GeForce 7900 GS Group Test

small niggle on the BFG overclocking

The stock clocks on the BFG Tech GeForce 7900 GS OC are 540MHz core and 1380MHz on the memory.

Shouldn't that be 1360MHz on the memory? 2 x 680?

Quite surprised with the difference between the cards.

yes, thanks - will fix now.

eVGA ***! :D *edit: meant to say For The World!

i got a buddy that needs an upgrade from X700 Pro that came along with his X2 3800+ and Nforce4 mobo... this suits the bill just nice :)

Why don't you guys re-benchmark when they are OC'd? I'd like to see the OC'd XFX against the Galaxy!

Originally Posted by The Article
One problem that we do see is that the cooler comes with a 3-pin fan header that needs to be plugged into your motherboard. It would have been more elegant to power the cooling solution via the card itself. It's something to remember when you're installing the card, otherwise the fan will not spin up (for obvious reasons).

I agree it would have been more elegant, but it's actually not necessary. I picked up a Zalman cooler for my wife's 6600GT, and since the budget board in the system only had one 3-pin fan connector on the board, I stuck the 2 pins on the card into the red and black holes, and 3 months later the fan is still running just fine. :) And I use nVidia's latest software suite to monitor core temps and control fan speed...it's actually pretty robust.

Good article...I'm thinking about upgrading on a budget, these might just tide me over until DX10 and a bigger budget. :D Thanks!

I agree with the stepping stone to DX10, but which one would be better for a 1920*1280 screen resolution, something that will beat my current XFX 7800GTX. Either way, still an interesting read up.

I kinda fail to see the point of having a mid range card worth around $200 with HDCP support, when Bluray and HDDVD drives are still god aweful exspensive!!

(I'm just sore you didn't count the XFX's asskicking overclocking towards the win)

I am a filthy, filthy, clam...

Originally Posted by themuffin
I kinda fail to see the point of having a mid range card worth around $200 with HDCP support, when Bluray and HDDVD drives are still god aweful exspensive!!

They're not going to be expensive forever though...

(I'm just sore you didn't count the XFX's asskicking overclocking towards the win)

Overclocking can't have anything to do with the final outcome because we can't guarantee that manufacturers aren't sending us cards that overclock particularly well... If overclocking was a determining factor, we'd just end up with a bunch of cherry picked cards that overclock so well that no other card in retail is ever going to get that far. That would only lead to disappointment on the consumer front...

Originally Posted by samkiller42
I agree with the stepping stone to DX10, but which one would be better for a 1920*1280 screen resolution, something that will beat my current XFX 7800GTX. Either way, still an interesting read up.

I tried playing Oblivion on the Galaxy (the fastest of the group in that game) at 1920x1200 and I was turning so much detail off that I would've probably preferred to play on a 24" screen with black strips and a lower resolution. Really speaking, 7900 GS / X1900GT are good 1280x1024 cards for the most taxing games out there today - 7950 GT / X1900XT are better cards for 1920x1200.

Originally Posted by Tim S
They're not going to be expensive forever though...

Well up until they end up at bootfairs ;)

One more thing I forgot to add on the HDCP front is that you're going to be able to get downloadable HDCP-enabled content through Vista, so it doesn't matter whether the drives are going to expensive or not.

I have the xfx 7900 GS, don't know what the big tizzy about HDCP is about, I don't watch that much video content on my computer and I definately won't be getting vista right away.

to mee it seems like dual DVI connectors and marking down a card that has one analog and one digital when in fact most people don't run dual monitors.

Originally Posted by metarinka
I have the xfx 7900 GS, don't know what the big tizzy about HDCP is about, I don't watch that much video content on my computer and I definately won't be getting vista right away.

to mee it seems like dual DVI connectors and marking down a card that has one analog and one digital when in fact most people don't run dual monitors.

The problem is that there is no content out there at the moment and that is what drives the demand. However, the landscape is going to significantly change in the next year and there will be masses of content out there by this time next year. Samsung's monitors have been coming with HDCP-compatible DVI ports for over 12 months now and it is about time video cards caught up. If you're not bothered about watching HD video content then HDCP support isn't a problem for you and any of the cards tested will suit your needs if you are after a mid-range video card.

The whole industry has screwed up on the HD content front and it is about time it sorted itself out. The sooner the people who are in charge of these standards decide what is going to happen, the sooner the whole industry can get back to business as usual. That is the main problem I see at the moment - nobody seems to want to address it, either. The second problem is that there isn't enough education as to why HDCP is important to end users and that's not really going to happen until there is sufficient content out there. Hell, it's still not decided what is going to happen if you play HDCP-enabled content and don't have HDCP compliant components...

Is there going to be a review of the Gainward GS? They have a 512 version with a custom cooler that looks pretty decent, and Overclockers UK have the 256 version of it (still with custom heatsink) going for about £125 - a bargain. Other reviews of it say it clocks like a demon. I'd love to see you guys review it/them; hopefully this is the other model you're hinting about!

Originally Posted by mull
Is there going to be a review of the Gainward GS? They have a 512 version with a custom cooler that looks pretty decent, and Overclockers UK have the 256 version of it (still with custom heatsink) going for about £125 - a bargain. Other reviews of it say it clocks like a demon. I'd love to see you guys review it/them; hopefully this is the other model you're hinting about!

Can't wait to get my hands on a 7900GS with 512 Ram!!

I don't think 512MB of RAM on a GeForce 7900 GS is going to make a fat lot of difference in all honesty. You might be able to turn high detail textures on in GRAW, but that's about all that is going to benefit from it at the moment.

Why no evga overclock data?
at least you should explain.

Originally Posted by terryfried
Why no evga overclock data?
at least you should explain.

Thanks for pointing that out - I'd uploaded it but somehow missed it out. Check back and you shall find. ;)

May seem like a dumb question and sry to bring up old threads but well excess xmas money etc ....
but i can expect the same kinda performance @ 1440x900 as the the 1280x1024 in the results right? it's approximately the same number of pixels.

Originally Posted by woodshop
May seem like a dumb question and sry to bring up old threads but well excess xmas money etc ....
but i can expect the same kinda performance @ 1440x900 as the the 1280x1024 in the results right? it's approximately the same number of pixels.

I would certainly expect so. :)