NVIDIA 7800 GT Mini-Roundup

by Josh Venning on December 8, 2005 12:05 AM EST
Introduction

The NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series has been around for a while now and there's no denying that these are among the most powerful cards available right now. Only recently has ATI released a graphics card that could compete with the mighty 7800 GTX, and though the X1800 XT does compete, current prices still favor NVIDIA over ATI parts in terms of value. This is especially significant given the time of year, as sales, obviously, will be high for both companies, but it's value that will ultimately determine which parts the average consumer will buy.

As many already know, the 7800 GT was released by NVIDIA shortly after the 7800 GTX as a more cost-friendly version of the 7800, and while it's not as fast as the GTX, it's still a very powerful high-end card. We've enjoyed testing and playing a variety of games with this part, and we have a high regard for its capabilities. For those with monitors that are only able to display resolutions up to 1600x1200, the 7800 GT is more than enough to play just about any game at the highest settings possible with smooth results. For those with monitors that can handle higher resolutions, the 7800 GTX or ATI's X1800 XT might be needed to run certain games smoothly at those high settings, but that kind of elite performance is far from cheap.

We've seen some good quality mid-range parts from ATI and NVIDIA lately, like the X800 GTO and the 6800 GS, both of which offer good performance for around or under $200. The X800 GTO in particular at about $170 is an excellent graphics solution from ATI, especially given its overclocking potential. As Christmas gets closer, we will no doubt be seeing deals on other graphics cards as well, and we know many will be hoping for an upgrade under the tree this year.

NVIDIA's 7800 GT is a graphics card that stands out above the majority as being a top performer with competitive prices as well. Today, we'll be looking at three variations of this card: the ASUS Extreme N7800 GT, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT Overclocked, and the EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GT CO. Each of these companies have a reputation for quality, and we'll be comparing them to see how they rate to each other in different areas, such as performance and price. We will also be testing power loads and user-overclocking for each of these cards. The first of these 7800 GTs that we'll be looking at is the ASUS Extreme N7800 GT.

ASUS Extreme N7800 GT
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  • MadAd - Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - link

    Still no word on the comparitive fan noise?
  • semiconductorslave - Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - link

    If you look in the GTX 512 Mb review here:
    http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2607...">7800 GTX 512MB
    you see in Battlefield2 1600 x 1200 with 4xaa the stock 7800GTX is getting 42.9 fps compared to this article where the EVGA gets 43.6 fps! Also the GT was running on a FX-55 2.6GHz and the GTX was on a FX-57 (2.8GHz)

    I own this card and think its a great value, to be able to come so close to and even sometimes outperform the GTX at $450. I can't wait to add card #2.
    I didn't see what drivers were used in this review, but the other review used nForce4 6.82. Also this review showed 1 Gb of ram, other review doesn't mention ammount of ram used. Am I the only one who looks between diferent benchmarks to compare, would be great to see more comparisons (graphics cards) on same test bed, like the other posts mentioned. That way you can really show what value the cards are.
  • jiulemoigt - Friday, December 9, 2005 - link

    there was only 2000 asus led version cards made most went to review sites. I was looking back when they came out I even called and got the model number and a second internal number found out only 2000 were made kinda like a paper launch... and all the sites say this is a sweet looking card, yet 90% of the people reading the reviews will end up with a boarding green pcp... so I bought a bfg and used nonconditive uv paint to paint it bright green. But review sites should point out that people will not get a cool looking slow card from asus with crappy warrenty compared to bfg, xfx, evga.
  • yacoub - Friday, December 9, 2005 - link

    Up to what level of temperature (Celcius) is safe for a GPU to maintain without impacting its expected lifespan and performance (ie, lockup/failure)?
  • fbrdphreak - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link

    Discussion thread on this article:
    http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...
  • Slaimus - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link

    If anyone is shocked by the power usage numbers, remember that the system is using a notoriously inefficient PowerStream. The DC power draw is probably close to 200W, which is how power supplies are rated.
  • segagenesis - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link

    Is that too good to be true... the EVGA is barely over $300 on newegg? I hope I'm not, because I think I just found my new video card.
  • Visual - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link

    you are dreaming, yes. i see two eVGA models on newegg, N515 for $309 (actually 289 after MIR) and N518 for $379. Well guess what, the cheaper variant uses a cheaper aluminium cooler, which doesnt give you much hope for further overclocking :/ None of those two variants are the "CO" edition from this roundup, the CO's clocks are said to be 470/1100, the two models on newegg are clocked 445/1070.

    this is what i was talking about in my above post... the roundup doesn't really show you the differences between the various cards :/ and i bet other people will make the same mistake as you and confuse one card with another.

    still, for the $289 price that card is a bargain. i just want to be sure you realise it's not the same one reviewed here.
  • segagenesis - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link

    Thanks, yet its still not bad at all for a 7800GT even if its stock. I was under the assumption still that 7800GT cards were still $400 or so.
  • Spacecomber - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link

    Is there any difference in the fan noise generated by these three models?

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