Final Words
With the Radeon X850 XTPE holding the top spot on AGP hardware up until now, NVIDIA hasn't had a solid high performance AGP showing since the power hungry 6800 Ultra. With prices on the aging, high-end 6 series parts absurdly high, it is quite nice to see an AGP 7 series part show up with good performance, lower power requirements, better features and a friendlier price tag, at about $300. Even though the X850 XTPE is generally faster than the new NVIDIA part, the price tag is a little steeper as well, at about $400. This leaves ATI holding onto a claim for the fastest AGP solution out there, but the feature set of the 7 series part is a bit more refined than that of the venerable X850.
Along with high performance (for an AGP system), the 7800 GS brings a more efficient architecture to the platform. With the math revisions and added features of the 7 series, per clock and per watt performance is increased over the 6 series parts. Transparency AA might not be very performance-friendly on newer games, but older titles and CPU limited games will certainly benefit from enabling it. Other features, like SM3.0, are also an advantage, as most of the ATI AGP hardware still doesn't support this. It remains to be seen what ATI will do in response to this move by NVIDIA, but the fact that there are AGP versions of the X1600 available indicates that ATI hasn't completely pulled out of the platform yet.
We aren't quite sure how to call the availability aspect of this launch quite yet, and we await your input on the subject. Certainly, the ideal situation is for everything to happen at exactly the same time, around the world for every launch, but there are limits to what is possible. On the one hand, NVIDIA has arranged for their launch to include hardware in brick and mortar rather than just online, but on the other hand, we can't buy it today. Please let us know what is important to you, as I'm sure NVIDIA are interested as well.
For now, we can certainly conclude that the 7800 GS is a worthy AGP part. We will take a further look into performance with the BFG and EVGA versions of the 7800 GS if there is any interest.
With the Radeon X850 XTPE holding the top spot on AGP hardware up until now, NVIDIA hasn't had a solid high performance AGP showing since the power hungry 6800 Ultra. With prices on the aging, high-end 6 series parts absurdly high, it is quite nice to see an AGP 7 series part show up with good performance, lower power requirements, better features and a friendlier price tag, at about $300. Even though the X850 XTPE is generally faster than the new NVIDIA part, the price tag is a little steeper as well, at about $400. This leaves ATI holding onto a claim for the fastest AGP solution out there, but the feature set of the 7 series part is a bit more refined than that of the venerable X850.
Along with high performance (for an AGP system), the 7800 GS brings a more efficient architecture to the platform. With the math revisions and added features of the 7 series, per clock and per watt performance is increased over the 6 series parts. Transparency AA might not be very performance-friendly on newer games, but older titles and CPU limited games will certainly benefit from enabling it. Other features, like SM3.0, are also an advantage, as most of the ATI AGP hardware still doesn't support this. It remains to be seen what ATI will do in response to this move by NVIDIA, but the fact that there are AGP versions of the X1600 available indicates that ATI hasn't completely pulled out of the platform yet.
We aren't quite sure how to call the availability aspect of this launch quite yet, and we await your input on the subject. Certainly, the ideal situation is for everything to happen at exactly the same time, around the world for every launch, but there are limits to what is possible. On the one hand, NVIDIA has arranged for their launch to include hardware in brick and mortar rather than just online, but on the other hand, we can't buy it today. Please let us know what is important to you, as I'm sure NVIDIA are interested as well.
For now, we can certainly conclude that the 7800 GS is a worthy AGP part. We will take a further look into performance with the BFG and EVGA versions of the 7800 GS if there is any interest.
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spinportal - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
Whats very strange here is that looking around on another ANAND article, for FEAR 16x12 4xAA (this vs. newer article):the X1900XTX got 51 fps vs. 43 (wow, ATi got downgraded in the future? hmm)
the 7800GTX512 got 31 vs. 40 (hmm it later got a boost? odd)
the 7800GT got 22 vs. 28 (wow, nVidia keeps getting much better all of a sudden)
the 7800GS got 13 vs. 27 (NOW THATS IMPRESSIVE!)
Seems this article was garbage as it really downplays nvidia h/w and is on the verge of craptastic fantasy for ATi.
boa49 - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
There is definitely interest!!!!!!!
yacoub - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
For those who wanted a review that shows how the stock-overclocked 7800GS compares both to a stock-clocked 7800GS and all the other AGP cards out there, check out this review:http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evga_e-geforce...">http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evg...00_gs_co...
Very comprehensive and what I think a lot of us were looking for.
araczynski - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
thanks, that's EXACTLY what i was after.i haven't been to firingsquad in ages, i guess i better start going there more often now.
Scarceas - Saturday, February 4, 2006 - link
I disagree with those who said it was pointless to compare to the x850xtpe. This let's me know which card I can top out the AGP slot with.I would have liked this a bit better if the benchmark results included something using the Source engine.
Why no overclocking results? Heck, we didn't really even get to see mfgr defaults... I'd like to see how 460 MHz scales.
araczynski - Friday, February 3, 2006 - link
comparing a middle of the line card against high end cards is pointless and quite frankly a waste of time.this card is meant for those of us that are running middle of the line systems and aren't quite ready to put down the change to scrap the whole system.
i.e. compare this to the 6800 agp line (and ati's equivalent if you want).
AND, use a realistic processor for this graphics card range, i.e. intel 2.4's to 3.2's (and AMD's equivalents).
haven't been visiting as much lately and i'm seeing the quality going down...give me a reason to come back guys.
jzander - Friday, February 3, 2006 - link
I can not stand Best Buy, and the fact that Nvidia is getting into 'bed' with them brings them down a notch in my book. As for the card, does not look like a reason to upgrade from my 6800 GT AGP, card.Alphafox78 - Friday, February 3, 2006 - link
50+ people have complained and the article STILL hasnt been updated with more cards! what gives?!stephenbrooks - Friday, February 3, 2006 - link
--[50+ people have complained and the article STILL hasnt been updated with more cards! what gives?!]--Hey, I guess if you offered them some money they might do it. :)
puffpio - Friday, February 3, 2006 - link
It's only been a day...if they do update it, it may take a few daysI think the general concensus is
1) Add some benches of AGP cards to show it's true competitors as well as give an indication of what end AGP users currently have
2) Overclock the 7800GS and show that benchmark
3) Discuss the potential of softmodding the card, unlocking pixel pipelines, shader units, ROPs