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NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT/7900 GS Roundup January 26, 2007 Brandon Sandman Bell |
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Summary: In today's article Brandon takes a look at one dozen different GeForce 7900 GS and 7950 GT cards. See how the various boards stack up to one another, as well as ATI's Radeon X1950 Pro and X1900 XT 256MB in performance. Are the factory overclocked cards able to keep up, and how far do they OC? Find out in this article!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 17 ) |
NVIDIA’s newest mainstream offerings are what we will be focusing on in today’s article, and while both GPUs sport new names, they’re both based on the same graphics core and basic GeForce 7900 GT reference board design.
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GeForce 7900 GS
In the case of the GeForce 7900 GS, NVIDIA takes their G71 graphics core used in the high-end GeForce 7900 GTX and GeForce 7950 GX2 and deactivates one of the GPU’s six pixel shading quads, effectively disabling four pixel shaders in the process. This brings the total number of active pixel shaders in the GeForce 7900 GS down to 20; in comparison the 7900 GT and GTX feature 24 pixel shaders. NVIDIA also disables one vertex shader in the GeForce 7900 GS, leaving seven vertex shaders active (in comparison the other G71 cards feature eight vertex shaders).
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Clock speeds for the GeForce 7900 GS carry over unchanged from the 7900 GT, the graphics core is clocked at 460MHz while the board’s memory runs at 660MHz (1,320MHz effective). In terms of connectivity, like the other GeForce 7900 cards the GeForce 7900 GS is outfitted with two dual-link DVI connectors but HDCP support is an optional feature – it will be up to NVIDIA’s board partners to determine which (if any) of their GeForce 7900 GS cards will offer full HDCP support. The GeForce 7900 GS carries an MSRP of $200 but already street prices have fallen below this, in fact, many of these cards can be found online for around $150 after mail-in rebate.
GeForce 7950 GT
Resting above the GeForce 7900 GS in NVIDIA’s refreshed mainstream lineup is the GeForce 7950 GT. The GeForce 7950 GT is also based on NVIDIA’s G71 graphics core, only none of its pixel or vertex shaders have been disabled.
The GeForce 7950 GT also sports a 550MHz core clock speed with 512MB of GDDR3 memory running at 700MHz (1.4GHz effective). With a 550MHz core clock speed, the GeForce 7950 GT runs a full 100MHz faster than the GeForce 7900 GT it replaces on the graphics core, and just 100MHz shy of the GeForce 7900 GTX, while its memory is 140MHz faster than the 7900 GT and 100MHz below the 7900 GTX.
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The GeForce 7950 GT is also equipped with two dual-link DVI connectors and all 7950 GT cards will carry full HDCP support. Officially the GPU carries an MSRP of $300, but again, street prices are often lower than this. Some cards can be found for under $250 online after mail-in rebate.
Now that we’ve given you a general high-level overview of the new GPUs, lets go over the individual cards that are based on these GPUs themselves. We’ll go in ABC order, starting with ASUS first.
| ASUS GeForce EN7900GS TOP/2DHT/256M | Page:: ( 2 / 17 ) |
ASUS takes the standard GeForce 7900 GS to the next level with their EN7900GS TOP/2DHT/256M graphics card.
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The card is based entirely on NVIDIA’s reference board design for the GeForce 7900 GS, ASUS makes no changes there even using the same stock heatsink/fan unit developed by NVIDIA. What separates the TOP Edition from your typical GeForce 7900 GS card is its clock speeds: ASUS overclocks the board’s graphics core and memory from the factory with the GPU running at 590MHz and memory at 720MHz (1.44GHz effective).
That’s 140MHz faster than the stock GeForce 7900 GS on the graphics core, and 60MHz higher than stock on the memory. ASUS claims the board delivers up to 20% more performance than your typical GeForce 7900 GS card in benchmarks like 3DMark 06.
Since the card is physically an exact replica of NVIDIA’s reference board, the card’s feature set is relatively standard fare, with two dual-link DVI connectors, but the card doesn’t offer HDCP support. The card does offer HDTV and TV-out however.
The card comes bundled with a copy of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter as well as two DVI adapters, CD wallet, a power adapter, and S-Video and a component video cable for hooking the card up to an HDTV. ASUS also bundles their card with a few fairly unique software programs: ASUS Video Security Online, GameFace Messenger, GameLive Show, Game Replay, and OnScreenDisplay. These programs can be used to instant message and videoconference with fellow gamers in-game, record and/or stream the gameplay action as you play, and to monitor your PC while you’re away from home.
Besides the EN7900GS TOP/2DHT/256M, ASUS produces one additional GeForce 7900 GS SKU, the ASUS EN7900GS/2DHT/256M.
Physically the EN7900GS/2DHT/256M looks just like the TOP card, they’re both based entirely on NVIDIA’s reference design, with the exception being that the EN7900GS/2DHT/256M isn’t overclocked out-of-the-box, with the card running at the stock GeForce 7900 GS speeds of 450MHz core/660MHz memory. It also doesn’t have quite the game bundle as the TOP card, in fact the card ships with no games at all, but it still supports ASUS features like Video Security Online and GameLive Show and Game Replay.
