The Card
Every so often, we get a hold of a piece of hardware that looks good, regardless of how it performs. Of course, there are always times when the performance doesn't quite live up to the looks, but this is not one of them. If we were going to recommend a card solely going on looks alone, we'd choose this one. It just looks good, period. Originally, the card was going to be released with a green heat sink, but apparently, EVGA changed their mind at the last minute and made it the black monster instead. We approve of their choice, as it makes the overall appearance of the card a little more dramatic. Don't worry; if you think black is too boring of a color, EVGA will soon be offering this card in three other colors: silver, rose, and green.
We know that with a graphics card - or any computer part for that matter - many serious enthusiasts could care less on how it looks. What really matters is how well it does the job that it was made to do. It's easy to get excited about a piece of hardware that looks as good as it performs. While the EVGA e-GeForce 7800GTX KO may not be the perfect answer to form versus function, we think that it comes pretty close.
Warranty is something that we have not touched on much in the past. We think that this plays a role in card value, especially given EVGA's new policy. We mentioned in the last article that as of June 22, EVGA is offering a lifetime warranty for all of its cards. BFG also offers a warranty, but apparently, EVGA's is different in that it covers any damage to the card as long as it's not physical. So, for instance, if the EVGA card is damaged by trying to overclock it too high, or if lightning fries it because it was not protected by a surge protector, EVGA will replace it free of charge while BFG will not. MSI's warranty is only good for three years, with basically the same conditions as BFG. Depending on the user, three years may be longer than the "lifetime" of the card, but covering all but physical damage is a definite win for EVGA. Aside from power surge, overclock and heat damage, they'll even cover a failed video BIOS flash (we asked). You can find more information about each manufacturer's warranty policy at their respective websites.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
34 Comments
View All Comments
Lineatus - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
I am curious about the effectiveness of the new cooling packaging. I was wondering if you could perform the following test:1) Derate the clock speed to "normal" that is 430 / 1200.
2) Get the temperature profile.
I am wondering if the 7800 KO will run cooler at "normal" speed with the new cooling vs. a "normal" card running at "normal" speed.
Thanks for the time to put up these reviews, appreciated!
Questar - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
"As for the prices, it looks like the old EVGA e-GeForce 7800GTX with Battlefield 2 bundle is back down to about $500. This is good news for those on a budget."WTF? A $500 video card for people on a budget? You have lost touch with your readers.
TrogdorJW - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
Read the next paragraph, Questar.'"If you are on a budget – if we can call any computer part in the $500+ range 'budget'...." Obviously, they recognize that $500 is still a lot of money to pay for a GPU. Considering the performance relative to the 6800U which cost over $500 until June and is (http://labs.anandtech.com/img/plot/1472_182.png">still running $465), $500 for the performance increase the 7800GTX offers is not at all unreasonable. For budget and mid-range shoppers, it's a problem. I don't think they're really considering this card, though.
Windaria - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
I totally preferred the roundups to the trickle...DerekWilson - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
The problem with roundups is that they take time. We still don't have all the cards we would want to include. If we had to wait, it'd still be two to three weeks before we would have anything published on available 7800 GTX cards.As these cards are very expensive, we felt getting as much info out there as soon as possible was important for helping readers make smart choices on how to spend their money. If there's anything we can do to make the series better, let us know.
xtknight - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
This card owns. It's just under twice as quiet as the BFG card and gets an amazing overclock.kalniel - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
Anand are right that something screwy is going on with the internal frequencies - Nvidia themselves said it's a bit hard to define an overall clock speed for this card. What gets me is the relatively large increase in performance with just a 10/25mhz overclock - in most cases it seems as much a difference as going from the original eVGA card (a 40/50mhz clock difference). Don't know if some loop is just catching up in time with this extra increase or what.SpaceRanger - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
Yup.. HardOCP had it right when they said that this thing is just an overpriced 7800 GTX because of an old designed TI4600 heatsink in a metal wrapper..Buying this card is NOT in your best interests..
imaheadcase - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
hardocp and right should not be in same sentance.hardOCP is going the way of tomshardware (yes thats bad), they constantly pick up little things and go on and on and on about it. Like the Phantom console..i mean good lord did we really need to have that dragged out almost every week on front page? Its like they think everyone cares about it..news flash only you do! make a news blurb saying product is lame and move on! You put stuff like that on front page for days like its big news.
Bless RSS feeds, don't even had to visit hardocp anymore, since they just recap all the hardware news cut and pasted from other sites basicly.
Locut0s - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link
The other thing I hate about HardOCP is that it's politicized. Every once in a while you see some right wing opinion of Kyle's about current events. Now I don't care if the reader is left or right but in my opinion politics needs to stay in the forums of a review site and off the front pages.