For our review, we used the following components:

• Processor: AMD64 3500+ NewCastle (939 socket)
• Case: Antec 1080AMG
• Motherboard: XFX A8N-SLI Deluxe
• Memory: 2x512MB Corsair XMS TWINX1024-3200XL Memory
• Hard Disk Drive: WD800JD 80GB 7200RPM
• DVD Burner: Pioneer DVR-A08XLA
• Power Supply: EzCool 550Watt
• OS: Microsoft WindowsXP Pro SP2
• DirectX: v9.0c

When we started our PC the temperature was close to 38 °C. After after some time, without doing anything, the temperature increased to 46 °C, which is also the most typical temperature, even while running everyday applications in Windows. During 3DMark35 or 05 benchmarks, the temperature climbed up to 66 °C, with default clock speeds of 450/1050.

	idle	while benchmarks
Default clocks
Overclocked

After increasing the clock speeds to 489/1180, the system reported 47 °C with no load and 70 °C when 3DMark35 or 05 was running. The cooling system proved to be effective and silent, and as XFX declares, better that NVidia's stock, although not as effective as an NV Silencer from Arctic-Cooling.

Benchmarking Software
3DMark05,03,01
Codecreatures Benchmark Pro
AquaMark3 v3.0
RivaTuner
Farcry v1.3
HL2
Doom 3
Thief 3
Ground Control II
Colin McRae '05

For comparison reasons, we will be posting the results of the XFX 7800GT along with the ASUS N7800GTX TOP, AOpen Aeolus 6800 Ultra and Sapphire X850XT graphic cards. All cards are considered Heavy Duty, sufficient for most heavy 3D labors with high prices. It will be interesting to see the differences between the different chipsets. As we expect, the ASUS N7800GTX TOP should be the fastest and we include its performance in our graphs for reference reasons. The hottest comparison will be the one between the 7800GT, 6800Ultra and X850XT chipsets powering our XFX, AOpen and Sapphire cards respectively.