Geforce 7800GT or...

[vikingblade]

Originally posted by: buck
I started out with issues that got resolved. I would say it would depend on what you play. So far all i saw is that you want to play far cry. I was able to play far cry great with my x800xl, it looked amazing and the graphics were great for me. I ended up getting a 7800gt for newer games.

*edit*
Ohh ya, no artifacts and no bios flash.

No, not just far cry. i only mentioned it because ive read about conflicts with it and the 7800gt. im interested in every new shooter... hl2, doom 3, fear, quake 4 etc... im looking for the best overall performance... fastest/quality graphics i can get for $400. something that will be able to run the next gen games very well for at least another year. however, i dont wanna have to screw with the card... like i said, install-update driver-play.

 

[drifter106]

The one thing that struck me was the fact that evga support was there to help... didn't have a bunch of BS to go thru and the situation appears to be taken care of...

I will be building another puter this fall and was up in the air about which card to get...I am running BFG 6800 ultra on a AGP board. Will go with the evga 7800gt if not the gtx...

 

[imported_Amuro]

Originally posted by: vikingblade
My monitor is the viewsonic p225fb. i believe i can easily go 1600x1200 and higher. its a crt but big and high quality.

ive read many times that the 7800gt may be overkill but the fps stats ive seen at 1600x1200 w/aa/af turned up dont seem overkill to me. im looking for the fastest, best looking gaming experience i can get with a video card under $400. not good enough or ok if i turn down aa/af. if im gonna spend this much on a card, i hope it can handle all the newest games very, very well.

so... the newest nvidia drivers have solved most of the initial problems?

any word on the far cry/7800gt problem?

Yes, you're right. It's only overkill when playing older/current games. For upcoming games like FEAR, CO2, Quake 4, etc, you need a 7800GT or GTX if you wanna run them at max setting with decent framerate, even at 1280x1024.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Im getting ready to pull the trigger on a new gaming pc. obviously the graphics card is a very important decision. My price limit is $400 or under.

Wait two days for the R520 launch. It should have an across the board pricing impact(how much depends on availability) and you may find that you can score a bit more hardware for your dollar whatever you decide to go with.

 

[compgeek89]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

Im getting ready to pull the trigger on a new gaming pc. obviously the graphics card is a very important decision. My price limit is $400 or under.

Wait two days for the R520 launch. It should have an across the board pricing impact(how much depends on availability) and you may find that you can score a bit more hardware for your dollar whatever you decide to go with.

Good point even if you dont buy an r520

 

[vikingblade]

Good idea, but Is the r520 really due out in a of couple days? any links to where i can read about it and the launch date. thanks a bunch. i was thinking it was getting delayed.

 

[lifeguard1999]

Wait until you see the R520 benchmarks. If they are favorable, and if the R520 has no availability issues, then you are likely to see prices drop. I love competition!

 

[krimsal]

The artifacting was only on the eVGA cards, their BIOS screwed up everything (geometric core) I now am able to play after a easy bios flash and no artifacts. Other then that, you can go BFG and they have had no problems. That is the route I would go...

 

[CraigRT]

I have a 7800GT.

I love it.. zero problems, good improvements in OCing, still using stock cooler.

completely stable so far, had it a few weeks and yet to have a single lockup/crash, and doubt I ever will.

Recommend 7800GT!

 

[vikingblade]

Originally posted by: krimsal
The artifacting was only on the eVGA cards, their BIOS screwed up everything (geometric core) I now am able to play after a easy bios flash and no artifacts. Other then that, you can go BFG and they have had no problems. That is the route I would go...

i was wondering about that... so, evga is the only brand giving trouble with artifacts? i guess shimmering and the blocky shadow issues are present in all 7800's, but artifacts were an evga issue.

can anyone confirm fer sure... any artifact issues out there with a bfg etc...

id just get an evga and flash the bios but id hate to mess with a brand new $400 card.

 

[vikingblade]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
I have a 7800GT.

I love it.. zero problems, good improvements in OCing, still using stock cooler.

completely stable so far, had it a few weeks and yet to have a single lockup/crash, and doubt I ever will.

Recommend 7800GT!

what brand 7800gt do you have craig

 

[Dannyevilcat]

I haven't experienced any artifacts yet with my eVGA 7800GT, and it's still using the original BIOS. The only panic I had was with a glitch in the second part of 3DMark05 which I found out was caused by a beta driver.