The EN7900GS/2DHT/256M sells for about $20 less than the TOP Edition card at most online retailers.
| ASUS GeForce EN7950GT/HTDP/512M | Page:: ( 3 / 17 ) |
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Like their GeForce 7900 GS card, ASUS’ EN7950GT/HTDP/512M board is a carbon copy of NVIDIA’s reference board design for the GeForce 7950 GT. Since both the GeForce 7900 GS and 7950 GT are based on the same basic design, this means that both cards look very similar to one another; if you don’t look closely, you could easily confuse one board for the other.
The most notable difference physically between the GeForce 7900 GS and GeForce 7950 GT is the use of denser 16Mx32 memory modules (Infineon Part Number HYB18H512321AF-14) since 512MB of memory is required. These modules are rated for speeds up to 700MHz, which is right in line with NVIDIA’s reference clock speeds. In comparison, Hynix memory modules are typically used on GeForce 7900 GS cards.
ASUS clocks their EN7950GT/HTDP/512M board at the stock GeForce 7950 GT speeds of 550MHz core/700MHz memory (1.4GHz effective). Unlike their GeForce 7900 GS SKUs, ASUS provides no factory overclocked option for the GeForce 7950 GT, their EN7950GT/HTDP/512M board is it. The card is HDCP compliant, so you can watch your Blu-ray or HD-DVD movies at full 1080p resolution with no compromises provided you have an HDCP-compliant monitor.
The card does come with a copy of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter on DVD-ROM as well as two DVI adapters, S-Video and HDTV video cables, CD wallet and a power adapter. It also supports the aforementioned ASUS software programs we mentioned earlier.
Like all ASUS graphics cards, the EN7950GT/HTDP/512M is backed by a 3-year warranty.
| BFG GeForce 7900 GS OC | Page:: ( 4 / 17 ) |
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BFG takes lots of pride in their GeForce 7900 GS OC. Again, like the ASUS GeForce 7900 GS, the card is based on NVIDIA’s GeForce 7900 GS reference board design. Card manufacturers like ASUS and BFG like to stick with NVIDIA’s reference board design so they can bring their cards to market more quickly. After all, it takes time to properly develop, test, and manufacture custom board designs and cooling; it’s much easier to just stick with NVIDIA’s stock equipment and go from there.
Like ASUS, BFG uses a blue PCB for their GeForce 7900 GS board, and also like ASUS, BFG chooses not to equip their GeForce 7900 GS board with the crypto-ROM chip that stores the card’s unique HDCP key. This chip is required for HDCP support and can’t be added by the end user after the fact.
If you’re familiar with BFG graphics cards, you no doubt know by now that the “OC” in the card’s title stands for “overclocked” as BFG overclocks all their OC boards from the factory for added performance over stock. In the case of the GeForce 7900 GS OC BFG clocks the board at 525MHz on the graphics core, 75MHz higher than the stock GeForce 7900 GS card’s 450MHz (an improvement of 14%), while the board’s memory runs at the stock 7900 GS clock speed of 660MHz (1.32GHz effective).
Since BFG just overclocks the graphics core, this limits what the card can do over the stock GeForce 7900 GS somewhat, but again, it’s still an improvement.
Besides the factory overclock, the other major selling point of BFG’s GeForce 7900 GS OC is its warranty and support program. The card is backed by BFG’s lifetime warranty – if anything happens to your graphics card over the course of ownership, whether your fan fails or any other board level component, BFG will repair it. If it isn’t fixable, BFG will replace your card entirely. BFG also provides 24/7 toll-free tech support, as well as online support at their website, bfggaming.com.
Its because of their warranty and support that BFG has earned a loyal following of repeat card owners.
To save costs, BFG doesn’t include a game bundle with their GeForce 7900 GS OC, instead inside the board’s packaging you’ll find two DVI adapters, power adapter, S-Video cable, and HDTV cable.
| BFG GeForce 7950 GT OC | Page:: ( 5 / 17 ) |
This means you’ve got the same copper heatsink/fan unit as the previous boards we’ve discussed, in fact this is the exact same heatsink/fan unit that was used previously on the GeForce 7900 GT. The cooler is single-slot, so those of you with small or cramped cases shouldn’t have a problem fitting the card into your system. Here we should note that the cooler NVIDIA uses isn’t exactly silent, but we wouldn’t call it loud either. It definitely isn’t as quiet as the coolers NVIDIA uses on their GeForce 8800 GTS/GTX or the GeForce 7900 GTX though. Fortunately the GeForce 7950 GT and 7900 GS are equipped with a variable speed fan, this helps to keep the noise down somewhat.
