Okay this might sound stupid, but are the tests here in SLi or just a single card? I want to be sure of performance because I'm thinking of getting one of these 7800's
I'm glad I'm not the only one bitchin about these articles. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw YET ANOTHER 7800GTX REVIEW on AT.
Jarred, I know you've been trying to defend the rationale behind so many reviews of the same tech, but SERIOUSLY, this is ridiculous. I want to believe that you guys aren't just trying to milk the readers for more page hits, but I'm really starting to worry. I'm a big fan of AT, and this kind of stuff is just getting out of hand, IMO.
Please, no more 7800GTX Reviews. For the love of God, please.
Yeah, I think most AT readers now believe this "lets review every 7800GTX card we get our hands on" individually approach is ludicrous. There's so little difference between most of them, and the differences found in overclocking even with the few (one so far) that hasn't been a reference design, are almost certainly down to random variations in the individual core and memory chips. Actually overclocking tests with samples sent from manufacturers are always suspect, and you should always rely on what are reported in the forums from people who have bought the cards to get a good idea on how well they overclock. I agree with the idea of AT overclocking the cards to find how far they go, but that is really only a minor point of the review.
For all intents and purposes, all the 7800GTX cards you review are identical, unless they have a quieter fan, or a large heatsink that takes up extra slots which would deserve mention for that reason. The game bundle may differ and you might mention that, or what dongles and cables are included, but that's about all that matters and it certainly doesn't warrant a seperate review for every card.
With all these 7800GTX reviews, I seem to have missed AT's review of an X800GT card which will be of more interest to far more readers. I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing you would call a halt to these ongoing 7800GTX reviews that only a tiny minority of your readers will buy, and instead look at more mainstream products and how they impact that market sector. AT is becoming more elitist by the day, what with concentrating only on the very top gfx-cards, CPUs, memory, etc, and will lose its readers if it continues down this path.
but not as much as the version in the review. Still, seems to be a damn good deal considering the card is being scalped for close to $600 at many places.
This and previous reviews of 7800GTX cards were extremely superficial. After reading the last review many questions still remain unanswered. We all know that we won’t see miracles if all the cards use GPUs clocked at similar frequencies. In other words, I don’t care if one card is 2 fps faster than the other in Doom3 at 1600x1200, what I’m interested in are features, for example:
- What is the max DVI resolution for both DVI slots?
- Can I drive two Dell 2405FPW LCDs with a single 7800GTX at 1920x1200@60Hz? I had a bad experience in the past with nVidia cards, where max. resolution on primary DVI was limited to 1600x1200. Only the secondary DVI, connected via silicon image TDMS transceiver was able to drive 2405 panel at 1920x1200.
- Can I drive 30” Apple cinema Display at 2560x1600? In other words, is there any 7800GTX card available with a dual-link DVI slot? I know that so far only some quadro cards are able to drive hi-res displays.
- I don’t remember TV-OUT was tested in any review. What is the max TV-OUT resolution 720p, 1080i?
- Which inputs are present on the card? S-Video, Composite?
- Can I downclock the GPU to let’s say 200MHz or even lower to achieve silent operation during normal work?
IIRC, all the 7800GTX's are Dual link DVI, it says that in one of the reviews, the eVGA, i believe. Secondly, why the fvck would you bother buying a $500+ card to downclock it so it performs like shite. :confused; Methinks you're nitpicking.
You are right. There is a statement in MSI NX7800GTX review that all 7800 cards have one dual-link DVI port. I missed this one, my apologies. I would still like to know if dual-link DVI port is a primary or secondary port. This is important in a multi-monitor setup.
I don’t think I’m nitpicking. I simply don’t want to listen to the noisy fans (38-40dB is still too noisy for me) while I’m browsing the net, writing e-mails, developing apps… What I’m actually asking, is there any “cool and quiet” technology inside G70 that works in a similar way as the A64 C&Q. In other words, is there any option I can set in drivers which will allow me to lower GPU clock while working in 2D (regular windows apps) and increase it to max during 3D game play?
In order for the outputs to be DVI compliant, they *should* be capable of at least single link 165MHz, AFAIK. However, as Tom's Hardware reported, this may not actually be the case if you're driving something needing near the transmission speed limit like a 2405. You might do better with Powerstrip and/or a shorter cable, but if the on-board TMDS transmitter isn't improved then you're right to worry, and it'll be only the dual-link output which can do full single-link speed. (I've had similar problems with the single-link side of my T221, due to the on-board TMDS, and others have struggled even with Quadros which use non SiI parts for one output.) It'd be nice if nVidia realised they had a problem with this - or even if a board manufacturer would give up, and just use SiI parts for all the outputs. If you're thinking of a 30" ACD + a 2405, I'd make sure you can return things if it doesn't work.
