E-geforce 7800 Gt Co Pci-e

At the time of this review, this is the best choice for a card for a machine that is SLI capable. You could spend a bit less and get a 6800GT or a lot more and get the GTX. The problem with the 6800GT/X is that the 6800GT takes up two rear slots because of its large cooling fan/heatsink. The 7800 GTX is about $450 street at the time of this review. If you get the 517-AX version of this card it is nicely overclocked (the older version is 516-AX and it is overclocked less). The copper heatsink (the CO part of the designation) costs about $40 more, but I think it is worth it. The rear fan in my case stopped working yesterday, but that hasn't stopped this card from chewing though UT2004, Call of Duty 2 and BF2 at the highest settings with nary a hitch. When the time comes for more speed I'll simply buy another one of these cards and hook it up in SLI mode to almost double the speed. Right now there is no need to do that on my system. 3700+ amd 2 gb ram. One purchase I am very...Read more

1. Factory overclocked to 470/1100 from 450/1050. That's almost a 7800 GTX!
2. Lifetime warranty
3. 24x7 tech support
4. GREAT tech support. Very helpful, very responsive. One of the best I've ever dealt with in my 15 years of building PCs.
5. Step-up program. 90 days to upgrade card to something else if you really need to.
6. Rock solid stability, even with the overclocking.
7. EVGA understands and encourages overclocking. They even have a line of overclocking accessories for hardcore overclockers (EVTweak).
8. This particualr card is wicked fast. I've got BF2 at 1600x1200 all HIGH w/ 2xAA at 50 fps!!! (This is 80% NVIDIA R&D and 20% EVGA magic)

If you're in the market for a new videocard do yourself a favor and buy an EVGA. If not a 7800GT CO, then anything from their line of cards (they have a 6800 GS clocked at 490/1000!!!). In the past I've had Leadtek, Asus, ATI, BFG, and PNY video cards. The cards have been...Read more

The eVGA 7800GT CO (models 517 and 516) both come Over-Clocked from the factory beyond the stock 7800GT settings of 400MHz Core and 1000MHz memory. This is made possible through enhanced cooling with a Copper heat sink covering the core and half of the Memory chips as well as the larger cooling fan from the 7800GTX models.

I would rate this card at 5 stars, but the first one I purchased was Dead on Arrival due to memory failure. The issue has since been addressed by eVGA with the introduction of many BIOS updates for the card and other revisions using different core and memory speeds. Their RMA process is also fast and fair with prompt 24X7 technical support.

The company itself has outstanding technical support as well as a real Lifetime Warranty. You can return a burnt out card or a defective card providing you didn't physically damage it or willingly destroy the hardware on the card itself. The warranty even allows for end user removal of the factory...Read more