Today we have a featured review from our friends at Overclex. They have taken a closer look at one of the latest AGP video cards from eVGA based on the nVidia 7800GS GPU chip.

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“AGP isn’t dead yet, and that’s good thing”! Even now when the majority of graphics card are sold are based on PCI Express there are still a very large number of people out there with an AGP-only motherboard. I’m using one myself actually, in my Shuttle SB75G2 where I have an AGP Point of View 6800GT plugged in.

To be able to use a graphics card based on PCI Express you have to buy a new motherboard, maybe a new CPU and possibly a new power supply. That makes it quite an expensive upgrade. Luckily there are still some manufactures who haven’t abandoned the AGP architecture completely. nVidia is one of them and with their 7800GS they have introduced their Geforce 7 series to the AGP masses.

The core of the Geforce 7 series, the G70, was designed as a native PCI Express chip, but thanks to an additional bit of electronics the PCI Express signal is translated to AGP and vice-versa. Unfortunately this method of making the card backwards compatibility is a costly affair and in the future with the diminishing size of the AGP market we might not see a repeat. Making the 7800GS GPU the last of a dying breed.



eVGA send us their 7800GS based graphics card for review, the CO SuperClocked version to be exact. eVGA is pushing hard into the European market, competing with XFX and Gainward for their share of the GFX sales. They are winning over the hearts of many hardware enthusiasts with their high performance parts as well as more exotic cooling solutions, like these custom design water blocks they show-cased at Cebit 2006:



eVGA sells their 7800GS in 4 different configurations, changing the default clock speeds of the chip as well as the heatsink on these cards.

Geforce 7800 GS 256Mb | GPU: 375Mhz / Memory: 600Mhz | Reference Cooler | €349

Geforce 7800 GS CO 256Mb | GPU: 430Mhz / Memory: 650Mhz | eVGA Cooler | €366

Geforce 7800 GS CO SuperClocked 256Mb | GPU: 460Mhz / Memory: 675Mhz | Reference Cooler | €388

Geforce 7800 GS CO SuperClocked 256Mb | GPU: 460Mhz / Memory: 675Mhz | eVGA Cooler | €415

The box is quite colorful and clearly shows you which version of the card is inside:


Geforce 7800 GS CO SuperClocked 256Mb | GPU: 460Mhz / Memory: 675Mhz | eVGA Cooler | €415

Let’s open the box ->