Thanks to everyone who have posted their comments about the previous mini-review on Anandtech Forums, Hard Forums, NVNews Forums, as well as other hardware forums. After posting the initial review, I have done a few more performance tests of the 7800 GS AGP running against the Radeon X850 XT on some more games. I will be including the results of the tests later in this addendum, which should offer a bit more conclusive data about the GeForce 7800 GS AGP’s performance overall. I have also taken some more pictures of the card, as requested by some.
GeForce 7800 GS 256 MB AGP Pictures:
The GeForce 7800 GS 256 MB AGP, with the fan/heatsink assembly taken off. The card is equipped with a standard nVIDIA bridge chip, as seen in other PCI-E-to-AGP products.
The G70 core on a GeForce 7800 GS 256 MB AGP card. (Click to view a larger version.)
The backside of the GeForce 7800 GS 256 MB AGP. The other 4 RAM chips of the card are located on the card’s backside, passively cooled with a very thin cover.
More Benchmarks:
The battle isn’t over yet. Here are more benchmarking results of the GeForce 7800 GS AGP running against the Radeon X850 XT in Final Fantasy XI, Far Cry and Valve’s Video Source Test in Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. It should be noted that unlike the previous benchmarks, ATi Catalyst 6.1 was used instead of Catalyst 5.13. The Forceware used with the 7800 GS AGP remains the same.
Final Fantasy XI – Vana’diel Bench 3:
Final Fantasy XI is an MMORPG that was released for PC in North America in 2003. The Vana’diel Bench 3 benchmarking program was used to benchmark the 7800 GS and the Radeon X850 XT.
In testing Final Fantasy XI’s performance in the past, it has been observed that this game is usually bottlenecked by the CPU rather than the graphics card. This seems to be the case in this benchmark, especially when comparing scores with those found here. Even so, the GeForce 7800 GS manages to perform slightly better than the Radeon X850 XT in this benchmark.
Far Cry:
To benchmark Far Cry, I have used some modified Far Cry scripts that were originally found in the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS Preview thread over at NVNews Forums.
Regulator Timedemo: (Benchmark Script)
In terms of average FPS, all cards generally perform very close to one another, except for the GeForce 7800 GS at stock speeds, which performs slightly less less than the rest. The Radeon X850 XT (stock and overclocked) manages to get the highest maximum FPS, but it also has the lowest minimum FPS, compared to the GeForce 7800 GS at both speeds.
Research Timedemo: (Benchmark Script)
In this timedemo, the GeForce 7800 GS (stock) manages to outperform the Radeon X850 XT (stock and overclocked). The overclocked GeForce 7800 GS just flies past everything else here.
Training Timedemo: (Benchmark Script)
The Radeon X850 XT performs a bit better than the GeForce 7800 GS (stock), but when GeForce 7800 GS is overclocked, it manages to obtain the highest maximum FPS. The GeForce 7800 GS at stock speeds ends up performing a little bit less than the rest.
Volcano Timedemo: (Benchmark Script)
In the Volcano timedemo, the Radeon X850 XT performs well here, as it outperforms the stock GeForce 7800 GS. The GeForce 7800 GS has to be overclocked to perform closely to the Radeon X850 XT in this test. Like the previous timedemo, the GeForce 7800 GS at stock speeds is the lowest performer here.
Counter-Strike: Source – Video Stress Test:
It has been noticed in several past benchmarks that ATi cards typically perform well in Valve’s Source engine. This seems to hold true for this test, as the Radeon X850 XT (stock) performs a bit better than the GeForce 7800 GS (stock). The GeForce 7800 GS can only overtake the Radeon X850 XT (stock and overclocked speeds) when overclocked. The GeForce 7800 GS at stock speeds is the lowest performer here.
Even with AA and AF applied, the standings remain the same as the previous test. The GeForce 7800 GS at stock speeds is again the lowest performer.
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast – Video Stress Test:
With this test, it is possible to see how both cards perform when high-dynamic range (HDR) lighting is applied.
The GeForce 7800 GS at stock speeds is a bit faster than the overclocked X850 XT in this test. However, even with a high overclock on the core and memory, the overclocked GeForce 7800 GS only manages to be 1.6 FPS faster than at stock speeds. Perhaps we are seeing an instance where the CPU is the bottleneck? What will happen when AA and AF is applied?
When AA and AF are applied in this test, the Radeon X850 XT’s (stock and overclocked speeds) performance takes a nosedive, running only half as fast as before, while the GeForce 7800 GS (stock and overclocked speeds) take a small performance hit. The GeForce 7800 GS has a clear advantage over the X850 XT in this test.