7900 vs 7800
 

well ok, i've got some money to spend and are having trouble deciding between upgrading to the 7900GT or 7800GT. My current PC:

AMD sempron 3400 (not overclocked)
1gb PC-3200 DDR-400 ram
256mb 6600 (standard, not GT)
winXP home

i know the sempron will bottleneck, but will it bottleneck a 7900GT to the same performance as a 7800GT?

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

7900GT is marginally better, but the price hike doesn't justify that. Get the 7800, in my opinion.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

if you have a 3400, go for the 7800.

A 7900 in that machine is like putting a hemi in a gremlin.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

im from the uk aswell i too be honest i would get the 7900 if you can stretch try fnd a 7800 gt trust me i have they have been wiped out unless you pay stupid money i have the 7600 gt now awesome too

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Get a 7800 GT but you defintly will not be getting all the juice outta that card becuase of yr cpu is a bit slow.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

I'd get the 7900gt, real world difference for you will be minimal, unless you play RTS games all day long you wont know the difference between your CPU and a top of the line FX57.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

I would upgrade your cpu before your graphics card

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

I think the ypo og the line cpu is a FX 60 but nehh

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

if I could make sense of that post this would make more sense, but the cpu will be a bottleneck, but you shouldnt notice it, unless of course you play games all day

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

FX-57 is currently best for gaming, since it's clocked higher, hence it's faster for things that can only use a single core. The FX-60 has two cores, but at a slower speed. So when you remember that most games can't use the second core, then it doesn't make it any quicker for gaming than a single core CPU of the same speed/specifications. But what's worth noting is that in the future, more games should support it and then it will make a difference.

But by then it won't be the top of the line CPU anyway, so it's a moot point really.

deathwarder, he was just saying that he thinks the FX-60 is the top of the line CPU, not the FX-57.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Firstly in regards to CPU upgrades there is little difference in terms of performance between many CPU's. The real world benefit of upgrading your CPU is small in the majority of games. However the Sempron you have may cause bottlenecks during calculations. The semprons are pretty good overclockers and don't give off much heat, so I would recommend pushing it a little bit more, or go for a new CPU, your choice.

XBit Labs - Games Against CPU Article

In regards to the choice of GPU’s, definitely go for the 7900GT. The 7900 series card is based on the G71 core which has a lower thermal output due to the 90nm process. The 7800 series cards are based on the G70 core and have 130nm process, and as such they have a higher thermal output and lower overclocking potential.

If you're feeling brave then I would recommend volt modding the 7900GT with a conductive pen to 1.4 or 1.5v which will allow you to push the core/mem to approx 675/17000 (probably much higher than that). However a word of warning, this will be impossible with the stock nvidia HSF, and it is recommended to use water-cooling or other extreme cooling solution. It is possible to do this using a Zalaman vF cooler too. If however you do manage to kill the card, the conductive line can be removed with Isopropyl (sp?) alcohol; the stock cooler replaced, and sent back for RMA.

AnandTech 7900GT Volt mod guide

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

I would reccomend a new motherboard and CPU before you go for the GPU... When you do I would say the 7800 is the 1 to go for but I also would like to reccomend the X1800XT from ATI they are getting discontinued so are going cheap (£170)... and the overclock well too!

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

well by that time the dx10 cards will be out

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Wait a month or so for DX10 cards, the 8XXX line I believe.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

what about the ati equivelent?

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Don't know.

ATI X2000XTXXTXZTZTX 1337 Edition :uhoh:

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

:lol: that describes their naming system quite well

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Wont the Geforce 8 line come out near the end of the year? Or sometime in January? Since Vista aint out yet although you could use the beta tester kits.
Also i would personally go with the 7900gt, although ture ur CPU is a huge botleneck, but really the 79gt is $10-$20 or so more expensive, while at the same time faster than a 7800gtx (faster by 1fps or 2fps, not tha big) since 7800GTX is clocked at 430 core while 79GT is jst a 90nm version of 78gtx and is clocked 20mhz higher.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

8XXX series was (or is) supposed to be released this month. I don't know though, the only thing I know of is the 7950X2 whatever it's called is coming out soon. It's basically two 7900GT's on ONE card.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Yeah that one is supposed to come out this month i think.
But DX10 cards i think wont come out till at least november. Since Vista was again delayed so no point in releasing the cards.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

they could release the cards but make them dx9 compatible as well