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Once again BFG overclocks their GeForce 7950 GT board from the factory. The graphics core runs 15MHz higher than the stock 7950 GT, clocked at 565MHz, while the memory is also 15MHz over stock running at 715MHz. Armed with these faster clocks, BFG’s board is a little faster than your typical GeForce 7950 GT board, but not terribly so. Considering all the reports of end users who ran into trouble with their factory overclocked GeForce 7900 GT boards, it’s possible that BFG decided to play it safe this round, but that’s just an educated guess on our part. BFG’s 7950 GT OC carries a lifetime warranty so it makes sense that they would want to play it a little conservative on the clocks though.
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The card comes with two DVI adapters, a power adapter, S-Video cable, HDTV cable, and BFG’s driver CD, but no game bundle. Like all 7950 GT cards the board has 2 dual-link DVIs and of course they’re both HDCP-compliant.
| EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GS KO | Page:: ( 6 / 17 ) |
EVGA put quite a bit of effort into their line of GeForce 7900 GT cards, particularly their higher-end boards. This work ultimately led to their 7900 GT Signature Series card, which was one of the fastest GeForce 7900 GT cards on the market while also running cooler and quieter than other 7900 GT cards.
For many of their GeForce 7900 GS SKUs, EVGA borrows many of the parts from these high-end GT cards. The most notable of them being the card’s cooling.
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EVGA starts with one massive copper plate, which rests directly over the GPU and memory. (Thermal pads are used to transfer heat from the memory modules to the underside of the copper base plate.) From there rolled fins are grafted on top of the copper plate to increase its surface area, these fins are also made with copper. The final ingredient EVGA adds is a low-profile fan. Since copper does such a good job of transferring heat off the graphics core, it’s important that a powerful fan is matched up to it or else the hot air coming off the heatsink has nowhere to go and the whole cooling apparatus becomes less effective. EVGA’s fan not only does this, it also generates slightly less noise than other GS cards based on NVIDIA’s stock cooler. We definitely wouldn’t call it nearly silent, but it is a little quieter than the stock GeForce 7900 GS cards.
Besides the enhanced cooler, EVGA also overclocks their 7900 GS KO board from the factory, opting to clock the graphics core at 500MHz (50MHz higher than stock), while the board’s memory runs at 690MHz (1.38GHz effective), that’s 30MHz higher than the stock memory speed for the GeForce 7900 GS.
To spice the package a little further, EVGA also includes a copy of the game Hitman: Blood Money with their e-GeForce 7900 GS KO. In addition, the e-GeForce 7900 GS KO supports HDCP, making it one of the few GeForce 7900 GS cards in the world to support this feature.
Also inside the card’s packaging you’ll find two DVI adapters, a power adapter, and HDTV and S-Video cables.
Besides the HDCP-enabled GeForce 7900 GS KO, EVGA offers four other GeForce 7900 GS cards, a regular KO board without HDCP (Part Number 256-P2-N624-AR) and three GeForce 7900 GS SKUs without the factory overclocked speeds. Two of those three cards have the KO cooling and are offered with and without HDCP support while the third card relies on NVIDIA’s stock cooling unit. If HDCP is an important feature for you, you’ll want to read the fine print carefully on these cards.
Like BFG, EVGA offers a lifetime warranty program on all their graphics cards. In fact, you can even make modifications to your card (such as adding a different fan) without voiding your card’s warranty. As long as you don’t physically damage your graphics card and its components, you’re covered by the EVGA warranty. EVGA also provides 24/7 toll-free tech support, just like BFG.
| EVGA e-GeForce 7950 GT KO | Page:: ( 7 / 17 ) |
The e-Geforce 7950 GT 512MB with EVGA fan runs at the stock GeForce 7950 GT speeds of 550MHz core/700MHz memory. What sets the card apart from other 7950 GT boards is its cooling. Rather than rely on NVIDIA’s stock heatsink/fan unit for their GeForce 7950 GT cards, EVGA borrows the same custom copper cooler that we just mentioned on the previous page. Again, this cooler was also used on EVGA’s high-end GeForce 7900 GT cards and it’s a little better than the stock NVIDIA cooling unit as it cools both the GPU and memory modules. This helps to keep the temperature of both of these components down. As we mentioned before, EVGA’s fan is a little quieter than NVIDIA’s fan too.
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For enthusiasts looking for a little more performance, EVGA offers the e-GeForce 7950 GT KO. The e-GeForce 7950 GT KO ships with the same heatsink/fan unit for cooling, but also runs at higher clock speeds than the regular e-GeForce 7950 GT: 560MHz graphics core/725MHz (1.45GHz effective) memory.
