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The Bundle

XFX's GeForce 7800 GTs came to us in stylish X-shaped boxes, complete with attractive box art and a nice matte cover. On the back side there is a clear plastic window, through which we can see the beast that is roaring to be unleased onto the test bench.

As far as the bundle goes, I was pleasantly surprised to see a better than usual bundle:

Here is a raw listing of the hardware in bundle:

• 2x ~6.5 foot S-Video cables
• 2x DVI-to-VGA adapters
• 1x PCIe power adapter (two Molex --> one PCIe)
• 1x VIVO adapter with S-Video In/Out, YPbPr Out, and Composite In

Along with the hardware, there are two manuals, one being a multi-language quick installation guide, and a full-English user's manual detailing hardware/software installation, settings, and troubleshooting.

The XFX bundle definitely wins with the software included along with the card. As usual, the driver and utility CD is present, which contains ForceWare 77.73 WHQL drivers. I suspect that the 77.73 drivers are merely 77.72 drivers with 7800 GT INF definitions, but I have not received word on whether this is in fact the case. The three full-version games are what has me quite happy: Far Cry, X2: The Threat, and MotoGP Ultimate Racing Technology 2. A pleasant surprise is that of Far Cry being supplied on a DVD -- I'm sure many of us out there have more than one four-CD Far Cry set. While these aren't the newest of games, they are definitely enough to get a gamer started with enjoying his/her new video card.

Update: We've been informed that also included on the Driver CD is Tenomichi's 3D Edit Silver V3 -- the world's first DirectX9-based video editing suite, and priced at a regular price of ~$72. Here is what Tenomichi has to say about the product:

3D Edit Silver V3 can capture video via DV and VIVO or any other WDM device.

Video can be edited it in real-time using a technique called "On Chip Rendering" which uses D3D in the GPU to manipulate video and shaders to add special FX like fire, explosions, color correction keying and other effects found in computer games.

This is definitely a cool product, and I apologize for omitting mention of it earlier!

The Card

XFX appears to have remained true to the NVIDIA reference design, as is usually the case with most recent video cards - while we don't have a reference 7800 GT to compare against, the XFX 7800 GT remains very similar in appearance to a reference 7800 GTX.

Right off the bat we notice that the GT is just a tad shorter then the GTX, as well as having a shorter heatsink that lacks the oval-shaped heat dissipation pins. The fan on the 7800 GT also appears to be a touch smaller, as well as having a lower density of blades. Gone also is the small heatsink over the voltage regulators.

The rear of the card reveals the lack of any retention plates. My assumption here is that the heatsink assembly on the front of the GeForce 7800 GT does not need to exert as much pressure on PCB, hence the lack of need for the extra apparatus.

Other than the small differences, everything else remains the same. The XFX GeForce 7800 GT has two DVI ports, as well as the standard TV/HDTV VIVO port, and it also requires an external PCIe power connector, which is of no surprise. The top of the card features NVIDIA's SLI MIO "goldfingers", which we will be making use of in our SLI testing -- so stay tuned after the regular round of benchmarks for those results.

An interesting aesthetic feature of XFX's GeForce 7800 GT is the presence of a flat brushed aluminum bar along the top of the card. It seems to ease removal of the card, but this bar will surely add a nice touch to the general look of your computer when the card is installed in a case.

Let's go discuss our test platform, and then get on with the results!