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GeForce 7600GT Round Up 

PCI Express x16 graphics cards
Chipset GeForce  7600GT 256 MB, 128 bit

The GeForce 7600GT is true to form, a mainstream card. It offers high frame rates up to 1600 x 1200 with old games or less demanding new games in which frame rates are typically high enough, that you can 'absorb' the performance penalty with AA and AF and still have a high enough frame rate. This usually means you can have more than 30 to 45 fps minimum at 1024 x 768 with 4x AA and 16x AF. For new games or at least a graphically intensive games, the GeForce 7600GT can only offer high enough frame rates at 1024 x 768, without AA (you may still enable AF, if you choose).

The culprit for the lack of performance with AA and AF is obviously bandwidth, in this case the use of 128 bit memory bus. Unlike many other 3D graphics technology, bus width remains a premium that's only available on high end cards. Both ATI and NVIDIA have put more shader or ALU units into new designs and spent a lot of effort in tweaking them to enable their products to scale better in performance. However, for the last three generations since the introduction of the first 256 bit graphics card (the Radeon 9700), 256 bit bus remains solely a premium feature. The reason is actually quite simple: economics. It's simply is cheaper to build a graphics card with 128 bit bus than with a 256 bit bus. The board design is much less complicated and manufacturing costs are lower.

The ongoing trend with graphics cards is that high end cards of today have the same performance as mainstream cards of tomorrow or the 'next generation'. The GeForce 7600GT is no exception - the performance it offers is comparable with a GeForce 6800GS or 6800GT. The difference between them is mostly core and memory clock - the GeForce 7600GT sports a similar feature set like 12 pixel shader units, 5 vertex shader units and have roughly a 40 percent clock advantage to make up for its use of a 128 bit bus. Another trend with graphics cards is that new games and applications usually become more demanding and put more burden on these cards than older games and applications. That's why high end cards is typically good for at least two years of gaming while mainstream cards can be considered lucky if it can survive for a year.

So, is the GeForce 7600GT still worth the buy? Yes if you only need mainstream performance or don't want to spend more than USD 300 - 350 for a graphics card. One potential scenario for these mainstream cards in the future is physics acceleration. For example, you buy a single GeForce 7600GT now just for the performance. When new, demanding games come out, you could buy a much faster card like the GeForce 7900GT and use GeForce 7600GT as a second card or a Havok FX physics accelerator. At least if NVIDIA kept their word about supporting asynchronous SLI for physics acceleration.

With this in mind, you typically don't want to buy more premium than you have to for mainstream cards. Take for example performance. With a high end card, price is not a major concern. Some people will gladly pay a premium for a graphics cards that's marginally faster than another. However, users who buy mainstream cards will consider price / performance ratio. Features may also be a determining factor as is bundles. Today, we'll be looking at four offerings of GeForce 7600GT from four different manufacturers: the ASUS EN7600GT, Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT, Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme and MSI NX7600GT. 

Overview

ASUS EN7600GT
560/700 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT, 256 MB GDDR3
Core Clock : 558 MHz
Memory Clock : 702 MHz (1404 MHz GDDR3)

Overall Score: 78.5 points



Unlike many ASUS graphics cards, the EN7600GT comes across as quite, well, plain. There's no exotic custom designed cooling like the Silencer series or extravagant bundles. The packaging itself is simple and much smaller than we typically see from ASUS. The card comes with the standard accessories: HDTV dongle and thankfully, two DVI to analog dongle. You can also find three CDs - one for the manual, another for the drivers and DVD playback software and the final third is ASUS exclusive full game bundle, King Kong. A little bit sparse to say the least, but then again such bundles are typical of mainstream cards.

In the utilities CD, you'll find some ASUS utility fan fare like  the GameFace Messenger, Game LiveShow and Video Security Online. If you install the included ASUS Enhanced Driver, you'll get to use their color enhancing utility, Splendid, and On Screen Display, which enables you to quickly adjust your display properties (brightness, contrast etc) via an OSD you can call with a hot key.

