The Card
We've talked a little about this before, but the 7800 GT is nearly identical to the 7800 GTX aside from a few things, the most important being the pipelines. The GT drops 1 vertex and 4 pixel pipelines, getting about 17% less pixel power per clock cycle than the GTX. This means that even at the same clock speed, the GTX should have a theoretical advantage of about 20% over the GT. Another difference is that the GT is clocked lower than the GTX: 400MHz core and 1GHz memory as opposed to 430MHz and 1.2GHz. However, as we will show in the next section, the clock speeds of the two cards are close enough together to overclock the GT up to or beyond the speed of the standard GeForce 7800 GTX.That being said, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT Overclocked (in case it isn't obvious by the name) does come with a factory overclock of 450MHz core and 1.05GHz memory clock speeds. This will give it a slight increase in performance over the reference 7800 GT, and we'll be seeing by how much a little later in the review. Also, the XFX 7800 GT has dual link DVI on one port, just like the GTX, in case you are lucky enough to own a monitor that can use it.
As you can see, the XFX 7800 GT looks very similar to the XFX 7800 GTX, the only difference being the style of the heat sink. XFX has dropped the shiny rainbow sticker that was on the 7800 GTX and replaced it with a much more practical looking gray cutout; perhaps a reference to a “no frills” take of the 7800. The box is practically identical to the one for the GTX, complete with the unique “x” shape and extremely-difficult-to-open-without-tearing packaging.
Also, the card comes bundled with a few games: FarCry, X2 The Threat, and Moto GP2. We aren't sure about the other two games, but FarCry is a great game with graphics that will make you happy that you bought a 7800 to run it on. Next, we'll take a look at overclocking the 7800 GT.
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eetnoyer - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
There will be some changes, however, with fewer reviews that will cover more than one card.Followed immediately thereafter by another single card review. And with so many other 7800GT cards on the market already, they just couldn't find enough to do a round-up. Newegg currently has 13 listings in stock for 7800GT and Anandtech still can't manage to scrounge up enough. This site is starting to slide.
bupkus - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Are there any games out yet that require this kind of rendering power?I only play UT2004, but with my new X800 and a new Venice @ 2.3GHz I'm rockin' right now at 1280x1024.
robere - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
I as well as 5 guys i know have a Dell 2405FPW that runs a native res of 1920x1200. I have a XFX 7800GTX ATH643700 SanDiego with 2G of RAM and currently run BF2 at 1920x1200 res with allmost everything on high and have a frame rate of 60-70. So when the next gen of games come out i am interested looking at SLI or next gen GPU. By the way BF2 at this res looks kick ass.JNo - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
I have a 2405 too and apparently widescreen is NOT possible for BF2 (check out widescreenforums.com) as the FOV hasn't changed. So even if you're 'forced it', you are getting the same width, it's just chopped off some of the top and bottom from the gaming world, and then zoomed in a little (giving you a little better visual impact but some gaming disadvantage). Let me know if you believe otherwise as a hell of a lot of people would like to know...Fluppeteer - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Hi Robere,You may be able to answer a question... Can you tell me whether you have any
problems if you run your 2405 from the single-link head of the 7800GTX? I gather
the timings are quite tight to the single-link limits, and there have been
reports of people struggling with the dodgy internal TMDS transmitters in
the 6800 series. I'd like to know if nVidia have fixed this with G70.
If the 2405 runs okay from that head (I'd expect it to work on the head with
the dual-link head anyway, because the Silicon Image parts tend to be pretty
clean) it presumably means nVidia have given their transmitter a redesign,
which *might* mean the G70 could run my T221-DG5 properly (from both heads).
It's kind of an expensive thing for me to find out without at least some
indication that matters have improved. :-)
(For people with less exotic - or at least, less discontinued - monitors,
there are people considering Apple 30" display + Dell 2405 rigs, who would
be equally interested in the answer.)
Thanks!
Rudee - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
I agree with the reviewer's final words that those looking for a higher end card need not look further than a 7800 GT, especially if you are playing in resolutions of 1600 x 1200 or less.Ozz1113 - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
Put it this way, I am upgrading from a 9500np modded to a 9700. I think you can wait a little longer from your 6800u ;]Too bad this review wasn't of the evga...not that it is all that much different
Dmitheon - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Agreed, I'm more interested in the eVGA than any of the others right due to that Battlefield2 bundle or the free mobo offer.robere - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
How about some SLI GTX/GT numbers? I have a XFX GTX and are intersted in what the GT can do in SLI.ukDave - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Ditto, SLI numbers please. GT vs. GTX.From what i've seen the gap should narrow meaning even better money savings when choosing the cheaper GT option.
I have two Leadtek 7800GT's atm and the reason above is why i chose them.