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At the top of EVGA’s GeForce 7950 GT lineup is the e-GeForce 7950 GT KO SuperClocked. This board retains all the features of the aforementioned boards, only it’s been overclocked even further, running at 600MHz on the graphics core – that’s just 50MHz shy of NVIDIA’s GeForce 7900 GTX – and 725MHz on the memory (75MHz below the 7900 GTX)
All of the aforementioned EVGA cards are sold with a game bundle when you buy the retail, boxed card. Inside the box you’ll find a copy of Hitman: Blood Money on DVD-ROM. EVGA also backs the boards up with their lifetime warranty program and excellent support, as well as their unique Step Up program. With Step Up, EVGA customers can trade-in their existing EVGA graphics card for the latest and greatest model available, as long as the upgrade occurs within 90 days of the initial card purchase. EVGA customers simply pay the difference between the two cards to complete the transaction. Step Up essentially allows you to stay current with the latest technology, say for instance if NVIDIA were to introduce a successor to the GeForce 8800 GTS/GTX in the next 90 days.
Step Up can only be used once though, so EVGA card owners must use it wisely.
| Gigabyte GV-NX79G256DP-RH | Page:: ( 8 / 17 ) |
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While many of the cards featured in this roundup are based largely on NVIDIA’s reference design, Gigabyte has taken the time to come up with their own unique board design for their GeForce 7900 GS and 7950 GT cards. One of the most notable differences between Gigabyte’s design and NVIDIA’s reference board is in regards to power delivery.
As you can see in the pictures, Gigabyte uses a combination of electrolytic capacitors and solid capacitors for their GV-NX79G256DP-RH board. Gigabyte also replaced the six-pin PCI Express power connector with a more traditional Molex power connector.
The feature that stands out the most easily though is the card’s cooler. For their GeForce 7900 GS and 7950 GT cards Gigabyte has partnered with Zalman, using their popular VF700-AlCu VGA cooler on these cards. The VF700-AlCu uses a mixture of copper and aluminum to cool the graphics core. Its unusual shape gives it more surface area while still taking up less space on the graphics board, while its fan spins at lower RPMs, allowing it to run quieter than other 7900 GS cards.
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It’s a dual-slot cooler, so it may be a tight fit for those of you who are space-constrained, but with its nearly silent fan and good cooling performance, the VF700-AlCu has proven to be pretty popular among enthusiasts looking for a good aftermarket cooler. In fact, the cooler has been used by card manufacturers like Sapphire, who used an all-aluminum derivative of the VF700 for their X800 XL Ultimate card.
With its more robust cooling and board design, Gigabyte clocks their GV-NX79G256DP-RH board at speeds higher than anyone else. The board’s graphics core runs at 525MHz, matching the speed of BFG’s 7900 GS OC, while the board’s memory runs at a whopping 720MHz (1.44GHz effective). Unfortunately Gigabyte doesn’t include all the accessories that ship with the retail version of the VF700AlCu. For instance the board lacks the RAMsinks Zalman uses for cooling the board’s memory modules. The board also doesn’t ship with Zalman’s Fan Mate fan controller, which can be used to manually regulate the RPMs that the fan spins at. Instead the fan on the Gigabyte GV-NX79G256DP-RH board runs at the same level at all times.
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For the software bundle, Gigabyte includes a copy of Xpand Rally inside the GV-NX79G256DP-RH’s packaging in America and Germany, while the rest of the world gets a copy of Call of Juarez, as well as PowerDVD 6.
| Gigabyte GV-NX795T512H-RH | Page:: ( 9 / 17 ) |
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Physically Gigabyte’s GV-NX795T512H-RH looks just like their GeForce 7900 GS board, the GV-NX79G256DP-RH. Gigabyte uses the same board design and blue PCB they developed for the 7900 GS, right down to the Molex power connector and Zalman cooling, only the card is based around NVIDIA’s GeForce 7950 GT GPU and uses faster GDDR3 memory modules from Infineon. Other than that, both cards are basically the same.
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This means you get the same great cooling provided by Zalman’s VF700-AlCu cooler, which runs very quietly. The VF700-AlCu is no longer Zalman’s highest-end VGA cooler, but it’s still more than ready to take on cooling an already cool-running GPU like the G71. It’s a dual-slot cooler, so it may be a tight fit for those of you who are using SFF cases, but with its nearly silent fan and good cooling performance the card is perfect for use in home theater applications, and since the card is based around the 7950 GT, Gigabyte also adds the crypto-ROM chip necessary for HDCP support.
The build quality of the board is excellent. As you can see, Gigabyte ships the board with plastic blue caps for the DVI connectors, video connector, and SLI connector. This protects these connectors from accidental damage when not in use. It’s a nice touch that we haven’t seen in use before, even on $600+ graphics cards.
Unlike their GeForce 7900 GS board, Gigabyte sticks with the stock NVIDIA clock speeds for their GeForce 7950 GT board, the card isn’t overclocked from the factory. This means the board runs at 550MHz core/700MHz memory. Considering the built-in Zalman cooling though, we wouldn’t be surprised if many card owners overclock Gigabyte’s GV-NX795T512H-RH board on their own. After all, its cooler does an excellent job of keeping the graphics core cool.
