7900gt vs 7800gtx 200$ price difference why?

andyisc00l · Mar 21, 2006

The 7900gt has a better core clock and memory clock and the same pipelines, why on earth would you spend $200 more for a 7800gtx, can someone explain this?? Because it just looks to me that all stores carrying 7800gtxs and expecting to pay $500 are screwd?

azu · Mar 21, 2006

a GTX is a higher end card albeit from a former top.

Im still pretty sure the 78GTX is stronger and has more power than the 79GT

now if your comparing 79GTX to the 78GTX512.. then the reason is because of inflation. everyone wanted a 78GTX512 which was seemingly really hard to manufacture thanks to the .11 process. now that things have moved down to the 90nm process, high powered gpus have been easier to manufacture.

78GTX bins way higher than the 79GT and you can be assured you're getting a pretty top chip whereas the 79GT seems iffy.

although the last statement is rather debateable.

custom90gt · Mar 21, 2006

well the 7800 is old tech now, and 7900gts are cheaper to produce thanks to their 90nm core and smaller cooling requirements. It is not worth getting the 7800gtx, but they still carry the 500 price tag.

blitzkrieg1110 · Mar 21, 2006

ya, i thought the 7900gt was about neck and neck with the (256mb) 7800gtx at least.

andyisc00l · Mar 21, 2006

what does more power have to do with anything, wouldn't a higher core/memory clock and the same amount of pipelines just mean that its better, unless the otherstuff on it is different like the 3.0 stuff. I'm still rather new to the GPU scene which is why I'm asking, but you'd think theres no difference in technology between the 7800gtx and 7900gtx...I mean isn't the differences just core clock/memory clock? Its just confusing to me to see how any store can plan on selling the 7800gtx anymore under current circumstances. And $200...anyone who buys the 7800gtx must be a moron.

pookyman · Mar 21, 2006

7900GT>=7800gtx 256

azu · Mar 21, 2006

andyisc00l said:
what does more power have to do with anything, wouldn't a higher core/memory clock and the same amount of pipelines just mean that its better, unless the otherstuff on it is different like the 3.0 stuff. I'm still rather new to the GPU scene which is why I'm asking, but you'd think theres no difference in technology between the 7800gtx and 7900gtx...I mean isn't the differences just core clock/memory clock? Its just confusing to me to see how any store can plan on selling the 7800gtx anymore under current circumstances. And $200...anyone who buys the 7800gtx must be a moron.

Okay, what if ATI has the same number of pipelines?

Your explanation for the difference in power is?

the 7800 and the 7900 are a special case where the 7900 is just the 90nm version of the same architecture.

and btw.. the 7900 just came out.. which means the 7800 prices have yet to deflate although the GTs have already gone down.

Hmm.. soo i guess your classifying my friend and others as morons. Gee, mebbe some of us bought hardware earlier and don't feel like wasting money on newer cards. I don't feel the need to sell my 7800gts and buy the new 7900GTX. [or do i? XD thats a good idea.. now that i think about it XD]

azu · Mar 21, 2006

pookyman said:
7900GT>=7800gtx 256

blitzkrieg1110 said:
ya, i thought the 7900gt was about neck and neck with the (256mb) 7800gtx at least.

They're neck to neck, 7900GT has a slight advantage

And btw.. just for reference, its not about clock speeds and pipelines.

theres architecture [which in this case doesn't vary]
ram speeds [and their timings]
and then theres all the pixel shader clocks and vertex shaders which are all hidden from users. Nvidia did something funky.

Lol, if hardware was as simple as clock speeds then id rather play games with a 1ghz integrated.

Audioaficionado · Mar 21, 2006

Here's a good place to answer your question: http://www.guru3d.com/

The 7900 is better and less expensive than the 7800. nVidia is in stiff price competition with their arch rival ATI and the 7900 has to be better and less expensive than the 7800 or ATI will dominate the price/performance crown.

The people who bought two $500, $600 or more per SLI card paid for the 7900 R&D so we who had the good sense to wait can have a faster SLI for a lot less than their setups

twoeyes · Mar 22, 2006

Partly due to the 90nm process, partly due to retailers trying to get rid of old stock.

