Which 7800GS: BFG, XFX Extreme or Gainward? Please advise!

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Griever

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Mar 27, 2006
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Hello!

I've read these forums quite a bit but this is my first post. I was hoping you kind people here could give me some advice...

I'm after a new video card for my system (upgrading from an ancient FX5600) and have been looking at three different 7800GS cards. I am limited to the AGP versions as upgrading to a PCIe motherboard is not an option for me. I need a relatively high performance card that will last me 12-18 months before buying a new system outright. From what I've read Gainward and BFG are well respected whilst XFX are reasonably well thought of. These are the cards I am considering:


BFG GeForce 7800 GS OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP)

- GeForce™ 7800 GS GPU running at 400MHz
- 256MB 1250MHz high speed GDDR3 memory
- Superscalar 16-Pipe GPU Architecture
- High-Speed DDR 256-bit Memory Interface
- Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
- 600 million Vertices/sec setup
- 40.0GB/second memory bandwidth

Approx £210 Sterling.
This card didn't really stand out as having any special features but I know BFG have a great rep and it also gets a lifetime warranty. Any good?


Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS SILENT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP)

- GeForce™ 7800 GT GPU running at 425MHz
- 512MB 1200MHz high speed GDDR3 memory
- Superscalar 20-Pipe GPU Architecture
- SILENT Cooling solution
- High-Speed DDR 256-bit Memory Interface
- Dual 400MHz RAMDACs

Approx £280 Sterling.
I really liked the look of this card. I noted imparticular that is has some sort of special chip on it that allows it to use 20 pipelines with AGP which I haven't seen on any other AGP card. Gainward are good, yes? But is it worth the extra money?


XFX GeForce 7800 GS Extreme Edition 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP)

- GeForce™ 7800 GS GPU running at 440MHz
- 256MB 1300MHz high speed GDDR3 memory
- Superscalar 16-Pipe GPU Architecture
- High-Speed DDR 256-bit Memory Interface
- Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
- 600 million Vertices/sec setup
- 40.0GB/second memory bandwidth

Approx £220 Sterling.
This one seems to offer a lot of power for a small price. However, I am a bit worried that it will suffer from instability. Are XFX to be trusted?


So which should I go for? Are there other cards I should look at? I'm willing to spend quite a bit as long as the card is worth the money. Please bear in mind that I'm in the United Kingdom so my choices may be more limited than US buyers.

Thank you!
 
Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS Is Even Faster Than My OverClocked WinFast 7800GT ... I Saw Some Benchmark , An OverClocked Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS Can Get Over 7800 Point In 3DMark 2005 !!
Dont Even Think About XFX , Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS Has 7800GT Chip With A PCI-E To AGP Bridge ! 20 Pipeline , 512 Mb GDDR3 , OH , I Wish I Had One ... :twisted:
 
Yeah I would go with the gainward card it is quieter than the other gs cards, has 512mb of memory and uses a gt core. Beats all the gs cards in benchmarks and that extra memory and better cooler will help in gaming.

I have the XFX card and it runs well but it gets quite noisey with the small fan I would watercool it but cant find a way to cool the HSI chip, looked for heatsinks but can't find any and don't have the ability to make one myself.

Anyway overclockers.co.uk dont have them in stock yet, but you can pre order them for £239.95 go for it and get one of these babies, would have got one myself if I hadn't just bought my XFX :roll: .
 
Anyway overclockers.co.uk dont have them in stock yet, but you can pre order them for £239.95 go for it and get one of these babies, would have got one myself if I hadn't just bought my XFX :roll: .
Click to expand...

Come on, I all ready said where you can get it from and the cost, did you read my post :evil: ?
 
Ok, thank you very much for your suggestions. I'll probably spend a little more and get the gainward card when it becomes available.
 
Go for the Gainward deffinitely!!! 8)

It's the fastest AGP card in the world atm!

I phoned Overclockers.co.uk on Friday and they told me that only a Thousand of these will ever be made and only be available from them as there brought all of them from Gainward, so these babies are going to be Limited! :)
 
Go for the Gainward deffinitely!!! 8)

It's the fastest AGP card in the world atm!