Since this time the cards we got are pretty varied, we wanted to know how does each card's cooling solution perform under typical gameplay scenarios. So, we started RivaTuner's hardware monitoring utility and fired up Quake 4's final level, the Nexus, to see just how hot the card can get. Below is a snapshot from RivaTuner.



As you can see, the all copper based heatsink does a pretty good job of keeping the GeForce 7600GT core cool - 57° Celsius at full load and around 40° Celsius at idle. Like all GeForce 7600GT, the ASUS EN7600GT core is in direct contact with the base of the heatsink, which really helps the heatsink achieve more efficient thermal transfer than if a heatspreader is present. As is the norm, a thermal compound is also used to better 'stick' the core to the base of the heatsink. Unfortunately, we were unable to look under the heatsink to see whether a thermal pad or paste is used.



Unfortunately, there's no way to monitor the actual RPM of the fan. The default setting is 65%, which is a nice compromise between noise and heat. The fan at this setting is barely audible in a typical setup. Of course, you can crank it up a notch, but stay away from 100 %. Although it's not ear piercing loud with no high pitched noise, it is definitely noticeable at that settings.

Overall we think the ASUS EN7600GT is a well rounded card. It's has some extras the others don't have (a second DVI to analog dongle), a standard bundle and runs quite cool thanks to its all copper based heatsink. We would've preferred ASUS attach some RAM sinks to the memory,  particularly since the memory on these graphics card can get very warm.

Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT
560/700 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT, 256 MB GDDR3
Core Clock : 558 MHz
Memory Clock : 702 MHz (1404 MHz GDDR3)

Overall Score: 75 points



The Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT Silent Pipe is one of two dual slot cards in this round up. True to its name, this card relies only on passive cooling to cool the GeForce 76000GT core. Though you can't see it in the picture, there's actually two radiators on this card - one in the front and one in the back. Both radiators are connected to the all copper main heatsink via two heatpipes. No doubt the design was tweaked from the original to make the card more friendly and easier to install / remove in SLI setups. However, the placement of heatpipes also introduce another problem - you can't use passive cooling on the memory chips (at least those above the core).

The card comes in a typical Gigabyte packaging, though thankfully a little bit smaller than Gigabyte's high end cards. Inside the box, Styrofoam padding and cutaways help keep the contents safe and unmoving. Definitely better than the EN7600GT. Since this is a mainstream card, you can't really expect much in the bundle department. Gigabyte was nice enough to include a HDTV dongle, two DVI to analog dongle and two CDs - one with the drivers and utilities and a full game - Serious Sam II.

We admit, we are generally skeptical of passively cooled cards. Mainly because these cards are often tested by manufacturers under very 'ideal' settings - like with a 20° Celsius room temperature. No doubt not all of us will use our PC in such a room. So, during testing, we've decided to actively cool the card with an off the shelf, low RPM 8 cm case fan. We'll take a look at how the card perform without fan later. Below is RivaTuner's hardware monitoring graph of the Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT after several minutes of Quake 4.



Not bad at all - 52° Celsius at full load and around 40° Celsius at idle. That's lower than the EN7600GT, which is expected since the cooling solution is larger - more heat dissipation area. Looking back to our Gigabyte GeForce 6600GT Silent Pipe review, things have really cool down a lot. Even with a fan, that card can reach 62° Celsius at idle and 86° Celsius at full load. No doubt the core's direct contact with the heatsink helps the GeForce 7600GT achieve better heat transfer. OK, let's see how this card perform without a fan.



This is why we are skeptical of passive cooling solutions - 67° Celsius at full load. From the looks of it, we haven't reach the peak yet. While it is much better than their first try, we still think Gigabyte should've at least provide an optional fan, since obviously in most cases you still need it. Silent Pipe II is getting better, but it's not quite there yet.