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The only real bummer about the GV-NX795T512H-RH is that Gigabyte doesn’t include any form of cooling on the board’s memory modules, or any of the other accessories that are normally included with the standalone Zalman cooler. If you buy Zalman’s VF700-AlCu at retail, Zalman includes tiny aluminum RAMsinks that can be placed on your graphics card’s memory modules for added cooling. Zalman also includes their FanMate fan controller, with it you can manually adjust the RPMs of the fan cooling your graphics card. With Gigabyte’s GV-NX795T512H-RH card, the fan spins at the same RPMs.
Fortunately, Gigabyte includes a slightly better game bundle with their GeForce 7950 GT card, including a copy of Civilization 4 in addition to PowerDVD 6. Of course, the card also includes the standard hardware accessories you expect to get with a new graphics card, including a pair of DVI adapters, a power adapter, and a breakout box which includes connections for HDTV and S-Video hookup.
| Leadtek WinFast PX7950 GT TDH Extreme | Page:: ( 10 / 17 ) |
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It has been awhile since we last took a look at a graphics card from Leadtek, but that doesn’t mean that they haven’t been up to anything since we last reviewed one of their cards. In fact, back in the GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB and 7800 GT days, they were the first card manufacturer to integrate the incredibly silent dual-slot cooler NVIDIA first used on their Quadro FX 4500 board on to one of their cards, the Leadtek WinFast PX7800 GTX TDH MyVIVO Extreme. If you recall, this same cooler won high praise from media outlets such as ourselves due to its extraordinary performance and very low noise output. This same cooler was eventually integrated onto the reference design of NVIDIA’s GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB and GeForce 7900 GTX boards. Even aftermarket coolers, such as Arctic Cooling’s Accelero aren’t much better than this stock heatsink/fan unit.
In any case while they may not get the buzz of some of the other manufacturers, Leadtek has established a reputation for building cards that go beyond the NVIDIA reference board design.
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For the GeForce 7950 GT, Leadtek offers two SKUs. The WinFast PX7950 GT TDH and the WinFast PX7950 GT TDH Extreme, which is the card we received for testing. Rather than relying on NVIDIA’s stock cooling unit for this GPU, Leadtek has integrated a custom cooler of their own that runs considerably quieter than the stock NVIDIA cooling unit.
At first glance you may think this was the same cooler NVIDIA used on their GeForce 6800 GT and 6800 GS reference cards but it’s not. Unlike those cards, there’s no slim heat pipe, and Leadtek didn’t integrate the copper heatsink that rests directly over the GPU on NVIDIA’s reference 6800 GS board design. Leadtek uses rolled fins on their heatsink as well, which is a little different than the other boards.
In any case, the cooler Leadtek has developed definitely seems to get the job done, thanks in large part probably due to its large surface area. As we mentioned above, the card’s fan is also quiet, in fact it’s about on par with the Zalman cooler Gigabyte uses on their 7950 GT card in terms of noise (although the Zalman VF700 cooler obviously does a better job of keeping the GPU cool), which is definitely a good thing in our book.
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One aspect of Leadtek’s WinFast PX7950 GT TDH and Extreme that confuses us however is the board’s memory configuration. You see, Leadtek ships the board in both 256MB and 512MB memory configurations. In fact, the board we’re reviewing today is the 256MB card. We assumed NVIDIA wasn’t allowing any of their board partners to produce 256MB GeForce 7950 GT cards, at launch NVIDIA told us 512MB was a strict requirement, but apparently Leadtek was somehow able to concoct a 256MB board of their own. What’s even stranger is that Leadtek’s higher-end, factory overclocked “Extreme” board is available with just 256MB of memory. You’d think someone shopping for an Extreme board would
Speaking of that overclock, Leadtek’s WinFast PX7950 GT TDH/Extreme is no slouch when it comes to clocks, as the board is clocked at 600MHz on the graphics core and 715MHz on the memory. For more budget-minded consumers, Leadtek will also be offering the PX7950 GT TDH. This board sports the same cooling as the Extreme card, only it sticks with the stock NVIDIA clock speeds of 550MHz core/700MHz memory. Both cards also ship with a copy of Serious Sam II and Spell Force 2: Shadow Wars in addition to the standard bundle of hardware accessories: two DVI adapters, a power adapter, and S-Video and HDTV cables.
| PNY Verto GeForce 7950 GT | Page:: ( 11 / 17 ) |
While they are perhaps best known for their memory products, PNY has been in the graphics game for quite some time, in fact they’re one of the oldest NVIDIA board partners included in this roundup. PNY also enjoys the exclusive on production of NVIDIA’s high-end workstation Quadro boards here in North America. No other board manufacturer besides PNY makes Quadro boards here in the states. That’s a pretty nice perk that NVIDIA wouldn’t just give to anyone don’t you think?
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For their GeForce 7950 GT card we expected PNY to produce an exact replica of NVIDIA’s reference board design as many of the other board partners in this roundup have done, however it looks like PNY has developed their own unique design for their 7950 GT card.
