struggled. For a card with the credentials and price tag of the PX7800, any compromise will leave you bitter, but compromises have to be made. Whether the frame rates the PX7800 provides at 1,280 x 960 with 4x AA and 8x AF are playable will divide players; for some, the 38fps average is too low, but the minimum is just over 21fps, and I was certainly happy fragging soldiers at these settings.

Overclocking the PX7800 seemed the natural thing to do, given the giant cooler, but we couldn't improve much on Leadtek's overclock. The highest stable GPU speed it managed was 515MHz, while the RAM belted along at 650MHz (1.3GHz effective), although this didn't improve its performance much.



CONCLUSION

The PX7800 has everything a great graphics card should have: a pre-overclocked, high-speed GPU, and a quiet and effective cooler. Problems with the drivers blunted its performance, but that should be a temporary problem.

Author: Phil Hartup

Leadtek WinFast Px7800 Gtx Tdh Myvivo Extreme