Vendor Cards: BFG GeForce 7800GTX OC
by Derek Wilson & Josh Venning on August 4, 2005 2:39 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Test Setup and Performance
The frame rates for this card are similar to EVGA's because they are both factory overclocked. You will see a slight advantage though with the BFG overall because the memory clock is set at 1.3 GHz - higher than what we've seen yet, even with our own overclocks. While bumping up the core clock improves the card's performance in general, boosting the memory clock improves memory-specific aspects such as AA (among other things). This explains why there are slightly higher gains with BFG in tests with 4xAA enabled. Keep in mind that there are other ways in which the memory clock affects performance, such as playing at higher resolutions, and/or with certain high-quality settings like the ultra high setting in Doom 3. Doom 3's shadowing also puts a larger strain on graphics memory bandwidth than other games.When looking at performance, one of the things that we are the most interested in is how each of these cards compare to each other, out of the box. This is because most people will be using the card as is, without overclocking it manually. As always, we tested the cards on the same system:
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 Processor
1 GB OCZ 2:2:2:6 DDR400 RAM
Seagate 7200.7 120 GB Hard Drive
OCZ 600 W PowerStream Power Supply
Here are the gaming benchmarks.
Battlefield 2 gets almost 2 FPS better with the BFG, which is about a 4% increase from the EVGA card. We see nearly the same increase with Doom 3 (3.6%) and with Half-Life 2, the BFG 7800 picks up almost 3 frames, giving it a 4.8% increase over EVGA's frame rate.
Overclocked, all three of these cards g et very similar numbers. BFG only sees slight gains at 473MHz over the others in games with 4xAA enabled. The BFG's increases aren't nearly as pronounced here because we boosted the memory clock speeds of the MSI and EVGA to 1.25GHz, much closer to BFG's standard 1.3GHz factory overclock.
Remember that each individual graphics card overclocks differently, so you may not get the same results as ours when overclocking these cards at home. Also remember that there is always the risk of damaging your card when overclocking, so do so at your own risk. Next, let’s take a look at power, heat and noise.
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PeteRoy - Sunday, August 7, 2005 - link
Anandtech reviewing vendors 7800 GTX looks like a way to get a freebie 7800 GTX to every Anandtech editor,
But I admit it's interesting to see what each vendor brings with the board, to see what games, what box and cooler.
Scotty - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
In the hardware reviews, there is the shootout from Hexus. They remove the heat sinks to show the card and chips. I would like to see/know how well this card would accept a water block to integrate a dual 7800 setup into my current water cooling system. I am running a triple monitor system and this card makes this quite a bit easier to do than the the 6600 cards. Obviously I can not run this in SLI mode with three displays.Backslider - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
I have to disagree with the article.BFG 7800 OC wo/game = $525
MSI 7800 w/game = $475
The whole whopping 1% faster then, doesn't account for $50 plus a $40 game, at lease not to my wallet. I mean give me a break already, the card was like 1 FPS faster give or take a half of frame! But, ooooohhhh its "Over clocked" and I guess you get a cookie for that?
Then again, if your buying a graphics card this expensive, I'm sure you have the money to go out and buy all the games you want anyhow. Even then the benchmarks were just not impressive at all (realitive to 7800 vs. 7800).
darksparkz - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
I think, on the next review you should have the 7800GTXs stock speeds AND the 7800GTXs speeds that are OC to the exact same speed. It's harder to compare which is better because of the clock speeds.If you have eVGA, BFG, and etc. all at the same clock speeds, we'll truely be able to compare which is better
JarredWalton - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
I believe the whole point is that there is *NO* difference between any of the current 7800GTX cards if they are clocked the same. Minor differences in fan speed seem to be the major influence right now.Some Body - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
EVGA have released a new 7800GTX...7800GTX KO edition (with and without BF2). Core at 490MHz, Memory at 1.3GHz.
http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=256-P...">EVGA 7800GTX KO Edition w/ Battlefield 2
(Also note that they've dropped prices on their 'regular' 7800GTX)
GuniGuGu - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I love this website, it's my favorite hardware site, but I really have to ask, do we really need reviews of the same hardware?A quick overview, is the most thats really needed.
Really, Anand was talking about the 4fps difference between the games in 4xAA as actually a deciding factor??? It's 4fps guys!!
In all honesty, the only think people should look at, so long as the core/memory speeds are in-line, is the package and cooling used.
And by the looks of it, they are all folowing the same cooling options, so I would just like at the package (vivo?/cables/games) and choose from there.
Because in all seriousness, they are all the same.
at80eighty - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
true. However - what do you suggest? that AT reviews ATI's enviously large range of cards that they have existing at your local tech store?GuniGuGu - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
Perhaps, disregarg the entire video card section altogether, until there is something, actually worth talking about...We all know that the GTX is the fastest card on the market, but the article could've been summed up in a few lines. "The card is oc, it cost a bit more, and doesn't offer any real extra performance, much like all other GTX's"
There's always new hardware coming out.. AT doesn;t have to review the same video card 3 times ya know...
GuniGuGu - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
Or he could brake NDA and review a 7700 gt :)I'm in the process of buying a new machine, everything new, and i'm contemplating waiting on a 7700gt, because of the price it may sell for, and how it may overclock/unlock..
But I'm also extremly pissedd off at ATi for taking so damn long... they've basically lost my sale (if the product could've proved to have been better that is).