XFX nVidia 7800GS AGP

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XFX nVidia 7800GS AGP

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07-02-2006, 02:28 AM	#1
pilotcs Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: California USA Posts: 18 Trader Rating: (0)	XFX nVidia 7800GS AGP Introduction Today, NVIDIA is releasing the GeForce 7800 GS AGP GPU. The reason for this launch is that end-users are not moving to the new PCI Express platform as fast as the company thought they would. So, with that happening, NVIDIA is bringing those users who do not have the funds or are not ready yet to take the plunge to get a new motherboard, CPU and GPU a GPU that will prolong the life of their systems. This is also a hard launch of the NVIDIA GPU; Best Buy is supposed to have them this weekend and e-tailers on Monday February 6th. The card we are looking at today, though, is from XFX, and they informed me they will be in stock at e-tailers TODAY! Of course I am writing this a few days before the announcement, so we hope we will see that kind of delivery from XFX. The card from XFX has an MSRP of $349.00, but I am guessing we will see them for less online. Also XFX has upped the cards GPU core speed and memory speed. They have taken the core from NVIDIA's reference of 375MHz to 440MHz and raised the memory from NVIDIA's 600MHz (1200 effective) to 650MHz (1300 effective). All that with what has to be the best warranty on the market -- Double Lifetime. The Double Lifetime warranty is if you register the card online you will get a lifetime warranty. If you then later sell the card and that user registers the card, he gets a lifetime warranty. The card can only be registered twice, but in all reality, this gives the card a true lifetime warranty since cards do not get sold that many times. Specifications & Reference Board Shots In the table below, you can see the basic specifications of the NVIDIA reference 7800 GS, the XFX 7800 GS that I have on hand, and the BFG 6800 Ultra that I will be comparing the XFX 7800 GS to. NVIDIA 7800 GS XFX 7800 GS BFG 6800 Ultra OC Graphics Bus Technology AGP 8X AGP 8X AGP 8X Memory Interface 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit Memory 256MB GDDR3 256MB GDDR3 256MB GDDR3 Core Clock 375MHz 440MHz 425MHz Memory Clock 1.2GHz 1.3GHz 1.1GHz Pixels Pipes 16 16 16 Vertex Shaders 6 6 6 Here are some shots of the NVIDIA reference 7800 GS AGP board. Click for larger image Closer Look & Bundle - XFX 7800 GS AGP Let's take a quick look at the actual board being tested today. XFX only made a couple changes from NVIDIA's reference design: the cooler is covered with an XFX design and the top of the card features the metal piece XFX has been using on its 7 Series cards. The metal strip helps the board stay rigid and actually helps a bit with pushing the card in during installation. XFX's slight changes turn the dull reference design into a slick-looking card. You can see in the second picture below that the card features three output connectors: DVI, VGA and TV-out. You may also have noticed the power connector in the pictures. NVIDIA says that the 7800 GS requires a 350W power supply. The XFX 7800 GS AGP card comes in one of XFX's signature X-shaped boxes. Along with the card, you get a driver CD, DVI-to-VGA adapter, S-video cable, power cable, Quick Installation Guide, and User's Manual. Nothing very exciting there. Test System & Benchmark Results In order to get a feeling for the true power of this card, I decided to put it head-to-head against the BFG 6800 Ultra OC, the most powerful AGP card I had on hand (that is, until the XFX 7800 GS arrived of course). Rather than showing a bunch of benchmarks at different resolutions and different antialiasing / anisotropic filtering settings, I went straight to the highest resolution for the LCD I was using (1280x1024) and cranked up the eye candy. Here are the components used in the test machine. Asus SK8N nForce3 AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 2x 1GB Legacy ECC DDR 3200 2x 36GB Raptors in RAID 0 DVD Drive Samsung Synchmaster 915N LCD Windows XP PRO SP2 ForceWare 81.98 Let's start with a quick look at 3DMark06 at the default settings. Now, let's see how the XFX 7800 GS does in some recent games. Conclusion As you can see, the XFX 7800 GS easily outperforms the BFG 6800 Ultra OC it was compared to. This means that it would be a worthwhile upgrade for anyone with a 6800 GT or even a 6800 Ultra. We also saw it compare very well against an XFX 7800 GT and Athlon 64 3800+. So if you want to stay with your AGP system but want a better card, I see no reason to look any farther than the XFX 7800 GS. It should handle your gaming just fine. Pros: + Lets AGP users hang onto their systems a little while longer + Price of $349.00 MSRP not too high for a good performing card + Single slot + Great performance Cons: - Fan can get a little noisy What do you think? This is my first review here. I made it for BJorn3d.com with my best buddy Scott Sherman. I thought we did such a good job, I should post it here too! =) __________________ MY PC SUCKS FIC AD11 Motherboard AMD Athlon XP +1700 1.46 GHz ATi Radeon 9200se 128MB AGPx4 ValueRam 512MB PC2700 DDR333 17' Megavision LCD SeaGate 80Gigabytes Last edited by pilotcs : 07-02-2006 at 02:43 AM.