The "you need a Quadro" party line which nVidia have re. the 30" ACD isn't very helpful. Quadro 3400, 4000 and (I believe) 4400s only use SiI TMDS transmitters (an 1178) on one of their heads, and use internal transmitters for the other outputs, which aren't always up to snuff - although I'm not sure how near the dual link limit the ACD runs its timings. The Quadro 3000 and 2000 use external SiI parts exclusively, but are obviously slower cards. Allegedly the PNY AGP version of the 6600GT is dual-dual-link capable (although since it doesn't have external TMDS transmitters I've not understood how); the MSI 6800GTo (used as a Dell OEM part) also has one dual-link transmitter (it's effectively a Quadro 3400, AFAICT). There's also a discontinued Asus V9999GE which is dual link (one head, +analogue, using the internal transmitters), and the 512MB 6800Ultra cards which I'm told have one dual-link output.
There's always a choice of other workstation cards, if you don't mind a reduction in gaming performance - there are a few FireGL models (X800 series equivalents) with dual link outputs, and the Realizm 200 and 800 have SiI-based dual-dual link.
Speaking of high resolutions, I'd love to know whether nVidia have fixed their SLi issues with the 30" ACD now the 7800 is out. There's an interesting article at:
http://techreport.com/etc/2005q3/hires-gaming/inde...">http://techreport.com/etc/2005q3/hires-gaming/inde... ...regarding card performance at "ultra high" (2048x1536) resolutions, which reports that the buffer sizes on the G70 were increased so that it doesn't run out of steam at 1600x1200. I'd like to see benchmarks run at 2560x1600 resolution to see how it degrades (or, ideally, at 3840x2400 so I don't have to extrapolate) - and find out whether SLi SFR mode helps (if they've fixed it).
I presume, by the way, that the 7800GTX's outputs don't have HDCP enabled. Not that it matters if you just want to output to an analogue HDTV, but it's a bit of an issue if you have any plans for high def media output in the future (if only when Vista appears). Can anyone confirm?
Regarding silent operation, have you considered a water block? The cooling on my current (6800GTo setup) is an issue mostly because I have a small hurricane blowing from the front of my computer case to the back, and nVidia (for reasons I can't understand) fit their fans to blow from the back of the case towards the front. Result: the warm air from the 6800 gets blows straight back to its fan input, and it goes over 100 degrees C. I'm considering water cooling to get around this problem, rather than because I actually need it for overclocking.
I'm not sure that answers much, but it might add weight to the request for more testing - even if none of it should be vendor-specific for as long as they stick to the reference design!
I kinda miss the 'round-up' version of these reviews. I think spliting each vendors cards into is own review makes it a little harder to see all the cards and compare them. Perhaps you should consider consolidating the many single reviews into one larger one. Esp. since most of these cards are really the same, with some slight differences in preformance and appearance. Not to mention each time a reviews comes about, the card that you reccommend usually changes slightly...
Speaking of which, what became of AnandTech's efforts to test out tech support by contacting the manufacturer with a typical question that might come up and seeing how long it takes to get a response and how helpful the response is. Typically, this part of the review also covered things like online FAQs and knowledge bases in terms of how helpful these were. Was this only done for motherboards? Is it still a practice followed for some reviews? And, if so, why not for video cards? And if is is not being followed anymore (at all), why not?
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.
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........
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.
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.
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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25 Comments
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VideoQuasar - Monday, August 22, 2005 - link
I must have missed the SPECViewperf 8.1 test portion, or the Cinebench 2003. Are those on hidden pages along with the PureVideo aspects of the card?These 7800 cards might compete with a mid-range Quadro or Fire card...but I don't know do I !
The reviwers seem to be more interested in which cards come with a BF2 bundle,When you buy 2 for SLI....you can load both...WOW.
walkure - Friday, August 26, 2005 - link
You people complaining about "yet another review" are idiots. If you don't wanna read it, don't click it!!!I had not read a single review of any of the cards up to right now. I came to the site looking for one, and I found it. Thank you AT.
I did want to see some comparisons to last generation's cards, like the 6800 Ultra, X800, etc, but I suppose that's found in another article...
bonhimself - Thursday, August 18, 2005 - link
Okay this might sound stupid, but are the tests here in SLi or just a single card? I want to be sure of performance because I'm thinking of getting one of these 7800'sbob661 - Friday, August 19, 2005 - link
Both.