 

[vikingblade]

i find it really strange that many 7800 owners have trouble, and some dont. i dont know enough about the tech end of things, so i haveno clue. but it seems to make sense that it couldnt just be a driver/bios issue if some cards are affected and others are not. its gotta be hardware related in some way...

 

[rahzel]

I have an EVGA 7800 GT and i needed to flash the BIOS because i was getting artifacts. a lot of people had the same problem and it was because of the 40mhz geometric delta clock (basically increases the GPU by 40mhz while running 3D apps) so the GPU is actually running at 486mhz. ALL the other 7800 GT's have the geometric clock set to 0. The only thing the BIOS update does is remove the geometric clock.

the reason why some people with EVGA 7800 GT's don't have this problem is because their cards can handle the GPU at 486mhz while the rest of us unlucky guys cant. I know someone who has his card at 480 or 485 (cant remember) WITH the geometric clock and his is running fine. Mine cant even get past 470/1.15 without artifacts =[.

the EVGA 7800 GT has the highest factory OC out of all of the 7800 GT's (except the EVGA 7800 GT CO) even without the geometric clock.

EVGA - 445/1070
BFG - 425/1050
XFX - 450/1050
Leadtek - 450/1050

20mhz higher on the memory would outperform 5mhz higher on the GPU i would think.

if you have a floppy drive, flashing is easy. there is a way to flash if you dont have a floppy but i just temporarily installed a floppy drive to flash my card so i cant tell you how to do it, but there are instructions on the download page on the EVGA site.

 

[hans030390]

Get the best card you can for your money. If you can spend $400, get a 7800gt. It's the best card for the price. As of now I wouldnt consider getting an x800 card because of their lack of Shader model 3 support...but, thats my opinion, but you should at least consider if it's important to you or not.

 

[vikingblade]

THNX FOR THE INFO. so its the geometric clock that was the problem... i was thinking it was due to overclocking or overheating issues.

if the bios flash solves the artifact problem, the evga 7800 gt co is looking pretty awesome.

 

[Sentry2]

Yes, get the evga 7800GT CO and be done with it. You won't regret it.

 

[Rommels]

I have the evga 7800gt and haven't had a single problem yet.
I just installed, installed the drivers ont he cd, and played.
Runs at about 60C under load with stock cooler

 

[tymeks]

I have the EVGA 7800GT.

I have had no problems out of the box. I just updated the drivers and never looked back.

 

[rahzel]

heat doesnt really have anything to do with it. My GPU never went past 59c, but i was getting artifacts (only in HL2/source and BF2).

you guys are just lucky your cards can handle 486mhz + on the GPU.

 

[vikingblade]

rahzel..what did you do... flash the bios? did it solve the problem.

this is exactly what im concerned about...with my luck, ill get a card w/problems.

does anyone have a bfg card etc... other than evga with artifact trouble?

is this an evga issue or nvidia?

 

[rahzel]

yup.

my card is a lemon... i cant even get mine past 470mhz on the GPU (hot weather cant even get it past 460mhz). Atleast my memory can do 1200mhz +. Scored 7750 at 460/1200 with a venice at 2.58ghz and 4x512mb ocz platinum rev2 pc3200 memory 1:1 2.5-3-3-7 2T.

 

[vikingblade]

rahzel...are you still getting artifacts even after you updated your bios to the newer one available on evga site?

why dont you just RMA it where you bought it and get another one?

 

[rahzel]

yes the BIOS fixed my problem.

i did RMA my card before i knew about the BIOS update (before EVGA released the BIOS update) and the store i bought it from said they couldnt see any artifacts. After i read that EVGA was going to release a BIOS update to fix this problem, i told the store to send the card back. Now that i know what the new BIOS did, i kind of wish i did RMA my card again to get a new one because maybe i might get a card that overclocked a little better. I think i had a legitimate reason to get my card replaced.

 

[vikingblade]

i would say so... after all that crap, you just ended up with the same card. which is now slower than originally specd when you purchased. where did you buy it. i didnt know you had to prove a problem when returning a video card for an exchange. newegg says 30 day return. if i get a evga 7800gt and it artifacts, i will just return and expect a new one, no bull. this is 400 bucks here.