BFG Tech GeForce 7800 GS OC AGP

Put it this way:

I've got a Socket A system, Abit NF7-S, Antec 480w PSU, XP-M 2500+, and some Corsair 3200 XL (one gigabyte of). Oh and a GF2 after my 6800GT died

Besides the memory, I'd have to replace all that *and* buy a new graphics card. So that'd be £200+ for something 7xxx-class, plus a high-end board, an s939 chip, and a new PSU.

I realise that I could cut corners, but that's not how I want to build the machine that I will use day-in, day-out.

There is nothing WRONG with my system, bar the GF2 sat inside currently. When I had a 6800GT, it was complete and I was happy with the performance. The CPU OC's well (2.4GHz, limited by the board and its bloody voltage fluctuation) and I can play Q4/FEAR fine.

So upgrading the GFX card seems the best route, particularly if it is a 7800. Whilst keeping in the Socket A/AGP line of things doesn't seem a good idea to some, that doesn't mean it's the best idea for others.

Also .. The new A64 chip/socket is all around the corner! I don't think I'd bother upgrading from an out-dated platform to one that's soon to be out-dated. I mean, where's the sense in that? I'd rather do this now (a cheap route, compared) and then build a much newer system down the line.

I love having the best stuff, but I'd rather wait for the next gen now.

 

save your money and get another 6800gt if you want to upgrade. cost/performance of the 7800gs sucks.
I too thought about waiting for AMD's next gen socket and cpu. truth is that where I would buy into that socket would be just slighly better than where I am now. cost of the new tech would be more $$$ per performance gained. DDR is still holding its own, especialy when you get the faster stuff and OC your fsb.

 

Ok, find me one (in the UK).

I couldn't when I was searching for a replacement. OcUK gave me a refund (well, almost) because THEY couldn't source one to replace mine with.

 

That's exactly what I have. Now all I need is another gig of RAM and the 7800GS

 

Two words: dual core.

Games are becoming threaded, and tons of other apps already are. Not to mention general usability increases tenfold.

Price points were interesting though, in fact for the ~$70 (40GBP, though I think the difference is less over here), I'd consider the new board worth it. I do wonder why DDR1 ram was used to represent DDR2 in the pic of the intel parts, though

 

Man, in China, Japan, mexico, (in fact all countries poorer than western ones) use AGP based systems and are still buying AGP mobo's. Most of the comp's in the world are AGP.

Do you know of the millions of computers in sweaty crowded internet cafe's with dirt floors and bathrooms that resemble open septic tanks>? I do. It doesn't make sense to the people who run those shops to buy completly new systems to upgrade. They don't have the funds to upgrade every time "the man" says so.

Like me, I have a celeron 478 D 2.4 ghz and a 462 athlon XP 3200. Both with HDD's, soundcards, 9800pro's, cool cases and dvd roms. I don't want to sell them!

Make the best of what you have before moving forward!

I have to say that the price is ridiculous (since you can buy a 6800GT for almost the same price), but this card did JUST come out. AGP owner's are getting overcharged because of of SLI and Crossfire, the exact same cards for PCI express cost a lot less than for AGP. And AGP sales are still (probably) way ahead of PCI-E.

 

I've just gone PCI-E to a Pixelview 7800GT and Abit AN8 SLI mobo, from my 6800LE and Epox agp setup. Even if i hadn't i wouldn't have spent my money on one of these cards as they must be significantly slower than a stock 7800GT considering the lower number of pipelines and the slower clocks. I'm another person who would like to see a comparison with a 6800GT and/or ultra to see what the actual gains are from this card, as they have the same pipe config, and similar clocks, would show the real benefits of the new architecture.

 

No dual DVI???what were they thinking

 

Upgrading the whole system dosent appear practical to me right now, 939 has about 6 months more of being a worthwile upgrade. I plan on building a new system no sooner than october, more likely about this time next year, and to move to 939 now and get 2 7800gt's when the 7900's and the new socket are closer to release dosent make sense, or at least to me.

I have a perfectly fine system, if the video card isnt considered, that can play anything I want it to. I agree with firehed that agp and 754 are older but they shouldnt just be abandoned, it makes sense that one last card come out with the new features and it will satisfy most of us agp people untill upgrade time.

