eVGA e-GeForce 7800 GS
eVGA mark this variant of their 7800 GS AGP as "Superclocked", coming overclocked out of the box at 460/675, significantly higher than the reference clock of 375/600 and 15% faster than the BFG on the previous page. Like the BFG Tech board, the e-GeForce uses the reference cooler specified by NVIDIA on a green PCB. So while BFG Tech do more with the board's appearance, eVGA clock it much higher.
The layout notes we make for the BFG board apply here, too, so allow us judicious use of cut and paste. That means it requires more power to run it correctly than the AGP slot can provide, so the board asks for a 4-pin power feed from your PSU.
Again, the retention plate lets eVGA retain the heatsink to the GPU with good pressure, aiding cooling. You can see the traces for the BR02 bridge IC and them leading directly down to the AGP slot at the bottom.
Exactly like the BFG, the DVI port is single-link, despite the GPU sporting a dual-link integrated DVI transmitter, and you get a single analogue VGA and S-Video outputs to go along with that. Insert the obligatory whinge about dual DVI ports on any mid-range board or above.
Fan noise on the board is identical to the BFG, which means I wouldn't mind suffering the noise of one in my system too much, but those in the persuit of silence will maybe want to swap it for something else.
Presentation and Bundle
I can't say whether eVGA's box art is likely to gain them any more customers than BFG's from an aesthetic sence. However, if you were to see them side-by-side on a shelf for similar money, I bet that eVGA's prominent display of the card's out-of-the-box clocks would stand out.
AGP, GDDR3 memory, the clock and the fact it's a GeForce 7-series board are all obvious.
eVGA give you a user's guide, a couple of case stickers, driver CD (which also contains their Reschanger utility and some trial software), S-Video cable, DVI-to-VGA adaptor and a Y-splitter just incase you don't have enough 4-pin power plugs left.