Quiksel - Thursday, August 18, 2005 - link
I'm glad I'm not the only one bitchin about these articles. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw YET ANOTHER 7800GTX REVIEW on AT.Jarred, I know you've been trying to defend the rationale behind so many reviews of the same tech, but SERIOUSLY, this is ridiculous. I want to believe that you guys aren't just trying to milk the readers for more page hits, but I'm really starting to worry. I'm a big fan of AT, and this kind of stuff is just getting out of hand, IMO.
Please, no more 7800GTX Reviews. For the love of God, please.
PrinceGaz - Thursday, August 18, 2005 - link
Yeah, I think most AT readers now believe this "lets review every 7800GTX card we get our hands on" individually approach is ludicrous. There's so little difference between most of them, and the differences found in overclocking even with the few (one so far) that hasn't been a reference design, are almost certainly down to random variations in the individual core and memory chips. Actually overclocking tests with samples sent from manufacturers are always suspect, and you should always rely on what are reported in the forums from people who have bought the cards to get a good idea on how well they overclock. I agree with the idea of AT overclocking the cards to find how far they go, but that is really only a minor point of the review.For all intents and purposes, all the 7800GTX cards you review are identical, unless they have a quieter fan, or a large heatsink that takes up extra slots which would deserve mention for that reason. The game bundle may differ and you might mention that, or what dongles and cables are included, but that's about all that matters and it certainly doesn't warrant a seperate review for every card.
With all these 7800GTX reviews, I seem to have missed AT's review of an X800GT card which will be of more interest to far more readers. I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing you would call a halt to these ongoing 7800GTX reviews that only a tiny minority of your readers will buy, and instead look at more mainstream products and how they impact that market sector. AT is becoming more elitist by the day, what with concentrating only on the very top gfx-cards, CPUs, memory, etc, and will lose its readers if it continues down this path.
Trap - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant....">http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...e=190377...DerekWilson - Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - link
This is not the Overclocked version of the card.HardwareD00d - Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - link
actually, it is overclocked:Memory clock: 1.25 MHz (vs. 1.2MHz Standard)
Engine clock: 450 MHz (vs. 430MHz Standard)
but not as much as the version in the review. Still, seems to be a damn good deal considering the card is being scalped for close to $600 at many places.
Igi - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
This and previous reviews of 7800GTX cards were extremely superficial. After reading the last review many questions still remain unanswered. We all know that we won’t see miracles if all the cards use GPUs clocked at similar frequencies. In other words, I don’t care if one card is 2 fps faster than the other in Doom3 at 1600x1200, what I’m interested in are features, for example:- What is the max DVI resolution for both DVI slots?
- Can I drive two Dell 2405FPW LCDs with a single 7800GTX at 1920x1200@60Hz? I had a bad experience in the past with nVidia cards, where max. resolution on primary DVI was limited to 1600x1200. Only the secondary DVI, connected via silicon image TDMS transceiver was able to drive 2405 panel at 1920x1200.
- Can I drive 30” Apple cinema Display at 2560x1600? In other words, is there any 7800GTX card available with a dual-link DVI slot? I know that so far only some quadro cards are able to drive hi-res displays.
- I don’t remember TV-OUT was tested in any review. What is the max TV-OUT resolution 720p, 1080i?
- Which inputs are present on the card? S-Video, Composite?
- Can I downclock the GPU to let’s say 200MHz or even lower to achieve silent operation during normal work?
Leper Messiah - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
IIRC, all the 7800GTX's are Dual link DVI, it says that in one of the reviews, the eVGA, i believe. Secondly, why the fvck would you bother buying a $500+ card to downclock it so it performs like shite. :confused; Methinks you're nitpicking.Igi - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
You are right. There is a statement in MSI NX7800GTX review that all 7800 cards have one dual-link DVI port. I missed this one, my apologies. I would still like to know if dual-link DVI port is a primary or secondary port. This is important in a multi-monitor setup.I don’t think I’m nitpicking. I simply don’t want to listen to the noisy fans (38-40dB is still too noisy for me) while I’m browsing the net, writing e-mails, developing apps… What I’m actually asking, is there any “cool and quiet” technology inside G70 that works in a similar way as the A64 C&Q. In other words, is there any option I can set in drivers which will allow me to lower GPU clock while working in 2D (regular windows apps) and increase it to max during 3D game play?
Fluppeteer - Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - link
Derek has already said that they're planning to do a test of the dual link support - which (with a T221) I'd like to see. Ideally I'd like to see something likehttp://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041129/...">http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041129/...
