Power, Heat & Noise
Power
Considering how power-hungry some of the GTXs were, we were curious to know how this would look on the 7800 GT. As we've found with the 7800 GTXs, there's a lot of variation in heat and power load between the different vendor cards, and the same will likely be true here. As the chart shows, the 7800 GT doesn't create nearly the same kind of power draw that the different GTXs do. We get a draw of 231 W running stress tests at the factory-clock speed of 450MHz, and 235 W when overclocked. While this is lower than the GTX, unfortunately, it's not low enough to let you skimp on your power supply.
For reference, the system load was 125 W while idle. This is about 20 W lower than idle under the GTX.
Heat
We found that this 7800 GT ran considerably cooler than the GTX, and we're curious to see if this will be similar with other 7800 GTs. The load temperature of a card can be important because of the part that it plays in overclocking. It's also something to consider if you live in very hot climates or have small computer cases with poor circulation. With a temperature of 60 degrees C at 450MHz and 61 degrees C at 462MHz, this card handles heat pretty well. We'll see if XFX is unique in this among other GT vendors, or if they all generally run this much cooler than the GTX.
Noise
With the 7800 GTX, there didn't seem to be much of a correlation between higher clock speeds and noise levels as we might have guessed. One of the highest clocked GTXs,
the EVGA e-Geforce 7800 GTX KO, was also the least noisy according to our numbers, but this is likely because of the metal fan casing, which encompassed the entire front of the card. We've found that with the GTX, the CPU fan is the predominant noise in the room when testing, which makes it practically impossible to try to distinguish differences in fan noise between the cards by ear.
Until now, that is. As it turns out, we were quite surprised by how loud this card proved to be. In fact, the card was so noisy when we started up the system that it effectively drowned out the CPU fan. While we weren't expecting the GT to get a noise level quite as loud as the GTX, our tests revealed a sound level of 54.7 for the GT, about two and a half times louder than any of the 7800 GTXs that we tested. This might well be a big negative for some people looking at this card, but keep in mind that hearing is subjective, and many people won't notice or mind the extra sound at all. Of course, we're very interested to see if this level of noise is common among the vendor 7800 GTs, and we'll have something to which to compare it for the next article. The higher noise levels could also play a large part in the significantly lower temperatures.
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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.