GeForce 7800 GTX Performance with Athlon 64
 

Whenever a next-generation GPU such as NVIDIA’s GeForce 7800 GTX is launched, the buzz typically revolves around the card’s new features, and of course its performance. However, there’s also a less talked about concern that the new graphics card is in some ways, too powerful.

For our testing, we used a Venice-based Athlon 64 3000+ and 3500+, while our 3800+ is based on the older Newcastle core (unfortunately, we weren’t able to snag a Venice-based 3800+). Our 4000+ and FX-55 are based on AMD’s ClawHammer core, while the FX-57 is built on AMD’s San Diego core. Keep in mind that the 4000+ is essentially the FX-53 in disguise, as it sports the same clock speed and cache size, only it ships with a locked clock multiplier.

Finally, we’ve also thrown in a GeForce 6800 GT, so you can see how this popular card scales in comparison to the 7800 GTX. It’s quite possible that there may be some cases where a 6800 GT equipped with a speedy processor may outperform the 7800 GTX with a slower chip, so it’s important to check for that situation.

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/athl...0_gtx_scaling/