Introduction
We were able to get our hands on the first 7800GTX that we've seen with a custom cooling solution, so instead of the XFX 7800 (which really is next on our list this time), we bring you our review of the EVGA e-GeForce 7800GTX KO. We've already looked at an EVGA card in this series (EVGA e-GeForce GTX), and if you've been reading our past articles, you know that we've chosen it as our top pick each time.
We'll also be talking a little more about the prices and warranties of these parts, which contribute partly to the overall value. One thing worth mentioning early on is that the older EVGA e-GeForce 7800GTX bundled with Battlefield 2 is back down in price to $500 at the time of this writing. It also looks as though EVGA's new lifetime warranty policy could give it an edge over the other vendors right now. We'll take a closer look at all of the prices and the warranties at the end of the review, but it's looking pretty good for EVGA right now.
Rest assured, we will be giving this card a very thorough testing, with benchmarks in Battlefield 2, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, as well as power load and heat level tests. We mentioned in our first EVGA review that we had been looking forward to getting our hands on this card, and we aren't disappointed. So, let's get started and take a look at the EVGA e-GeForce 7800GTX KO.
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Lineatus - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
I am curious about the effectiveness of the new cooling packaging. I was wondering if you could perform the following test:1) Derate the clock speed to "normal" that is 430 / 1200.
2) Get the temperature profile.
I am wondering if the 7800 KO will run cooler at "normal" speed with the new cooling vs. a "normal" card running at "normal" speed.
Thanks for the time to put up these reviews, appreciated!
Questar - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
"As for the prices, it looks like the old EVGA e-GeForce 7800GTX with Battlefield 2 bundle is back down to about $500. This is good news for those on a budget."WTF? A $500 video card for people on a budget? You have lost touch with your readers.
TrogdorJW - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
Read the next paragraph, Questar.'"If you are on a budget – if we can call any computer part in the $500+ range 'budget'...." Obviously, they recognize that $500 is still a lot of money to pay for a GPU. Considering the performance relative to the 6800U which cost over $500 until June and is (http://labs.anandtech.com/img/plot/1472_182.png">still running $465), $500 for the performance increase the 7800GTX offers is not at all unreasonable. For budget and mid-range shoppers, it's a problem. I don't think they're really considering this card, though.
Windaria - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
I totally preferred the roundups to the trickle...DerekWilson - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
The problem with roundups is that they take time. We still don't have all the cards we would want to include. If we had to wait, it'd still be two to three weeks before we would have anything published on available 7800 GTX cards.As these cards are very expensive, we felt getting as much info out there as soon as possible was important for helping readers make smart choices on how to spend their money. If there's anything we can do to make the series better, let us know.
xtknight - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
This card owns. It's just under twice as quiet as the BFG card and gets an amazing overclock.kalniel - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
Anand are right that something screwy is going on with the internal frequencies - Nvidia themselves said it's a bit hard to define an overall clock speed for this card. What gets me is the relatively large increase in performance with just a 10/25mhz overclock - in most cases it seems as much a difference as going from the original eVGA card (a 40/50mhz clock difference). Don't know if some loop is just catching up in time with this extra increase or what.SpaceRanger - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
Yup.. HardOCP had it right when they said that this thing is just an overpriced 7800 GTX because of an old designed TI4600 heatsink in a metal wrapper..Buying this card is NOT in your best interests..
imaheadcase - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
hardocp and right should not be in same sentance.hardOCP is going the way of tomshardware (yes thats bad), they constantly pick up little things and go on and on and on about it. Like the Phantom console..i mean good lord did we really need to have that dragged out almost every week on front page? Its like they think everyone cares about it..news flash only you do! make a news blurb saying product is lame and move on! You put stuff like that on front page for days like its big news.
Bless RSS feeds, don't even had to visit hardocp anymore, since they just recap all the hardware news cut and pasted from other sites basicly.
Locut0s - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
The other thing I hate about HardOCP is that it's politicized. Every once in a while you see some right wing opinion of Kyle's about current events. Now I don't care if the reader is left or right but in my opinion politics needs to stay in the forums of a review site and off the front pages.