Good God, $600 for a video card...that's the reason why I'm waiting to upgrade.
Yeah, video cards are getting increasingly expensive at the high end, but they're the one component worth spending a lot of money on. I have gotten addicted to 2048x1536 and want to play as many things as possible in that.
These are actually quite a good deal though compared to the other options in this price range. They destroy the $550 X1800XT and are either slightly or considerably faster than the $750 7800GTX 512MB, depending on the game. The 80 series drivers have fixed a lot of the SLI quirks.
There are rumors that both companies will release new top end cards in February, but if the 512MB GTX was any indication, the inflated prices and low availability of these parts will be a major problem. I also want to make use of the cards during my winter break, which ends in February, so it made more sense for me to just buy now instead of waiting.
You can still get very good cards for a lot less though. The 6800GS, X800GTO/GTO2 (the GTO2 is back to $200 now) or a single 7800GT are all great options for the money at the moment.
paid ~$450 shipped for it:
hmm, for $450 it's not that great a deal anymore, since the original price of those was around $200. I guess if you were looking at an FX57 instead, it's not too bad.
Did you cut off the heatspreader or did it come like that? That is supposed to drop the temperatures by quite a bit as long as you can get the heatsink to make contact correctly.
no they don't. they're always going to be quite a few percent under the GTX, especially at higher resolutions, and that's when the 7800 gtx really starts to shine.
remember, again, there's not a big conspiracy going on here 
They're not selling the 7800 GT for $200 less than the GTX, just to screw people over. they aren't the same card 
. plus i've got room for upgrades, i.e. when i decide to get a second 7800 gtx near the end of the year
Check a review on the EVGA CO card, which has a signficant stock overclock over a reference GT. Depending on the game, one card is a few percent slower or faster than a reference GTX at 1600x1200 or higher. It's somewhat strange given the theoretical fillrates and memory bandwidth of the cards, but has something to do with the whole "multiple clocks" issue on the G70 cores. These cards generally retail for about $370 (instead of the $440 or so for a reference GTX) but there are some big sales going on at the moment. I think Newegg sold out quickly at the $300 prices, but Mwave might still have some.