...updated for the 7800 (I need a single link port able to get near 165MHz too).
In order for the outputs to be DVI compliant, they *should* be capable of at least single link 165MHz, AFAIK. However, as Tom's Hardware reported, this may not actually be the case if you're driving something needing near the transmission speed limit like a 2405. You might do better with Powerstrip and/or a shorter cable, but if the on-board TMDS transmitter isn't improved then you're right to worry, and it'll be only the dual-link output which can do full single-link speed. (I've had similar problems with the single-link side of my T221, due to the on-board TMDS, and others have struggled even with Quadros which use non SiI parts for one output.) It'd be nice if nVidia realised they had a problem with this - or even if a board manufacturer would give up, and just use SiI parts for all the outputs. If you're thinking of a 30" ACD + a 2405, I'd make sure you can return things if it doesn't work.
The "you need a Quadro" party line which nVidia have re. the 30" ACD isn't very helpful. Quadro 3400, 4000 and (I believe) 4400s only use SiI TMDS transmitters (an 1178) on one of their heads, and use internal transmitters for the other outputs, which aren't always up to snuff - although I'm not sure how near the dual link limit the ACD runs its timings. The Quadro 3000 and 2000 use external SiI parts exclusively, but are obviously slower cards. Allegedly the PNY AGP version of the 6600GT is dual-dual-link capable (although since it doesn't have external TMDS transmitters I've not understood how); the MSI 6800GTo (used as a Dell OEM part) also has one dual-link transmitter (it's effectively a Quadro 3400, AFAICT). There's also a discontinued Asus V9999GE which is dual link (one head, +analogue, using the internal transmitters), and the 512MB 6800Ultra cards which I'm told have one dual-link output.
There's always a choice of other workstation cards, if you don't mind a reduction in gaming performance - there are a few FireGL models (X800 series equivalents) with dual link outputs, and the Realizm 200 and 800 have SiI-based dual-dual link.
Speaking of high resolutions, I'd love to know whether nVidia have fixed their SLi issues with the 30" ACD now the 7800 is out. There's an interesting article at:
http://techreport.com/etc/2005q3/hires-gaming/inde...">http://techreport.com/etc/2005q3/hires-gaming/inde...
...regarding card performance at "ultra high" (2048x1536) resolutions, which reports that the buffer sizes on the G70 were increased so that it doesn't run out of steam at 1600x1200. I'd like to see benchmarks run at 2560x1600 resolution to see how it degrades (or, ideally, at 3840x2400 so I don't have to extrapolate) - and find out whether SLi SFR mode helps (if they've fixed it).
I presume, by the way, that the 7800GTX's outputs don't have HDCP enabled. Not that it matters if you just want to output to an analogue HDTV, but it's a bit of an issue if you have any plans for high def media output in the future (if only when Vista appears). Can anyone confirm?
Regarding silent operation, have you considered a water block? The cooling on my current (6800GTo setup) is an issue mostly because I have a small hurricane blowing from the front of my computer case to the back, and nVidia (for reasons I can't understand) fit their fans to blow from the back of the case towards the front. Result: the warm air from the 6800 gets blows straight back to its fan input, and it goes over 100 degrees C. I'm considering water cooling to get around this problem, rather than because I actually need it for overclocking.
I'm not sure that answers much, but it might add weight to the request for more testing - even if none of it should be vendor-specific for as long as they stick to the reference design!
Avalon - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
Since when did eVGA cover overclocking in their warranty?
Xenoterranos - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
Since they started selling overclocked cards, I think.ksherman - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
I kinda miss the 'round-up' version of these reviews. I think spliting each vendors cards into is own review makes it a little harder to see all the cards and compare them. Perhaps you should consider consolidating the many single reviews into one larger one. Esp. since most of these cards are really the same, with some slight differences in preformance and appearance. Not to mention each time a reviews comes about, the card that you reccommend usually changes slightly...just my .02 cents!
n7 - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
Shockingly enough, i think the XFX card is the most attractive design of all the 7800GTXs!Looks like a good option for those not terrified of the XFX name.
Hacp - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
not its name, just its customer support :).Spacecomber - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
Speaking of which, what became of AnandTech's efforts to test out tech support by contacting the manufacturer with a typical question that might come up and seeing how long it takes to get a response and how helpful the response is. Typically, this part of the review also covered things like online FAQs and knowledge bases in terms of how helpful these were. Was this only done for motherboards? Is it still a practice followed for some reviews? And, if so, why not for video cards? And if is is not being followed anymore (at all), why not?Space
Hacp - Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - link
1stpost4AcesIII - 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.