07-02-2006, 03:26 PM	#2
Me__2001 Internet Junkie Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Hertfordshire, UK Posts: 4,062 Trader Rating: (2)	hey pilotcs, welcome to the site and great review __________________ I'm out of bed and dressed, what more do you want? I always take life with a grain of salt, ... a slice of lemon, ...and a shot of tequila I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out One more step to enlightenment ... but which way ?

08-02-2006, 10:04 PM	#3
pilotcs Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: California USA Posts: 18 Trader Rating: (0)	Thanks for that compliment. I appreciate it. Oh yea! If you guys know, How do you post up the pictures? I tried but I end up with my toturial filled with [x]'s on the picture (meaning it doesn't show up). Kinda dissappointing but w/e __________________ MY PC SUCKS FIC AD11 Motherboard AMD Athlon XP +1700 1.46 GHz ATi Radeon 9200se 128MB AGPx4 ValueRam 512MB PC2700 DDR333 17' Megavision LCD SeaGate 80Gigabytes

08-02-2006, 10:39 PM	#4
Me__2001 Internet Junkie Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Hertfordshire, UK Posts: 4,062 Trader Rating: (2)	what do you mean ? all of the pics are showing or is this in a different thread ? ian should know __________________ I'm out of bed and dressed, what more do you want? I always take life with a grain of salt, ... a slice of lemon, ...and a shot of tequila I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out One more step to enlightenment ... but which way ?

09-02-2006, 12:27 AM	#5
pilotcs Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: California USA Posts: 18 Trader Rating: (0)	Hum. I dont know me_2001. I don't see my own pictures. Kinda peculiar. I mean the 7800 pictures in my review __________________ MY PC SUCKS FIC AD11 Motherboard AMD Athlon XP +1700 1.46 GHz ATi Radeon 9200se 128MB AGPx4 ValueRam 512MB PC2700 DDR333 17' Megavision LCD SeaGate 80Gigabytes

09-02-2006, 03:26 PM	#6
Me__2001 Internet Junkie Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Hertfordshire, UK Posts: 4,062 Trader Rating: (2)	they ar all working here, let me try one __________________ I'm out of bed and dressed, what more do you want? I always take life with a grain of salt, ... a slice of lemon, ...and a shot of tequila I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out One more step to enlightenment ... but which way ?

26-03-2006, 11:09 AM	#7
PotGuy Wholegrain Goodness Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Hemel Hempstead Posts: 1,736 Trader Rating: (1)	none of them work for me - not even yours me __________________ AMD Athlon 64 3700+ @ 2.86ghz \| Zalman CNPS9500 \| Asus A8N-SLi Premium \| XFX GeForce 7900GT Extreme Edition \| Enermax Liberty 500w \| 4 x 512mb Crucial Ballistix \| 2 x 250gb Hitatchi Deskstar T7K250 \| Creative X-Fi Gamer \| Sony Floppy Drive \| Logitech X-540 5.1 \| Thermaltake Tsunami Dream VA3000BWA \| Samsung SyncMaster 930BF 19" \| Saitek Eclipse Keyboard \| Razer Copperhead \|

26-03-2006, 11:20 AM	#8
Me__2001 Internet Junkie Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Hertfordshire, UK Posts: 4,062 Trader Rating: (2)	really i can see them all __________________ I'm out of bed and dressed, what more do you want? I always take life with a grain of salt, ... a slice of lemon, ...and a shot of tequila I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out One more step to enlightenment ... but which way ?

26-03-2006, 11:25 AM	#9
chelseafc2005 Crunchtastic Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: london Posts: 892 Trader Rating: (0)	i can c them all weird:S nice review though __________________ specs: intel q6600/xfx 780i /ati x600 (upgrade in the pipeline)/4gb pc6400 ram/80gb ide hd / 320gb ide hd/dvd-r/rw drive/700w psu

27-03-2006, 09:09 AM	#10
TriplexDread I kick Cylon Ass Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Wirral Posts: 3,461 Trader Rating: (0)	Nope I cant see them either __________________ "what you seek...is only too much if what you offer is any less.

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