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.

Index Overclocking
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  • JNo - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    "We'll be looking at how the different 7800 GTs compare to each other as we review them, so be on the lookout for another 7800 GT article soon. We want to make these reviews as helpful as possible, so any comments or suggestions that you have regarding tests, cards, or anything else, please let us know."

    I second (or third or fourth...) the call for a round up review. I don't want to have to read 5-7 separate reviews of 7800GT cards just to determine the best one. I want you to tell me! Obviously with graphs summing up different characteristics (overclocking, noise, plateau characteristics, $ per FPS etc) so I can make a different choice if the emphasis on my individual needs differs...
  • bob661 - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    This is the first time I've seen some value in OCing a video card. Near 7800GTX performance for $100 less.
  • Avalon - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    Seems like at 1600x1200, an overclocked GT is right up there with a GTX. I would like to have seen higher resolution benchmarks of the GT overclocked at 462/1.2, so we could see how much ground the GT lost, if any. For all you 2005/2001FP owners out there, grab the GT model, and forget about the GTX. $100 isn't worth 1% boost in performance.
  • Houdani - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    But, but, but ... the noise!

    You are correct, financially the GT is a better choice than the GTX -- just not this particular card. Who at XFX chose that fan? It's a screamer!
  • Ozz1113 - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    Im sure there will be aftermarket cooling solutions out real soon to bring the db's down.

    Oh, I use water =D
  • Scarceas - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    I too would like to have seen comparison to a 6800Ultra and a Radeon x850
  • fishbits - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    quote:

    We've already looked at how the 7800 GT ranks alongside the GTX and other graphics cards, including dual-card SLI setups, and you can take a look at the review here.


    Third paragraph into the article (with EZ-Klik hyperlink technology!). No it doesn't bench every possible video card, but more than enough to figure out where the GT fits in. The 6800 Ultra you said you wanted to see is right there.
  • Furen - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    OMG, make it stop...
  • Houdani - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    Agreed! I much prefer the roundups over these single vendor reviews. A /short/ summary of all the vendors is more than adequate, contained within the roundup article.
  • 4AcesIII - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    What happened to the group reviews, they missed the Leadtek 7800GTX and now they probably won't so they can do XFX and EVGA again only maybe a MSI to make it look good. Sheesh why do I even come here anymore?

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