 

i too would have liked to seen comparisons on the BFG 6800GT OC AGP card, as that is what i have now. im not spending lots of money on it, already planning an upgrade to conroe later this year with pcie graphics, but maybe i could find a real good deal on it, and sell the card i have. which is doubtful, id like a 7800GTX anyway, if they release that, id be awestruck.

i too wonder why no dual dvi. also my artic cooler wont fit. booooooo.

im sure ill sell them at work, if we ever get them in stock.

 

just a note that there hasnt been a GS card that had dual DVI, not meant totally for the power user maybe?

 

Unfortunately, we don't have any AGP GeForce 6800-series cards.

 

I'm pretty sure that im not unique here.

I Have an i875p Bases system, 3ghz, gig of ram, bunch of drives, and a
9800pro. This system is more than capable, and handles everything thrown at it. Up until a few months ago that is.

This Christmas, I settled for COD2 in DX7 mode, which im sure resulted in me missing out on a **** load of visual goodies. Quake 4 is running at 1024 in medium, and BF2 is also on 1024 at medium.

What i'd really like to see, although i know it's unlikely, is a comparison between an older setup like mine, an AGP setup with this card, and an equivalent PCI express system, just to see what performance i could expect, and what im missing by not upgrading to to a PCIE based system.

With a setup like mine, upgrading obviously requires new CPU, GFX, MOBO and RAM. High end parts will likely set me back a grand, which means effectively im buying an entire new system. At the moment i dont know if its justified, just to be able to play new games at high details.

 

Probably not very relevant but...

As a matter of fact, there were (are?) some Socket 775 boards with AGP. I had a P4 with an ASUS P4P800 (IIRC) wich was 775 + AGP. And you can get this one:
http://es.asus.com/products3.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=26&slname=Intel 865PE today wich is too 775 + AGP.

I'm sure there'll be others...

So there are Intel users that can upgrade to PCI-E with just a motherboard change.

greetings

 

Surely there are always other choises, but I think its safe to say that these boards aren't exactly the most popular choices for owners of a s775 P4. You're right but how many are there that use these....5? =]

And also, as far as I know, there aren't any s487 boards with pci-e either.

 

I know it sounds kinda snobbish Mr Burns, but we just don't have the right gear to do a comparison like that. Of course, we would have loved to be able to bench against 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro - some of the most popular cards out there - but the reality is that we no longer have cards like that.

PCI-Express has been out for 18 months or more now so at some point, we dropped all our AGP test gear. Every new card was PCI-E so it made perfect sense. Until now.

Apparently loads of publications really struggled to source appropriate hardware to write about the 7800 GS AGP. In fact, our stock AGP motherboard died last week during setup for this article, so we had to borrow another AGP system just to run the benchmarks.

If loads of people are desperate to see 9800 Pro vs 7800 GS AGP, we'll see what we can do.

 

I'll save you the trouble. The 9800Pro will get pwned

 

How about this...

If you had $300 for a new video card with a current socket 939 AGP system, WHY would you buy a new motherboard for at least $70 and then get a crappier PCIe graphics card???

Your going to spend an extra $70 on the new motherboard just so you can say "look at me I'm PCIe , I'm ready for the FUTURE!" and your going to take apart the entire PC for the same reason?

So not only do you have a new mobo that does nothing new except PCIe instead of AGP (PCIe1x useless, integrated audio will be the same, SATA-2 is only for higher end board etc) but your graphics card would have to be a 6800 GS instead of a better performance 7800 GS just because you listened to the PCIe noobs out there that think its the greatest thing since sliced bread. Or any other cards of the same price.

Yea and when PCIe2 comes out, I'll be laughing in these same peoples faces who have to upgrade their mobo just for that so they can stay bleeding edge.


As far as your review, practically every other site has an X850 XT PE ahead of the 7800 GS, even when overclocked, and dont forget that an X850 XT PE can also be OCed, but not out of ther box. Not only did you guys only use an X850 XT, but an FX-51 socket 940 test system with registered memory, what the heck happened?

 

ah but you are WRONG!
us PCIe noobs can SLI! when our 6800gs/gt/7800gt isnt cutting it any more we can buy another one and get up to 1.8x the performance!! and we didnt have to buy a new shiny expensive card to do it! thats the genious of buying an sli ready mobo and getting a nice cpu now cheaper upgrade!