6x GS or 7x GS - worth the extra $$?

[g00n]

If Nvidia does a paper launch of the 7900 in march im hoping this could bring the prices of all the 6x/7x cards down a little. Im sick of waiting. It seems like if you wait you end up waiting forever because you cant win. And as soon as you get fed up and purchase you see it fall in price not long after. I think its BS this card is $300 when you can get a 7800 GT That performs better for the same or LESS. Its annoying to say the least. This card should have hit with a $250 price tag. At this price its a no brainer. It also doesnt erode sales of the higher end PCIe line because nodoby with a more current system is going to get it. Nvidia should have taken this as an opportunity to give loyal customers a little more bang for their buck in a dying segment. It's not like making the 7800 GS a good deal was going to put a dent in PCIe or flasgship Nvidia card sales. It's horseshit.

$50-100 is a lot for a broke college student. The question is how long do I have to wait....

 

[NoStateofMind]

A report about a month ago stated there would be 2 versions of the 7800GS. Version 100 and 200. What happened to that? Specs?

 

[g00n]

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[Captante]

If you really need to buy right now, then I'd go with the 6800... if you can hold off a couple months then the 7800 should drop to a more reasonable price point... I have a 6800GT AGP system that I'm fixing to upgrade soon myself & I wouldn't even conside the 7800 ATM.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: g00n
Is paying an extra $100-150 for the 7x GS Worth it? I just want to play my fav games (bf2, q4, splinter cell, cs:s) at decent frames.

Nope. Heck I was playing BF2 and Q4 on an FX5900XT (the lowest end 5900, don't have the other two games). I installed the games and never once looked into the graphics settings, but just jumped right into multiplayer and had some fun. Guess what? The games looked just fine (better than older versions of same game) and played fine. I was at a LAN party last December where the guy next to me kept fiddling with driver and game settings, and then running timedemos and complaining "OMG that looks like crap but set any higher and it lags." Dude was running 6800GT SLI or something. WTF? I just ignored him and was happy fragging while he was unhappy and not playing.

People obsess over the wrong things. Stacy Kiebler is to be obsessed over. Being able to run at three times higher framerates than my eyes can see at a resolution that my 19" LCD monitor can't handle with anti-aliasing settings that my subconscious doesn't even register while in a heated deathmatch is not something I would ever obsess about.

Originally posted by: rmed64
Hell I score more on 3DMark 2k5 and 2k6 with my overclocked 6800GS than the reference 7800GS speeds. When also oced, the 7800GS is faster, no denying it. But $100+ faster?? Hell no.

Seconded. The highest end of anything is never a good value. This goes for the AGP 7800GS, the PCIe 7800GTX, the PCIe X1900XTX and any flavor of X850XTPE. One step down from any of those (AGP 6800GS, 7800GT, X1900XT and X850XT) will give you roughly 90% of the performance for 60% of the price.

"If the 7800 GS AGP had 4 more pixel pipes, or cost about $100 less dollars, we might be able to look you in the eye and say, ?Go for it.? --HardOCP

That's it in a nutshell. People in another thread here were saying that the Anandtech review of this card was the first lousy AT review in a while. BS! Why are so many of the higher profile sites saying the same thing? YES - it is the fastest Nvidia AGP card. NO - it does not represent a good value. Isn't it refreshing to see that now and then versus sites that have glowing reviews of everything? Do people think that all these sites - among the best - are all lying?

Originally posted by: g00n
How long do you think it will be until 7800 GS starts coming down in price. $300 seems silly since you can get a GT for not much more.

Check Hot Deals... I've seen the 7800GT for $265 after a $20 or so rebate. $270 after a small rebate is getting pretty common. I think some people are reporting cheapest AGP 7800GS card to be $307. $40 more for less performance... dunno, that $40 can go towards a PCIe motherboard (along with selling your old one) if you already have socket 754/939/775. If you have socket A/478 (as you do, and so do I with my gaming rig P4 2.53@3.33GHz), then perhaps look at the 6800GS Potential for unlocking and overclocking will give this ~$200 card tremendous value.

 

[g00n]

Great reply, thanks. It's hard to validate the price for so little performance gain.

And now for a stupid question. Does the 7x GS offer a longer lifespan w/ DX10 or Vista compatibility issues? I probably wont do a full system upgrade for a while. I'm a poor college student. Im trying to squeeze as much life out of this rig as I can but I dont want to get ripped off.

 

[Extelleron]

It's this simple:

If you are going to unlock the 6800GS AGP to 16p/6v, and overclock it a bit (maybe to around 420-430 on the core and 1100+ on the memory) then get the 6800GS. If you're NOT, then get the 7800GS. The 7800GS is WAY faster than the 6800GS when its 12p/5v and 350/1000, especially if you have the eVGA one which ic OC @ 460/1350. But once you overclock that 6800GS and unlock to 16p/6v, you'll get performance that is close to the 7800GS. There's always a chance it wont unlock, however.

 

[g00n]

Originally posted by: Extelleron
It's this simple:

If you are going to unlock the 6800GS AGP to 16p/6v, and overclock it a bit (maybe to around 420-430 on the core and 1100+ on the memory) then get the 6800GS. If you're NOT, then get the 7800GS. The 7800GS is WAY faster than the 6800GS when its 12p/5v and 350/1000, especially if you have the eVGA one which ic OC @ 460/1350. But once you overclock that 6800GS and unlock to 16p/6v, you'll get performance that is close to the 7800GS. There's always a chance it wont unlock, however.

Good point, an OC'd unlocked 6800GS is very close.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130264

This one comes 400/1100. Not sure if I would get artifacts when unlocking the pipes but it probably has a better chance than others. Still, this card is $225. It makes the 7800GS that much closer in price (~$75). I'm about to just say screw it and get the best AGP card I can since it's going to have to last me as long as possible....

 

[g00n]

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[Ephemeral]

I bought a BFG 7800GS OC to put into my older machine (socket 754 3400+). Previously I had a 6800GT at 410/1150 installed. It made a pretty big difference in all of the games I played on it (F.E.A.R, Farcry, HL2, Q4, D3, BF2). The max frames aren't that much higher, just like most benchmarks will point out. The minimum frames however, went up a good amount, which makes for a much smoother gaming experience IMO. I was able to keep or still exceed the performance of my old card using 4xAA and 8xAF, where before I would have 0xAA and 4-8xAF.

Right off the bat I clocked it to 470/1380 and started to play some games, everything ran free of artifacts except for F.E.A.R. I bumped it down to 466/1380 and it has been running solid in everything for about a week now (44c idle 50-55c under load). It will probably go higher with a little more voltage and an aftermarket HSF.

It has the feature set of the 7x series, it is a single slot solution, and it runs cooler. It is definately a superior card to the 6x series and I don't think it deserves the bad rep it has been getting, despite its high introductory price. If you are planning on staying with AGP, or have a machine you still use that is AGP and needs a boost, you can't go wrong with it.

But like most people have said already, it depends on whether or not the advantages are worth $100 to you.