The NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS: A Closer Look
by Josh Venning on September 19, 2006 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Cards
We've recently looked at the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS and its architecture. To recap, the 7900 GS has identical clock speeds to the 7900 GT, but with one less vertex pipeline and four fewer pixel pipelines. NVIDIA intends for it to be a direct competitor to ATI's X1900 GT, but at reference speeds the 7900 GS doesn't quite perform as high as the X1900 GT. Overclocking may improve the situation somewhat as we'll see in the next section.
Here is a breakdown of the 7900 GS cards we have for this review along with their clock speeds and prices:
As sometimes happens, we weren't able to get prices for all of these cards at the time of this writing. The Albatron 7900 GS and the Leadtek PX7900 GS TDH Extreme are not yet available, but we've included the target street prices (marked by an asterisk) for these cards. The 7900 GS was predicted to retail at around $200, and just a few weeks after its release prices reflect this. We can't predict what the market will do, but hopefully prices for the 7900 GS will drop some in the coming months.
It's interesting that the 7900 GS card in this roundup that has the highest factory overclock is also (currently) the least expensive, and right away makes the BFG model stand out. We'll look at performance in a moment, but first let's take a closer look at the individual cards.
We've recently looked at the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS and its architecture. To recap, the 7900 GS has identical clock speeds to the 7900 GT, but with one less vertex pipeline and four fewer pixel pipelines. NVIDIA intends for it to be a direct competitor to ATI's X1900 GT, but at reference speeds the 7900 GS doesn't quite perform as high as the X1900 GT. Overclocking may improve the situation somewhat as we'll see in the next section.
Here is a breakdown of the 7900 GS cards we have for this review along with their clock speeds and prices:
| GeForce 7900 GS Clock Speeds and Pricing | ||
| Manufacturer and Card | Factory Clock | Price |
| Albatron GeForce 7900 GS | 450/660 | *$200-$250 |
| XFX GeForce 7900 GS RoHS Extreme | 480/700 | $211 |
| EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GS | 500/690 | $216 |
| Leadtek Winfast PX7900 GS TDH Extreme | 520/700 | *$220 |
| BFG GeForce 7900 GS OC | 540/660 | $200 |
As sometimes happens, we weren't able to get prices for all of these cards at the time of this writing. The Albatron 7900 GS and the Leadtek PX7900 GS TDH Extreme are not yet available, but we've included the target street prices (marked by an asterisk) for these cards. The 7900 GS was predicted to retail at around $200, and just a few weeks after its release prices reflect this. We can't predict what the market will do, but hopefully prices for the 7900 GS will drop some in the coming months.
It's interesting that the 7900 GS card in this roundup that has the highest factory overclock is also (currently) the least expensive, and right away makes the BFG model stand out. We'll look at performance in a moment, but first let's take a closer look at the individual cards.
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Bonesdad - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
I'd have to go with the Leadtek card. Near to the BFG in almost every level of performance, nearly equal in watt consumption, lower heat output under load, a couple of (suspect, I admit) games included. the (maybe) $20 more is worth it for the heat output alone to me.Also, why no noise output comparisons?
Nimbo - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
Why ATI cards are not overclock in the reviews? Are they bad overclokers? Why are not factory overclock versions?DerekWilson - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
ATI's current generation of GPUs have not been good overclockers. It is also not as easy to find ATI factory overclocked cards.We will look at ATI overclocking in similar roundups of ATI cards.
formulav8 - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
I was hoping to see a 7600GT including in the mix to see what I would have to gain from a 7900gs. :(Jason
Josh Venning - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
The 7900 GS launch article compared the 7900 GT to the stock 7900 GS, which you can take a look at here: http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2827">http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2827. We tested these overclocked 7900 GSs on the same system, so you can compare the numbers directly (with the exception of Oblivion which we tested with different quality settings for this article).yyrkoon - Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - link
Hmm, only roughly 5FPS more on the 7900GS vs the 7600GT acrossed the board. Thats pretty sad, but I think I know what I'll be doing when I get a conroe system going, I'll be adding another 7600GT for SLI . . .DerekWilson - Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - link
across the board is a little off I think ... in bw2 and oblivion, yes the fps difference is low. But when 4.2 fps is the increase over 17 (a 24% difference), you can't ignore it -- it does make a big difference. I would tend to argue that at these very low framerates, a 5 fps difference is much more noticable than the difference between 60 and 120 fps. In most other tests (especially with AA) frame rate differences were much higher in addition to being higher precent differences.DerekWilson - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2827">http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2827sum1 - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
"The BFG 7900 GS OC's core clock is set at 520MHz, a 70MHz increase over the standard NVIDIA 7900 GS"It’s listed at 540MHz everywhere else.
"EVGA"
Is usually written eVGA.
"Something slightly unique about this 7900 GS..."
Uniqueness does not come in shades of grey.
rushfan2006 - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
You are WRONG on all 3 of your points....Stop being so damn anal for the sake of just busting stones because you are bored.