eVGA e-GeForce 7800GT CO 256MB

Conclusion:

Although the GeForce 7 series family is relatively small at this time, NVIDIA engineers are certainly looking at tapping into the benefits of 90nm manufacturing for its future G7X parts to achieve higher frequencies and ultimately a greater level of performance. eVGA's GeForce 7800GT CO has an MSRP of $449.99 USD but can be found at reputable distributors for as low as $320 USD, which is only a few dollars more than some of its competitors running at the reference frequencies. With the level of performance we have seen today by the 7800GT CO, the card is simply astonishing. Clocked at 470/1100MHz stock, the card comes with abilities right out of the starting gates that can compete with the 7800GTX 256MB on the same playing field. Due to BIOS complexities with CoolBits/NVClock, we were unable to push the G70 even a single MHz higher than its programmed value but when it came to the memory frequency it was adaptable to whatever frequency we threw at it up to 1260MHz while the stable breaking point was about 1230MHz. Even with NVIDIA disabling a pipeline quad (2 x 2 grouping) and one of its vertex pipeline units, thanks in part to the high frequencies achieved by the 7800GT CO, our Linux results between the 7800GT CO and a 7800GTX at reference speeds were nearly identical even when implementing various Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering techniques. Of course, the 6800GT and 6600GT SLI pair was relatively competitive to the GeForce 7 series except when the AA/AF methods were implemented and the benchmark was CPU bound. Looking over our results it is simply too close to call a clear winner between the two contenders as they were battling neck-and-neck but their respective prices do speak for themselves. With the launch of the NVIDIA GeForce 7800GTX 512MB part, the 256MB prices have been slashed marginally where it is no longer difficult to find a 7800GTX 256MB for roughly $450. With it not being difficult to locate the eVGA GeForce 7800GT CO 256-P2-N517-AX for under $350 USD, this G70 part is an excellent choice for extending an SLI setup, creating a multi-GPU setup for the first time, or simply running one in a standalone configuration that can compete with a reference 7800GTX and costs over $100 less. When it came down to the most demanding benchmark scenes, the 7800GT CO delivered frame-rates that simply would not be comparable to the 7800GTX 256MB part if it were not for eVGA's innovative engineering. Moving onto the downfalls with the eVGA part, there is not much to say except the fan on its copper heatsink can be a faint screamer as it does not scale with GPU load. For those on a taunt budget when making their graphics upgrades, the eVGA e-GeForce 7800GT CO 256MB certainly is a wise choice with its competitive level of performance and is certainly a worthy successor to the GeForce 6 series and another win for the green team.