Power, Heat and Noise
Power
When testing the power usage of this card, we found that it wasn't nearly as power-hungry as the EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX KO. This is worth mentioning because of the match in performance between the two. As you can see, at the factory clock of 490MHz and 1.3GHz, we measured the power load at 274 watts; the same as the BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC out of the box. When we overclocked the card to 500MHz and 1.32HGz, we get a power load of 277 watts, the same as the overclocked MSI NX7800 GTX. For reference, the power load was 148 watts while the system was idle.
Keep in mind that the way we test the power usage of these cards is by measuring the wattage of the entire system at the wall outlet, then comparing the differences. These numbers don't represent the exact wattage of the graphics cards. Rather, they are simply meant to give us a general idea of how much power a card generates at different speeds.
Heat
As it turns out, this card did run a bit on the hot side. It ran slightly hotter than the EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX KO, though it was only a degree warmer. 80 C puts it in a tie for hottest card with the non-KO eVGA and the overclocked BFG 7800 GTX. We suspected that it would generate more heat in relation to the other cards because of the higher overclock, but it wasn't really much worse. It may not do as well as the EVGA KO in hotter climates because of the unmodified heat sink, but the single degree difference is tough to call significant. MSI of course continues to lead the temperature category, though again a 2 degrees C difference isn't huge. For reference, the idle temperature for the card was 47 degrees C.
Noise
As with most of these cards, we didn't notice anything remarkable about how much noise the card made. In relation to the other 7800's, we see that it falls somewhere in the middle, but leans a little more toward the quieter cards. Again, it will be very difficult to tell a difference in the loudness of these cards simply by ear, but we feel that it's worth seeing how these cards compare to each other in as many areas as we can.
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4AcesIII - Thursday, August 18, 2005 - link
I wished they'd not done the spotlight crap on each card but they haven't exactly been putting out much of any reviews worth reading for quite sometime. It would also seem that EVGA put alot of money in their pockets, they are traditionally one of the worst manufacturers of video cards out there, noted in the past for cheap heatsink and fans along with other quaility control issues. Sheesh next they'll be promoting Prolink as the best video card maker. I don't trust these guys anymore, it's not a review it's who gives them the most hmmmmm support lets say instead of coming right out and calling it a bribe, payoff, kickback for putting out a favorable review.Hacp - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
Btw, is anyone else kinda tired by the huge amount of 7800GTX vendor card reviews? I mean performance is obviously going to be similar, and the higher clocked cards are going to perform better........Operandi - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
I tend to agree, all these reviews are pretty redundant. All of them offer the same performance, most/all use the reference design, and most use the stock HSF. If you're going to review each card individually there should be some justification, so far all the cards have been more or less exactly the same.JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
The justification was already given several times in the previous articles. If we had waited to do a 7800GTX roundup, there are still additional cards coming out. If we had done a "roundup" at launch, it would have included the two cards we had at the time. Yes, the reviews are redundant when performance is similar, but we're looking at more than just performance. It's a Catch-22, and we figured getting reviews out in a timely manner would be more useful than waiting a month or two to write a roundup.eetnoyer - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
If that's the case, why not review whatever sample you have at the time of release and wait for a representative sampling to do a roundup? The only conclusion I can draw is that it's a slow time in the lab and you need filler, or individual product reviews means a greater revenue stream due to page hits/manufacturer contributions. Either way, it's rather disappointing for what I've come to expect from anandtech.