Introduction

In our review of the EVGA e- GeForce 7800 GTX KO, one of the most powerful graphics cards available right now, we explained how impressed we were by the performance. The huge overclock, coupled with EVGA's lifetime warranty, gave it an edge over the other 7800 GTXs that we've reviewed, and thus, put it on the top of our list. Today, we will be looking at the XFX GeForce 7800 GTX Overclocked. With a 490MHz core and 1.3GHz memory clock out of the box, it will undoubtedly match the EVGA KO in terms of performance, but we'll see how it compares in other areas as well. As you may know from our past 7800 GTX reviews, things like price and warranty (along with the usual suspects) are factors for the cards that we ultimately recommend over others.

As we mentioned, we were impressed with not only the performance of the EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX KO, but with the warranty policy as well. EVGA's lifetime warranty, which covers just about everything but deliberate physical damage to the card, is unique among other graphics card vendors, and played a part in our decision to recommend that card over the others that we've reviewed. We'll take a look at XFX's warranty policy and see how it measures up on the next page.

We've stressed many times in this series about the importance of how well these cards perform out of the box, but we also take note of how well these cards overclock over the factory settings. For instance, we noticed that while MSI's NX7800 GTX was only clocked at 430MHz out of the box, it ran considerably cooler than other 7800 GTXs, which might allow for better user-overclocking. An even better example is how we were able to boost the EVGA 7800 GTX KO's memory clock all the way up to 1.35GHz because of the modified heatsink and the RAM sinks on the back. These are important things to consider if you are looking for a good 7800 GTX to overclock.

As usual, we'll be looking at how this card performs while both factory and user overclocked, as well as its power usage and heat levels later on. We'll also be comparing prices and warranties between each of the 7800's that we've tested to determine the best overall value. Now, let's have a look at the XFX GeForce 7800 GTX Overclocked.

The Card
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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.

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