Obviously, those who are very picky about noise will love this card - no fan, no noise. We agree that it's Silent and it is better than its predecessor. However, there's also a price to pay - a card that's hotter than GeForce 7600 from other manufacturers. Of course the choice is yours, but we feel a cooling solution should be cool first and silent second.

Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme TDH
590/800 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT, 256 MB GDDR3
Core Clock : 588 MHz
Memory Clock : 796 MHz (1592 MHz GDDR3)

Overall Score: 80.5 points



Reviewing Leadtek's graphics cards are always a pleasure, even more so if there's some custom touches here and there. It's obvious that Leadtek put some extra effort into this card. The fan is noticeably larger in diameter than the reference cooling solution and so is the heatsink. You'll notice it's a also a copper based heatsink as well. If you look under the heatsink, you'll notice Leadtek choose to use thermal paste instead of pad to help the core maintain contact with the all copper based heatsink. Unfortunately, despite the large area it covers, it doesn't come in contact with the RAM chips. All these extra touches may be a necessity for this card - the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme comes with slightly higher clocked than the other cards in this round up. It's obvious that Leadtek is doing what they can to differentiate their product.

The packaging is typical Leadtek packaging, which we think the best we've seen so far. Inside the box, you'll find the standard accessories: an HDTV dongle and one DVI to analog dongle. That's probably the only gripe we have with this card. With such a premium offering, you expect more - a S Video extension cable and a second DVI to analog dongle will be nice. Thankfully, Leadtek is nice enough to bundle two games - Serious Sam II and Trackmania Nations and the obligatory installer with utilities and a DVD playback software.

With a larger heat dissipation area and fan, we have high hopes for this card. Let's look how the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme fares after a session of Quake 4.



Well, 54° Celsius at full load. It is cooler than both ASUS EN7600GT, though not as good as the Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT with a low RPM, 8 cm fan. Frankly, we expect better from this card since it obviously has the edge in this department. Could it be the higher clocked core is putting more heat on the heatsink? Actually, no. Looking at the fan control settings, we can why it perform this way. The fan speeds are very conservative indeed.



These settings are the standard default settings of the card. No doubt, these settings are used to maintain a low noise profile. However, we were curious just how much effective Leadtek's custom cooling solution really is. So, we ran the card a second time, but this time we change the fan control settings to 65% - the standard value of a typical GeForce 7600GT. You can see the results we got below.



That's a new low in temperature  50° Celsius at full load. But what's impressive is that at that setting the card is just barely audible in our setup. Now, like all reviewers, a typical setup in our case is an open case environment - all the innards of the PC in a table in front of us during testing. In a typical user setup, you will likely not notice the noise at all.

The Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme has two things that makes it different from a typical GeForce 7600GT - the performance potential and it's much more effective cooling solution. We'll go into performance part later on, but as you can see, there's no doubt the PX7600GT Extreme is an exceptional card, though we still think it could be better.

MSI NX7600GT
560/700 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT, 256 MB GDDR3
Core Clock : 558 MHz
Memory Clock : 702 MHz (1404 MHz GDDR3)

Overall Score: 77.5 points



We were a little bit surprise when we picked up our NX7600GT sample This is the second GeForce 7600GT with a dual slot cooling solution in this round up. The design is not something we've seen before - it looks like a much more SLI friendly version of the default NVIDIA dual slot cooling solution for the GeForce 6800GT. Needless to say, we initially have high hopes for this card. However, a second look reveal that the heatsink inside is made up of aluminum. Aluminum heatsinks usually don't perform as well as copper based solutions, which does explain the thermal performance of the card.

The NX7600GT packaging is similar to the Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT, though slightly larger. The inside is a little bit different - a mix of hard, transparent plastic material with Styrofoam padding for the graphics card. The graphics card is only protected by a detachable piece of the same hard plastic. It's understandable - the graphics card it self is already well protected by the heatsink. The standard accessories are present: the HDTV dongle and a single DVI to analog dongle. By now you probably know what we're about to say - so we won't say it. You also find two CDs inside - a driver / installer CD and an applications CD. That's right - no games. A check on MSI's official website reveal that game bundles are optional, so depending on where you live, you may or may not get a game bundle. One thing for sure though, the no-game-bundle edition should be cheaper.

