There are a few key changes from the original 7800 GTX silicon that allow the 7800 GTX 512 to perform so highly. The 7800 GTX 512 still uses a 110nm process like the original 7800 GTX, but NVIDIA has tuned their fab process to speed up key data paths in the chip. These enhancements, while not altering the feature set in anyway, allow the chip to reach clock speeds of 550MHz (which is 120MHz faster than the original 7800 GTX). On top of changes in the silicon, the 7800 GTX 512 has gotten a PCB revision. And just in case anyone is wondering, the huge HSF solution is actually very quiet. NVIDIA is using a fan with larger blades that move a good volume of air without needing to run at super high RPMs. While it may look like an industrial sized leaf blower, it bark is certainly nothing compared to the bite this thing takes out of our performance tests.
Current 7800 GTX cards feature 8Mx32 GDDR3 with four chips on each side of the PCB. Most cards have a heat spreader on the back of the board, while some vendors have attached heatsinks. NVIDIA needed a better way to cool their RAM in order to hit the memory clock speeds they wanted. To this end the 7800 GTX 512 sees all of its RAM on the front of the PCB cooled by the very large heatsink previously employed on the Quadro FX 4500. Moving all the RAM to one side of the PCB may also have improved the routing to certain memory modules, which would also help increase attainable stable memory clock speeds. There are still only 8 modules total, as NVIDIA has also moved to higher density 16Mx32 GDDR3. The RAM used is also rated at 900MHz (1800MHz data rate), giving the stock memory clock speed of 1700MHz a little head room for vendors who like to overclock the cards they sell.
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