Vendor Cards: BFG GeForce 7800GTX OC
by Derek Wilson & Josh Venning on August 4, 2005 2:39 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Test Setup and Performance
The frame rates for this card are similar to EVGA's because they are both factory overclocked. You will see a slight advantage though with the BFG overall because the memory clock is set at 1.3 GHz - higher than what we've seen yet, even with our own overclocks. While bumping up the core clock improves the card's performance in general, boosting the memory clock improves memory-specific aspects such as AA (among other things). This explains why there are slightly higher gains with BFG in tests with 4xAA enabled. Keep in mind that there are other ways in which the memory clock affects performance, such as playing at higher resolutions, and/or with certain high-quality settings like the ultra high setting in Doom 3. Doom 3's shadowing also puts a larger strain on graphics memory bandwidth than other games.When looking at performance, one of the things that we are the most interested in is how each of these cards compare to each other, out of the box. This is because most people will be using the card as is, without overclocking it manually. As always, we tested the cards on the same system:
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 Processor
1 GB OCZ 2:2:2:6 DDR400 RAM
Seagate 7200.7 120 GB Hard Drive
OCZ 600 W PowerStream Power Supply
Here are the gaming benchmarks.
Battlefield 2 gets almost 2 FPS better with the BFG, which is about a 4% increase from the EVGA card. We see nearly the same increase with Doom 3 (3.6%) and with Half-Life 2, the BFG 7800 picks up almost 3 frames, giving it a 4.8% increase over EVGA's frame rate.
Overclocked, all three of these cards g et very similar numbers. BFG only sees slight gains at 473MHz over the others in games with 4xAA enabled. The BFG's increases aren't nearly as pronounced here because we boosted the memory clock speeds of the MSI and EVGA to 1.25GHz, much closer to BFG's standard 1.3GHz factory overclock.
Remember that each individual graphics card overclocks differently, so you may not get the same results as ours when overclocking these cards at home. Also remember that there is always the risk of damaging your card when overclocking, so do so at your own risk. Next, let’s take a look at power, heat and noise.
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Spacecomber - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Hey Derek, this is a bit tangential, but in the comments to the MSI 7800GTX review you provided a link to the demo you used for running the BF2 benchmarks. I gave it a quick try and it wouldn't run for me (game exits to desktop). I was wondering what verion of the game were these made for, the original unpatched game, perhaps? I was trying the demo with a game patched to v1.02.Thanks,
Space
DerekWilson - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Only works on 1.0We may consider looking at demos for the 1.02 (or later) version.
Thanks,
Derek Wilson
Spacecomber - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
Ok, that's what I thought. Thanks. It's no big deal, of course; I just like fooling around with this kind of stuff. (But not enough to reinstall the game without the patch. ;-) )Space
allnighter - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I think it was unfairly downplayed to factory OC on the memory being the only advantage. So not true. The fact that you can get a hold of a support rep in the middle of the night, seven days a week, is a pretty big deal. Than the fact that the card comes bundled with othe stuff, like free utilities and a pack of teflon slick pads was omitted. Those present a value to the gamer as well. The t-shit, although oversized (XL) is actually a nice touch, free advertising or not. Another thing - the card I purchased did come bundled with a game. Granted, it was Far Cry, fairly old compared to BF2 and even Riddick, never the less, it was in the box.allnighter - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
OMG, I really need to use the spell check before I post. Would you kindly help me out with that?BaronVonAwesome - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I don't have enough time to read this as thoroughly as I would like, but did the article happen to mention BFG's lifetime warranty (which I personally think is worth more than any game bundle)? I would go with the BFG myself.JarredWalton - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
It's mentioned on the last page, along with the fact that EVGA now offers the same lifetime warranty. I can't personally vouch for the quality of either, having never used their tech support, but I've heard they're both good.Son of a N00b - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
there is a small typo on the OC'ing page... ge t should be get...lolNice article...very complete
Good Job...I myself have had awesome experiences with BFG, not to mention their tech support, RMA support, and life time warrenty...
So when I get my 7800's I will be going BFG.
DVad3r - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I would really love to see a Leadtek 7800 GTX review...and an Asus one for that matter...I am going to be buying a new system soon and I am hard pressed to choose between Asus/Leadtek/BFG?CtK - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Its about time :)