Vendor Cards: MSI NX7800GTX
by Derek Wilson & Josh Venning on July 24, 2005 10:54 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
The fact that our MSI card was able to overclock more than the EVGA doesn't actually matter. Performance of the two cards at maximum overclock is exactly the same due to NVIDIA's method of handling clock speed controls. With a little less heat and a little more noise, this card stacks up pretty well against our reference, but the EVGA's factory OC gives it a slight advantage going into the final round.What it really boils down to is price, and this changes constantly. Over time, you'll see the lower clocked 7800s selling for less, but since these cards are fairly new on the market, you can find some pretty good deals if you are lucky. The MSI NX7800 GTX is four dollars cheaper at ZipZoomFly than the $539 N538 version of EVGA's 7800 GTX (the version with a 450MHz clock and Battlefield 2). But the real deal (at the time of publication: 7/24/05) is Monarch Computer's sale of the EVGA N538 e-GeForce 7800 GTX for $500 ($507.70 including shipping charges).
Right now, our recommendation all comes down to price. The extra performance of the EVGA part out of the box is well worth another four dollars. But add Battlefield 2 and the lowest price that we've yet seen on a G70 based part to date, those interested should jump on this deal. The price of 7800 GTX cards will fall over time, but with many still selling at 20% more, this is definitely a deal.
We aren't sure how long this deal will last, but, as a general rule, for the same price (or even a couple of dollars more), the higher clocked version of the EVGA 7800s gets our recommendation. Pay attention to the part number here, as the name on the box is the same no matter which version is inside. Eventually, the lower clocked 7800 GTX cards may settle out to a lower price, and at that point, the choice will come down to the cost of an extra few fps and Battlefield 2 or Chronicles of Riddick. Riddick is an absolutely wonderful game (probably the best game based on a movie of all time), but Battlefield 2 is destined to be more popular (especially with those interested in buying a 7800 GTX).
That brings our second 7800 GTX vendor review to a close with the EVGA still on top. Please stay tuned as we continue to update price and performance numbers with more vendors' cards. Next on the list is BFG. We want to bring you the best and most reliable information around, and as more cards come along, we will continue to get a clearer idea of how each of the manufacturers implements the G70, and how they measure up to eachother. Please let us know if there is anything that we can add to this series to help make it the most useful 7800 resource around.
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imaheadcase - Monday, July 25, 2005 - link
I know how to show FPS in bf2, but does it have a in game benchmark?Curious how you benchmark bf2 as I would like to see how some cards compare (or not compare i should say).
Good review
DerekWilson - Monday, July 25, 2005 - link
A lot of people have been asking, so here ya go ... links to our battlefield 2 benchmark demos files.[L]http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/bf2/atfi...[/L]
[L]http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/bf2/atfi...[/L]
There are instructions somewhere on battlefield2.com that describe how to use the demo.cmd file, but you will need to edit this file to set resolutions other than 800x600.
Our data is compiled from the last 1700 frames of our demo run. The many thousand other frames that can result come from the load screen and aren't useful to show performance.
Spacecomber - Monday, August 1, 2005 - link
What version of the game were these made under, Derek? Are they for the unpatched game? I couldn't get the demo to play. It would load the map, then it would crash me to the desktop while it was checking player assets or something to that effect. This was on a version of the game with the 1.02 patch.Space
DerekWilson - Monday, July 25, 2005 - link
by the way, since it's the last 1700 frame, you've got to go into the frametimes csv file and manual calculate an average for the last 1700 lines of the 3rd column (after you've split the columns on ; ) for every test you do. It's kind of a pain, but for people that care, there it is.bob661 - Monday, July 25, 2005 - link
How do you turn on the FPS in BF2? Thanks.Spacecomber - Monday, July 25, 2005 - link
Use the tilde ~ key to access the console and enter this command, "renderer.drawFps 1" (no quotes).You can find these tips and a lot more in the Battlefield Tweak Guide that I mentioned in my first link in the post above.
Space
Spacecomber - Monday, July 25, 2005 - link
You'll need to create (or find one for downloading) a "demo" file which you can then run with the timedemo feature of the demo.cmd script file.A couple of sources for general information on downloading the demo.cmd script,creating demos, converting them to AVIs, and running timedemos.
http://www.tweakguides.com/BF2_6.html">From the BF2 Tweak Guide
http://forum.eagames.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=934">EA UK's BF2 Forum Thread on the BF2 Recorder
And, http://www.overclockers.com.au/article.php?id=3841...">Overclockers.AU article on running BF2 benchmarks (mentioned in the BF2 Tweak Guide.
HTH,
Space
p3r2y - Monday, July 25, 2005 - link
anand has an article about different gpu's in bf2 stupidSea Shadow - Monday, July 25, 2005 - link
Great review, and props for filtering all the random spam.I can't wait to see the BFG review as it will help me decide which 7800 I am going to get.
xsilver - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
congrats to anand to adding the filtersno more dumb "first post" or "in soviet russia" anymore
anyways with regard to the card
why on earth would you not buy the egva card as it comes with BF2 --- its one of the few games that taxes the card -- even if you have the game already - selling it would net you an extra $30 at least
kudos to evga for including a good game