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Conclusions

Generally, I'm thoroughly impressed with the 7800 GTX's performance. While there were a few exceptions where there was a larger gap (or an outright win for the 7800), NVIDIA's new part has a performance level that is more or less on-par with a pair of GeForce 6800 GTs in SLI. That is nothing to scoff at. Step back for a moment, and consider the following --

A single GeForce 7800 GTX draws just ~10W more than a GeForce 6800GT @ 400/1.1 under load, is quieter than said 6800GT, and seems to put out less heat (subjectively measured, as mentioned). Now consider the fact that in order to get the same or a slightly better level of performance, you have to double the heat, double the noise, and double the power consumption in order to equal one 7800 GTX. THAT, my friends, is impressive. Of course, if you wanted to, you could do all of that to the 7800 GTX by getting a second one and pimping up your rig with some SLI action -- but then you'd be entering the twilight zone.

The NV40-based 6800 GT and 6800 Ultra are 16-pipe parts, while the G70-based 7800 GTX is a 24-pipe part. If that, along with some extra features, was the only change that NVIDIA instituted in the G70, then we would only see a ~50% improvement in raw performance -- but that's not the case. NVIDIA's claims of having re-worked the various processing units of the GPU hold true: pixel shader performance was more than doubled over the NV40. The direct benefits of these beastly pixel shader units are directly observable in PS-heavy games like Halo and Splinter Cell 3.

These performance aspects, combined with awesome new features like parallax mapping and transparency anti-aliasing, are something that NVIDIA should be proud of in my opinion. I'm not one to argue that graphics are more important that game-play, but I've always been an extreme graphics aficionado if I may say so myself. I like great-looking games. I like inspecting the shadows, moving side-to-side to see the pretty reflections and refractions, and I definitely enjoy surfaces that look like they pop out at me. NVIDIA is appealing to my kind of crowd by not only improving the performance at which I can experience such things, but by improving the eye candy itself. We graphics enthusiasts are living in exciting times.