7800 GS is Nvidia's top AGP performer

NVIDIA didn't forget its AGP supporters. It decided to offer its top range card for the upper market. The card is well known as the Geforce 7800 GS and it is indeed state of the art of AGP performance.

The last Nvidia high end AGP card was based on NV40 core and comes with a Geforce 6800 Ultra name. Those cards are still top performance but the market wanted something faster. That's how Nvidia decided to make its 7800 GS AGP.

We managed to get one of the EVGA cards. Those guys are getting the reputation of the high overclocker and they again managed to make quite a fast card. Its card is clocked to 460 MHz core and 1350 MHz memory and we know it can go even more than that.

We managed to compare it with the Nvidia Geforce 6800 Ultra card clocked at 400 MHz core and 1100 MHz memory. This is what we got.

Benchmarketing;
We used :
Athlon FX 57 2800 MHz
EVGA 7800 GS 460 MHz /1350 MHz
Abit AV8 , K8T800 based motherboard
512 MB Corsair PC 3200 memory
Western Digital 8MB 160GB IDE drive
Akasa AK128 EVO Athlon 64 cooler
Akasa 650W multi rail PSU

Doom 3	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	73.9	66.8	57.9	40.3
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	71.3	61.5	53.1	32.9
Doom 3 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	98.7	43.5	34.2	19.2
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	58.6	43.2	35.3	18.1
Far Cry	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	62.65	61.21	61.37	45.28
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	63.39	59.44	60.76	32.45
Far Cry High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	63.13	58.30	41.30	23.96
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	62.32	50.89	36.52	13.10
Half Life 2	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	62.39	62.14	59.21	51.86
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	61.52	54.16	48.21	38.01
Half Life 2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	63.27	56.70	51.30	37.60
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	58.82	43.32	37.57	25.78
Quake 4	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	96.6	84.3	74..4	51.9
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	83.3	71.0	61.8	37.0
Quake 4 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	81.7	66.4	54.5	36.1
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	71.5	58.7	48.4	26.0
FEAR	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	72	53	37	23
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	64	42	33	17
FEAR High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	34	24	17	10
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	36	25	17	7
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	3DMark 03	Game2	Game3	Game3
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	12902	107.1	85.0	69.8
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	11842	97.3	76.6	64.5
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Vertex Shader	Vertex Shader
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	3719.1	7114.0	37.2	295.9
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	3307.5	6175.7	34.0	182.8
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	3DMark 05	Game1	Game2	Game2
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	6070	28.0	17.0	30.0
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	5097	23.4	14.2	25.5
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Pixel Shader	VS/VS complex
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	4131.5	7243.4	220.3	30.6/43.6
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	3601.9	6298.4	155.2	29.9/36.9
Composite Figures 3Dmark 06	3DMark 06
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	2934
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	2391
SM2.0 Test	Score	GT1	GT2
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	1239	9.571	11.074
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	1002	7.911	8.789
HDR/SM3.0 Test	Score	HDR1	HDR2
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	1140	10.565	12.238
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	870	7.984	9.409
CPU Test	Score	CPU1	CPU2
EVGA 7800 GS 460/1350 MHz	1092	0.344	0.554
Nvidia 6800 ULTRA 400/1100 MHz	1092	0.344	0.554

EVGA is faster in Doom 3, it is marginal but new and faster clocked card is a few frames faster. The situation is the same with FSAA and Aniso on where the both cards are very tight; it is just a frame or two faster or slower.

The cards are tight at Far Cry but at the highest resolution 2048x1536 EVGA 7600GT based card is twelve frames faster. With FSAA and Aniso on the difference is more noticeable where 7800 GS runs five to ten frames faster than the old Geforce 7800 Ultra.

Half Life 2 shows the difference where EVGA 7800 GS runs from eight to thirteen frames faster. Half Life with FSAA 4X and 8X anisotropic shows the real teeth of 7800 GS. The card is significantly faster than the old 6800 Ultra and it runs thirteen frames faster in the last three resolutions.

Quake 4 shows the immediate difference. Even without effects Quake 4 runs thirteen frames faster even at 1024x768. EVGA 7800 GS is roughly fifteen percent faster in every single scenario. The cards gets closer once you turn the effects on but 7800 GS is still six to ten frames faster in each scenario.

FEAR tortures the graphic cards and we like it. 7800 GS is faster in every single resolution and can get up to eleven frames faster. AT 1280x1024 it is twenty five percent faster. The cards are very tight at 4X FSAA and 16X Aniso settings cards are either tight or Nvidia 6800 Ultra can get up to minimal two frames faster, in lower resolutions.

In 3Dmark 03 EVGA 7800 GS almost scores 13000, 12902 to be precise. Geforce 6800 Ultra scores 11842. In 3Dmark05 7800 GS scores 6070 while the older 6800 Ultra card scores 5097. In 3Dmark06 7800 GS is 600 points faster.

Conclusion
EVGA did a good job, It made a very fast AGP based cards, probably the fastest AGP based cards around. It is definitely the fastest one that we tested so far and it will bring some new light to AGP supporters.

It is questionable how long will people want the high end but it will last for some time. Transition to new socket requires a new motherboard possibly the memory and the PCIe graphic card so will keep some people for a while until it gets more accordable.

Till then you can enjoy the extreme AGP performance of the EVGA 7800 GS card. This probably won't be Nvidia's last and fastest AGP as there is still some space for improvement and there can always bridge all of the chips they have.

Tested and reviewed by Sanjin Rados and Fuad Abazovic