BFG Tech GeForce 7800 GS OC AGP

Back on the 1st December we managed to find a statement made by NVIDIA's Desktop PR Manager, Brian Burke, that was designed to clear up some of the confusion surrounding a preview of a PCI-Express based GeForce 7800 GS on Anandtech. He stated that "NVIDIA has no plans to release a commercially available GeForce 7800 GS PCI-Express board."

Public Relations is a clever game and it's all about telling people enough without giving any future plans away. What Brian didn't reveal was the company's GeForce 7800 GS plans on AGP and that was what we picked up on in December. After the complaints and petitions made by die hard AGP users when NVIDIA launched GeForce 7800 GTX coupled with Brian's statement, today's announcement comes as no surprise.

NVIDIA and its partners have launched the GeForce 7800 GS AGP for those die-hard AGP users who don't have the funds to complete a full system upgrade to PCI-Express. We've teamed up with BFG Technologies, NVIDIA's leading partner in North America, to bring you a launch day product review.

The BFG Tech GeForce 7800 GS OC looks the same as the reference card with some cosmetic changes made to brand the card in BFG's team colours. BFG's cards are instantly recognisable from the large badge coupled with the green and white colour scheme on the cooler.

There are also some changes made to the clock speeds, as BFG is marketing the card as an overclocked version. The reference clocks for GeForce 7800 GS are 375/1200MHz and BFG Tech's GeForce 7800 GS OC runs at 400/1250MHz. Those clocks aren't going to set the world alight, but it's a nice increase that should help it differentiate itself from other cards out there without costing a great deal more.

There are bound to be some other board partners shipping cards that are clocked higher than BFG Tech's, but they're not likely to ship them in the same kind of volume. It's hard to forget BFG Tech's full lifetime warranty that comes with the card too - it's something we've had first hand experience of, and it's as good as people say it is.

There are some obvious differences between this card and its closest PCI-Express rival - GeForce 7800 GT. The cards are roughly the same length as each other, while the capacitors and power regulators are at the opposite end of the card on the BFG Tech GeForce 7800 GS OC AGP. There is also the obvious difference in interface too - the GeForce 7800 GT OC is not available on AGP and it's not likely to be, either.