Card Layout and Design
To be certain it is understood, this card features two 7800 GT GPUs on a single graphics card running in SLI mode through direct hardware implementation.
The Asus N7800GT DUAL obviously is going to have some unique layout and design features that we’ll spend more time on than we would a standard graphics card. The first GeForce 7800 dual GPU video card should expect no less.
In this image the N7800GT DUAL doesn’t look all that different than many other graphics cards we have seen and reviewed here at PC Perspective. There are two DVI connectors, a heatsink and fan as well as a PCI Express power connector and dongle at the back. Perhaps this shot will lend a different perspective.
Ah ha, there we go. The card on the right is an XFX 7800 GT card, the same one we used in our benchmarks. That is the reference size PCB and heatsink on the XFX card and you can obviously see now that the Asus card is longer, taller and just plain beefier than the competition. Not always a good thing, but at least fun to say. The N7800GT DUAL measures 6.25′ tall by nearly 10′ deep compared to the 5′ x 8.5′ of the XFX card.
Taking a quick look at the back of the card we see our first indication that something is different about this one… My word, it looks like there are two GPU heatsink retention clips!
I am sure many of you are looking at the PCIe power connector and the odd dongle sticking out of the back of the card so let’s investigate.
What we have here is both a PCIe power female connector and a male connector. The female connector can be attached to either the provided male adaptor or to one from a power supply with enough beef to keep the video card fed. If you don’t have enough power, then the male connector you see here installed into the card’s female connector pass along the length of the card, out the back plate and into this puppy:
That’s right, the Asus N7800GT DUAL comes with its own external power adaptor to feed the card with all the juice it needs in case your PSU can’t handle it. Asus’ reasoning behind this is pretty simple: the price of an N7800GT DUAL coupled with the price of the power adaptor is going to be less expensive than Asus selling the card by itself and having the user purchase a new power supply on their own. Makes good sense, but anyone with an SLI ready power supply that thinks they had enough to begin with is going to get this power adaptor anyway, regardless. Overall though, I think this is a smart move by Asus.