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For starters, let’s talk about the board’s PCB. Measuring in at just under 8.5” in length, the blue PCB PNY uses on their GeForce 7950 GT board is about half an inch longer than the reference GeForce 7950 GT board design, which is just shy of 8” long. Fortunately this shouldn’t be an issue to most of you, unless you’ve got a really tiny SFF case.
“Why is the PCB longer” you ask? We’re not quite sure either.
PNY has come up with a number of changes for their board, but none in our opinion that necessarily require a larger PCB. The most notable change comes to the board’s power circuitry. Much like Gigabyte, PNY uses a mixture of solid and electrolytic capacitors to power their GeForce 7950 GT board. PNY and Gigabyte also rotate the memory modules on their board’s perpendicular to the GPU. This change in particular actually takes up less space on the PCB though.
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Perhaps PNY and Gigabyte have figured something out that NVIDIA and the rest of the board partners haven’t. To be honest we just don’t know. We don’t think the changes had anything to do with overclocking (or improving the board’s overclockability) though. In our experience, the most important factor in the success or failure of any overclock is the graphics core itself: we’ve seen cards with very high-end aftermarket coolers barely overclock, despite the reduced temps provided by the beefier cooling.
In any case, it’s definitely nice to see that some of NVIDIA’s board partners are thinking outside the box when it comes to their board designs.
The rest of PNY’s Verto GeForce 7950 GT is pretty typical of a GeForce 7950 GT. PNY sticks with the factory GeForce 7950 GT clock speeds as well as the stock NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT cooling. Hardware accessories bundled with the card are pretty standard fare as well. Inside the card’s packaging you’ll find two DVI adapters, S-Video and HDTV cables, as well as a power adapter. Like many manufacturers in this roundup, PNY doesn’t provide a game bundle with their Verto 7950 GT card.
| XFX GeForce 7900 GS 480M Extreme | Page:: ( 12 / 17 ) |
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Of all the card manufacturers included in this roundup, none provides more different 7900 GS SKUs to choose from than XFX. While XFX initially offered just two GeForce 7900 GS variants at launch, that number has since expanded to a whopping six different 7900 GS cards! As such, you’ll want to check the card’s labeling carefully if you’re looking for a particular model, as unfortunately all six boards share somewhat similar names.
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To separate themselves from the pack, all of XFX’s cards deviate slightly from the reference NVIDIA board design for the GeForce 7900 GS. We’ll start with the card we’re reviewing today, the 480M Extreme, and go from there.
The most notable feature found on XFX’s GeForce 7900 GS 480M Extreme is its distinctive black PCB, while the board’s DVI connectors are fluorescent green. This gives the board a really sharp look in our opinion. Resting above the board’s PCB is an additional black metal plate. XFX’s company logo adorns the top of the plate for added flair. But this plate isn’t just there for looks, it also serves an added purpose: to perform as a heatsink of sorts.
You see, heat from the board’s PCB is transferred from the PCB to this plate, helping to keep board temperature down. XFX then finishes the package off with the stock NVIDIA copper heatsink/fan unit, with the top of the fan adorned with an XFX sticker.
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But looks aren’t the only thing this card has going for it. For added performance, XFX clocks their GeForce 7900 GS 480M Extreme at 480MHz core/700MHz memory (1.4GHz effective), that’s an improvement of 30MHz on the graphics core and 40MHz on the memory. Resting just below the 480M Extreme in the XFX lineup is XFX’s regular GeForce 7900 GS card, we’ll just refer to it by its part number, PV-T71P-UDF3. This card features the same basic design as the 480M Extreme, including the black PCB and back plate, only it’s clocked at the stock GeForce 7900 GS clock speeds. Lying just above the 480M Extreme is the 525M Extreme. As its name implies, this card is the same as the others, only its graphics core is clocked at 525MHz, while its memory runs at 775MHz.
Meanwhile, at the top of the heap for XFX is the GeForce 7900 GS XXX Edition. Again, this board is built similar to the aforementioned cards, only it is clocked significantly higher than the other boards, running at 600MHz core/800MHz memory. This is one of the fastest GeForce 7900 GS cards that’s been announced to date.
In more recent months, XFX has also launched an additional board design that drops the standard NVIDIA cooler in favor of a much larger heatsink/fan unit that also cools the graphics core and memory modules, while still retaining the black plate at the top of the board for heat dissipation. Interestingly enough, this board also ships with a 4-pin Molex power connector rather than the 6-pin connector that’s typically used on PCI Express cards.
XFX offers two SKUs based on this design. One that runs at the stock GeForce 7900 GS speeds (Part Number PV-T71P-UQF3) and a second that runs at the same speeds as the 480M Extreme: 480MHz core/700MHz memory (Part Number PV-T71P-UQE3).
| XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme | Page:: ( 13 / 17 ) |
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Like the GeForce 7900 GS, XFX provides lots of options for NVIDIA’s GeForce 7950 GT GPU. XFX lists a whopping eight GeForce 7950 GT SKUs on their website – XFX provides GeForce 7950 GT cards with or without silent cooling, and multiple clock speed options – it’s a pretty staggering array of options to choose from, but we’ll do our best to summarize them here.