ZGOZZ · Mar 22, 2006

7800gtx is a great card 256 had one, the 512 just a better card. IMO

Category 5 · Mar 22, 2006

7900 uses a smaller process which a)increases yields and b)requires half the amount of silicon per chip.

nVidia is getting more reliable chips, and twice as many per wafer (compared to the 7800s). This also allows them to use more modest cooling.

This keeps the cost low. The GTX can't really come down in price for a small while, because nVidia have to give retailers a chance to recover and minimize losses. ...not to mention, the 7800 hardware DID cost more to make, so dropping the price now could easily start to cut into dealer cost (which makes dealers unhappy!). I assume in a couple of weeks we'll start seeing 7800GT and GTX cards selling with $100-$200 in rebates. Rebates help minimize loss since not everyone sends them in on time, cashes the checks on time, or has all the materisla provided correctly.

If they only cash in on 50-60% (high estimate) of people who purchase the old cards they can try to break even.

wetheperson · Mar 22, 2006

i thought the 7800gtx had 24 pipelines vs. the 7900gts 20.

PerlAddict · Mar 22, 2006

Hmm.. soo i guess your classifying my friend and others as morons. Gee, mebbe some of us bought hardware earlier and don't feel like wasting money on newer cards.

I don't think he's saying that at all ... he's saying you'd have to be pretty off your rocker to buy a 7800GTX now considering that the 7900GTs are available, perform on par, and are 40% cheaper. If you bought a 7800GTX before the 7900 series hit, then no biggie - you got the best and didn't sit around looking at a pile of money that you can't play with while you waited. But if you were to go to the store TODAY, you'd have to be either misinformed or a little goofy to buy a 7800GTX when the 7900GT was on the shelf right next to it at the current pricing structures.

SuperFarStucker · Mar 22, 2006

The 7800 series just flat out costs more to make than the 7900 series, plus through 05 nVidia was free to price gouge (no competition from ATi). It doesn't make a lot of sense if you look at the performance difference but 90nm makes the core smaller which enables them to not only get more cores per wafer but the chance of a defect in the core is smaller if it takes up less space so as a consequence the yields go up. Which is why silicon manufacturers are always happy to use smaller manufacturing processes. Also GDDR3 memory prices are rather volatile as they are in short supply so that could be a factor in the price difference between the gtx 512 and the 9 gtx 512. In any event there is no reason to buy a new 7800 series card these days.

Category 5 · Mar 22, 2006

wetheperson said:
i thought the 7800gtx had 24 pipelines vs. the 7900gts 20.

The 7900GT has 24 pipes as well. Only the 7800Gt was limited to 20.

Joeteck · Mar 22, 2006

wetheperson said:
i thought the 7800gtx had 24 pipelines vs. the 7900gts 20.

No you have that mistaken for the 7800GT.

7900GT & GTX both have 24 Pipes. The difference? No RAM sinks, and lower clocked GDDR3. The GT has 1.4ns, and the GTX has 1.1ns.

The 7800GT has 20 pipes.

The 7800GTX has 24 pipes.

beavismorpheus · Mar 23, 2006

dont know if anyones mentioned this yet, but people still need another 7800gtx for their SLI setups. that nvidias got em by the balls.

g0dM@n · Mar 23, 2006

Joeteck said:
No you have that mistaken for the 7800GT.

7900GT & GTX both have 24 Pipes. The difference? No RAM sinks, and lower clocked GDDR3. The GT has 1.4ns, and the GTX has 1.1ns.

The 7800GT has 20 pipes.

The 7800GTX has 24 pipes.

I don't think the GTX had 1.1ns memory... the 512mb 7800 maybe, but DEFINITELY not the 256 gtx... the 7900gt has better memory than the 7800gtx.

Better yet the 7900GT is considerable better than the 7800gtx, especially if you OC. The best OCing 7800gtx (voltmodded) doesn't even really get to as high as the GDDR3 speed of the 7900gt...

overclock vs overclock, the 7900gt has got the edge as well... think about it, the 7900 has a smaller core, has 20mhz higher stock gpu clock, and has a 100mhz higher gpu clock... I feel like the 7900gt could OC a lot more than the gtx... considerably more... maybe 5-10% on the avg... just a feeling, though.

7900gt vs 7800gtx 200$ price difference why?

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