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NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS For AGP Launched
Spinnerbait writes "Although new system sales with AGP slots are almost non-existent these days
in the consumer desktop space, there is a still a fair aftermarket demand for
upgrades in the retail area where AGP enabled motherboards abound. Although PCI
Express is the mainstay interface for most new cards from graphics giants like
NVIDIA and ATI,
NVIDIA unwrapped a fairly high end card dubbed the
GeForce 7800 GS, in an AGP variant. 16 pixel shaders engines and DX9
SM3.0 graphics compliant hardware in the latest GPU architecture from NVIDIA now
available in AGP."
You know, an actual competing product instead of an older product from the same company...
Say, like, the one at Anandtech.
Amazing how different a part can come across in two different review/tests... I mean, Anand still shows it worthy, on the strength of being a little cheaper than the x850, but it is in perspective. The review linked makes it look like an AGP renaissance...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
You can probably check for Linux/BSD/Solaris drivers from Nvidia's website. The drivers you can find here: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
Currently they only have Windows XP/2000 drivers for it, but I would imagine that the Linux etc. drivers will be available soon.
My sig is permanently on strike.
You're assuming only three and four year old machines have AGP slots?
For a great number of reasons my most recent PC ended up with an AGP slot, it's less than 12 months old. This kind of card may just be a worth addition.
Hell, out of a dozen or so associates I can only name one that has a PCIE graphics setup.
Anandtech
Techreport
Neoseeker
It's an improvement over AGP in many ways. PCI-E is a fast bi-directional point-to-point bus, so that enables neat things like multi-card SLI (multiple graphics cards rendering different parts of the same image for increased performance; they can talk to each other over the bus without having to go through the chipset first). Also, from what I understand, PCI-E is much easier to implement electrically than parallel protocols like AGP & PCI; therefore, it's cheaper for both card makers and motherboard makers to implement. Finally, the PCI-E graphics card slot can deliver a good deal more wattage through the connector than AGP can.
Welcome to 2 years ago. The Athlon 64 is the best desktop chip available.
But these days desktops are only about 50% of the market, and AMD really has nothing to compete with in the portable market. It's starting to shape up as AMD = desktops and servers; Intel = compact desktops (iMac) and laptops.
The only reason Intel has a presence in the desktop market is Dell. Just wait until Dell gives in; AMD is currently building their new corporate HQ in Austin about 10 miles down the freeway from Dell's in Round Rock (RR is a suburb of Austin.) It's only a matter of time.
Basically this is a ho-hum card at a high price. You can get a PCIe 7800GT + Motherboard bundle from vendors like EVGA for around $350. The 7800GT is a 20 pipeline / 16 ROP card, while the 7800 GS is a 16/8. Its no contest which is faster. You can use your old DDR and CPU with the new MB making it a no brainer to avoid the 7800GS.
I may be mistaken, but those combo deals from EVGA are for Socket 939 Athlon 64 systems. If you don't have a Socket 939 CPU already, then you have to buy a new CPU, which adds about $200 to your price.
Personally, I have been weighing a similar decision for some time. I have a Socket 754 Athlon 64 and an old 9700 AGP card. I have been eyeing the 6800GS AGP as an upgrade, but it costs around $230 while the PCI-E version can be had for about $195. After looking around, I found that you could get a decent Gigabyte-brand S754 PCI-E mainboard for around $65. So I could spend $230 on an AGP card that I won't be able to use if I ever want to upgrade my CPU/Mainboard, or I could spent $260 for a PCI-E version of that card and a PCI-E mainboard for my current CPU. Or a 7800GT for $295 and a PCI-E S754 mainboard for $65 comes out to roughly the price of the 7800GS. Those seem like no-brainers to me, but only because I have a CPU that could be re-used. If you have a socket A or socket 478 CPU, you wouldn't have those options.