We’ll start by discussing the unique cooler XFX has developed for their GeForce 7950 GT cards. It requires no active fans, allowing the card to run completely silent. The board has a heat pipe cooler that is made of aluminum and you can clearly see it at the top of the card. Directly attached to the heat pipe is a large black aluminum heatsink. This heatsink rests directly above the GPU and memory modules, helping to keep these components cool.
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In operation we noted GPU temps above the other boards, and the PCB of the board itself could get quite hot under extended use, but this didn’t seem to affect the stability of the card. We didn’t run into any artifacts or other glitches, even when the card was overclocked, so it appears that XFX has taken these higher temps into account and designed the board accordingly: XFX uses the same black plate we mentioned previously to help dissipate heat off the PCB of the card, and you can obviously see the neon green DVIs as well. Despite all this though, we would still suggest that you keep adequate air flow on or near the XFX graphics card. We don’t think a dedicated fan is necessary, but a nearby near-silent case fan should do the job just fine.
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The only real downside to the card is that its heat pipe is mounted above the board, making the card taller than your typical PCI Express graphics card. This could potentially be an issue for some cases, particularly if you have a large case fan on the side of your case, or you just have a small case in general. Fortunately the card and its cooling is single-slot though.
XFX uses this cooler on six of their eight different GeForce 7950 GT SKUs. Each of these boards runs at different speeds, our board for instance, the 570M Extreme, runs at 570MHz core/733MHz memory. XFX also makes a variant that sticks to the stock 7950 GT speeds, and another SKU that runs at 550MHz core/700MHz memory. Finally at the top of the lineup is XFX’s XXX Edition, which runs at 610MHz core/800MHz memory.
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If the silence of XFX’s heat pipe cooling doesn’t appeal to you, XFX also offers two GeForce 7950 GT SKUs that rely on the stock NVIDIA cooling. One board relies on the stock GT speeds, while the second runs at 570MHz core/733MHz memory.
| Test Systems | Page:: ( 14 / 17 ) |
System Setup
Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6600
EVGA nForce 680i motherboard
2GB Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256MB
Catalyst 7.1
ASUS GeForce 7900 GS TOP
ASUS GeForce 7950 GT
BFG GeForce 7950 GT OC
BFG GeForce 7900 GS OC
EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GS KO
EVGA e-GeForce 7950 GT KO
Gigabyte GV-NX79G256DP-RH
Gigabyte GV-NX795T512H-RH
Leadtek WinFast PX7950 GT TDH Extreme 256MB
PNY Verto GeForce 7950 GT
XFX GeForce 7900 GS 480M Extreme
XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme
Driver version ForceWare 93.71
250GB Maxtor Hard Drive Maxline III SATA Hard Drive w/16MB Cache
Windows XP Professional SP2
DirectX 9.0c
Benchmarks
Company of Heroes 1.3
F.E.A.R. 1.08
Quake 4 1.2
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Battlefield 2142 1.10
Notes
With so many cards to test, we’re going to limit our testing to just one resolution – 1600x1200. If you need to see more in-depth numbers at various resolutions, we definitely suggest you check out our previews of the GeForce 7950 GT and 7900 GS GPUs, as the majority of the cards included in this article were benchmarked then as well. Also keep in mind that for the NVIDIA cards we’re setting the image quality setting from the default setting of “quality” to “high quality” to cut down on the texture shimmering.
| Game Performance | Page:: ( 15 / 17 ) |
Half-Life 2 Lost Coast – Direct3D
Battlefield 2 – Direct3D
Quake 4 – OpenGL
F.E.A.R. – Direct3D
Oblivion – Direct3D
Company of Heroes – Direct3D
| Overclocking and Temp Testing | Page:: ( 16 / 17 ) |
Overclocking
Temps
Notes
NV Monitor recorded strange load temps for some of the boards – for certain cards the temps never changed under load according to the monitor, even when running looped sessions of 3DMark. Because of this, we’re only reporting the temps we observed during idle. As you can see, the Gigabyte boards excel thanks to their Zalman cooling, while among GeForce 7950 GT cards, the EVGa cards put up good numbers considering that they’re overclocked. As you can see, the XFX GeForce 7950 GT recorded the highest temps, we should note that we didn’t run any auxiliary cooling near the card, which could have helped to lower the board and GPU temps. In real-world use, we’d certainly keep a case fan nearby to supply the card with fresh air though.