I phoned Overclockers.co.uk on Friday and they told me that only a Thousand of these will ever be made and only be available from them as there brought all of them from Gainward, so these babies are going to be Limited! :)
Click to expand...

Overclockers always gets limited editions in the uk its the best place for graphics card, tho Im suprised they answered the phone they never did when my friend rang up to find out where his sli 6600s were last year.
 
Go for the Gainward deffinitely!!! 8)

It's the fastest AGP card in the world atm!

I phoned Overclockers.co.uk on Friday and they told me that only a Thousand of these will ever be made and only be available from them as there brought all of them from Gainward, so these babies are going to be Limited! :)
Click to expand...

Overclockers always gets limited editions in the uk its the best place for graphics card, tho Im suprised they answered the phone they never did when my friend rang up to find out where his sli 6600s were last year.

Yeah their customer support service is shocking but they have got a lot of good stuff on their site. It's just not so good when you have to return something. Athough saying that, when I bought my Creative Gigaworks speakers from them (£200+) they sent me an extra one when the first one went "missing" in the post, so I ended up with two sets and sold one to my brother :lol: :twisted: :lol: (It arrived late)
 
Well I bought the XFX GeForce 7800 GS Extreme Edition 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) last week from overclockers and had to return it. Turns out they overclocked it without fully knowing what they were doing. Keeps crashing to a black screen all the time. Lots of people with the issue. Check the XFX forums to see.

So I sent it back and my Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS SILENT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP) arrives later today (Yay!) £50 more the the XFX disaster but reviews are saying it's a mighty fine card and Gainward have a pretty good rep.

The XFX performed well to be honest but the crashes were too much. Ranged from 5 mins to an hour. Even crashed playing Dawn of War which is not really graphically taxing.

So XFX=Boooo Gainward=Yay!
 
I disagree I have the XFX GeForce 7800 GS Extreme Edition 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) from overclockers and I have it overclocked to 480 core : 1350 memory (could go higher but don't want to kill it) and it works a treat if not a bit noisy.

But these cores are basically just 7800 GTX cores that didn't make the mark so there might be some cards out there that aren't that great and have to be returned.

That Bliss card is nice though, I ordered one and going to sell my gs to my brother :twisted: . XFX are a good company; there are gs cards from all companys that have to be returned.
 
I think that European exclusivity of the Gainward "Bliss" 7800GS (7800GT in a flimsy disguise) would perhaps be reason to petition President Bush to threaten Europe, until Gainward agrees to make more of the card, and sell it in the United States and Canada. It's pretty much stupidly fast compared to eVGA's "superclock" 7800GS, and everything else is pathetic compared to those two. (even XFX's best OC cards)
 
Well the Gainward "Bliss" 7800GS arrived and is installed.
It's a pretty big card but went in fine with no probs.

Not really had a chance to push it yet but it was running FEAR and Oblivion with everything maxed out at 1240 x 960 and was running super smooth.

System I'm running it on is..
Abit IC7 MAX3 board
P4 3.2GHz chip
2x Twinmos paired 512MB sticks (1g total)
Enermax noisetaker 550W

No issues on conflictions.
 
Have to go with the Gainward, it's the best AGP out there at the moment and should prolong the life of your system.

I was wondering can Gainward do the same with the 7900GT core and that same bridge to convert PCIe to AGP? Now that would be some animal if it's possible!
 
Well the Gainward "Bliss" 7800GS arrived and is installed.
It's a pretty big card but went in fine with no probs.

Not really had a chance to push it yet but it was running FEAR and Oblivion with everything maxed out at 1240 x 960 and was running super smooth.

System I'm running it on is..
Abit IC7 MAX3 board
P4 3.2GHz chip
2x Twinmos paired 512MB sticks (1g total)
Enermax noisetaker 550W

No issues on conflictions.
Click to expand...

Hi,
Just wondered how quiet this card is? Do you have anything to compare it to? Thinking of buying one and if it's alot quiete rthan the other 7800GS cards I might be tempted.
Thanks for any info,
Danny.
 
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