The Card

So far, all three cards that we've tested (including this one) look exactly the same except for the sticker on the heat sink. Here's a shot of the card.

BFG simply has the name of the card over a silver and greenish background. Strictly going by looks alone, of the three 7800 cards that we've reviewed, we prefer the clean black look of EVGA's card, with MSI's angel at a close second. For many people, of course, looks are about the least important factor when choosing a graphics card. Performance, noise, and heat levels are all more important concerns unless you use a case with a window.

As you can see, the box looks similar to the heat sink. No games come bundled with the BFG 7800GTX OC, but it does come with a BFG promotional shirt for those who like to provide free advertising for their graphics card manufacturer.

As we said earlier, this card comes factory- overclocked. The core clock is set at 460MHz, which doesn't give it an advantage over EVGA's 450MHz factory overclock, given NVIDIA's clock speed indication issues. What does give it an advantage is that BFG's memory clock is set at 1.3GHz, out of the box. This is worth noting because it should mean higher performance in certain games and settings. We'll see how much higher in the performance section.

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  • PeteRoy - Sunday, August 7, 2005 - link

    quote:

    will be focusing only on the 7800 line of cards


    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).

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