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 17 / 17 ) |
All of the GeForce 7900 GS cards we received for review were factory overclocked, so all of these cards are standouts in our opinion in comparison to stock 7900 GS cards. With that in mind, we’re not going to simply pick the manufacturer with the highest overclocks, as honestly any one of you can do it yourself via NVIDIA’s publicly available nTune utility. Therefore among the GeForce 7900 GS cards, we were more impressed with the card’s that improved on NVIDIA’s stock cooling solution. As we discussed earlier in this article, the stock 7900 GS cooler isn’t as quiet as NVIDIA’s higher-end coolers found on the 7900 GTX and 8800 family, so anyone who values low noise will probably want to opt for a card that has a better cooler than NVIDIA’s stock unit, or be prepared to pony up the dollars for a nice aftermarket cooling unit.
With Gigabyte’s GV-NX79G256DP-RH, you get just that out-of-the-box, as the card comes equipped with Zalman’s VF700-AlCu. With this cooler in place, the GV-NX79G256DP-RH delivers significantly lower thermals than the other GeForce 7900 GS boards, all while running at high clock speeds.
Because of its unique combination of low noise and solid performance, we’re awarding the GV-NX79G256DP-RH with our Bull’s Eye Award. Thanks to its stock Zalman cooling, it just doesn’t get much better than this for the GeForce 7900 GS.
EVGA’s e-GeForce 7900 GS KO deserves credit for combining a cooler that delivers slightly lower noise than stock GS cards, while also cooling the card’s memory modules. The e-GeForce 7900 GS KO also runs at very high clock speeds. Plus it carries EVGA’s lifetime warranty and solid support. If you can find it for less than the GV-NX79G256DP-RH, it would make an excellent alternative. XFX also makes a line of 7900 GS cards that feature their own custom coolers, and with its black PCB and neon green DVIs their GeForce 7900 GS 480M Extreme board is definitely a looker. XFX also provides a double lifetime warranty, which will also appeal to potential card owners. ASUS’ TOP card should appeal to performance enthusiasts who crave the most performance. Thanks to its high core clock speed, the card delivered better performance than any other GeForce 7900 GS card in this roundup, it’s just too bad it didn’t ship with a better cooler.
BFG’s GeForce 7900 GS OC is another solid offering from the company, carrying their lifetime warranty and supercharged clock speeds, but it’s based entirely on NVIDIA’s reference design. Frankly the other board manufacturers went just a little bit further with their retail cards.
Among the GeForce 7950 GT boards, there’s no real clear cut winner – each board has its fair share of features that can appeal to certain markets.
No card sums this up better than XFX’s GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme. With its heat pipe cooling, the board generates no noise, running completely silent. This makes the card ideal for use in low noise or silent systems. Media Center PCs definitely come to mind. Unfortunately as a result of its silent cooling design, the board generates quite a bit of heat. This can be a turn off to some enthusiasts, who want their board to run as cool as possible.
For those users, a card like Gigabyte’s GV-NX795T512H-RH may be appealing thanks to its Zalman VF700-AlCu cooling, but this card isn’t factory overclocked and lacks any form of cooling on the memory modules, so performance enthusiasts may want to look elsewhere. EVGA’s e-GeForce 7950 GT KO would be an excellent alternative, as it features a custom copper cooler that cools both the GPU and memory, and runs slightly quieter than the stock NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT cooler. In addition, the board boasts very high clock speeds. Leadtek’s WinFast PX7950 GT TDH Extreme sports even faster speeds, and outperformed the other GeForce 7950 GT cards in all of our benchmarks except Company of Heroes. The only reason it didn’t come on top here is likely due to its smaller 256MB frame buffer. If the board had been equipped with more memory, it would have easily taken home the performance crown, and its cooler also runs considerably quieter than NVIDIA’s stock unit. If you can find it with 512MB of memory, it would be an exceptional alternative to the aforementioned cards.
With its custom board design, PNY’s Verto GeForce 7950 GT stood out from the other cards in our first image, but for whatever reason PNY didn’t take the time to develop a custom cooler. ASUS’ GeForce 7950 GT is the most generic of all the cards in this roundup, it’s based around NVIDIA’s stock reference board design and uses NVIDIA’s stock cooling. It also runs at the stock NVIDIA 7950 GT speeds. Considering the standout cards we’ve reviewed from ASUS in the past, winner of multiple Editor’s Choice Awards around here, we were probably disappointed with their 7950 GT board more than any other, but we have no doubt they’ll be back to deliver something special shortly. BFG’s GeForce 7950 GT OC is slightly overclocked, but its use of NVIDIA’s stock heatsink/fan was a little bit of a letdown. Fortunately thanks to its lifetime warranty and excellent customer support, we would still recommend it, but like ASUS we know BFG can do better because we’ve seen it from them in the past.
With the first wave of DX10 games still several months out, a large number of gamers would rather take a wait and see approach before shelling out the money for a next-generation graphics upgrade. For these users, a more affordable card like the 7950 GT, or the sub-$200 7900 GS makes a lot more sense, after all, both of these GPUs are more than capable of handling today’s latest games.
Thanks to rapidly falling board prices, picking up a GeForce 7950 GT or 7900 GS has never been easier. Hopefully this article was helpful for you in determining which cards merit your attention…