Although it uses a dual slot cooling solution, we didn't expect much from this card. Here is the RivaTuner hardware monitoring graph we have after several minutes of Quake with the MSI NX7600GT.



Not particularly impressive, isn't? The single slot ASUS EN7600GT fares much better in this test, despite it's smaller cooling solution. 62° Celsius at full load is slightly higher than average. We think MSI should have at least used a copper base with aluminum fins, it would have been much more effective than an all aluminum solution.  A check on the fan control tab confirms our suspicion - the fan speeds are set to the default values.



We tried another run with Quake 4, but this time we set the fan control speed to 100%. No doubt the noise is much more noticeable than the other cards. Our objective here is too see what can we achieve with this setting. After about 20 minutes of Quake 4, we have the RivaTuner's hardware monitoring graph below.



Better, but you'll have to put up with the noise. At 100 % throttle, we can achieve the same full load temperatures as we have with the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme. No doubt if you're going to buy this card, you will have to find a setting to your liking - something around 80 - 85 percent should be a fair compromise between noise and temperature. At that setting the noise is similar to what you get from the reference cooling solution on the GeForce 7900GTX and full load temperature is around 55° Celsius.

Performance

Except for the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme, the cards are running at reference core and memory clocks. Since the ASUS EN7600GT, Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT Silent Pipe II and MSI NX7600GT are all running at the same core and memory clock, we expect little difference separating the three. For comparison purposes, we've also included results with a GeForce 7600GS.

As usual, we'll be focusing on performance under default settings and with 4x AA and 16x AF. Anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering are applied from the in-game menu settings (or console) whenever possible. V-sync was disabled on both the driver panel and within the game, if present. The settings we used for each game are pretty much the same as our usual test settings, with one exception - we turned off volumetric lights in F.E.A.R. Quake 4 was set to 'High Quality'  while for Serious Sam II we used the 'Maximum' video options preset but with custom resolutions, AA and AF settings. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was set to use its SM 3.0 rendering path with the highest detail (sans HDR).

We'd like to thank Tagan for supplying the additional power supply for this article and Gigabyte for the GeForce 7600GS card.

Our test setup
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ socket 939
2 x 1024 MB Kingston KVR 3-3-3 PC3200 DDR-SDRAM
MSI K8N NForce 4 SLI motherboard
Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9 80 GBs Serial ATA 8 MB buffer
ASUS E-616 DVD-ROM
Tagan TG530-U15 530 watts ATX/BTX power supply

Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 installed
NVIDIA Forceware 84.21 reference driver
NVIDIA NForce 4 6.66 reference driver
Creative SoundBlaster Live! 24 bit 5.12.1.512 driver.
DirectX 9.0c

The graphs are pretty self explanatory, but in case you can't see the text, they're arranged in groups of three colors: green for minimum fps, blue for average fps and red for maximum fps. The first group represent test results under default settings, and the second represent results with 4xAA and 16xAF enabled.These results are in frame rate per second.

The results:

From a glance, it's hard to see any difference between these GeForce 7600GT cards. We have to look at the numbers to see which one offer slightly higher frame rates. While there seem to differences between the ASUS EN7600GT, Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT and MSI NX7600GT, these differences are normal variations between runs with this benchmark (1 - 4 fps) and certainly not significant at all. No surprises here, the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme is ahead, quite obviously because of the core and memory clock advantage it has over the other three cards. The other three cards basically offer the same level of performance, the differences between them is likely normal variations between runs.

Let's look a little closer at these results. At 1024 x 768, all the cards including the GeForce 7600GS have enough pixel processing power to push this game with and without AA and AF. We do see quite a performance drop with the GeForce 7600GS when AA and AF is enabled though, a first sign of trouble perhaps? At 1280 x 1024, all the GeForce 7600GT have slightly lower minimum fps when AA and AF is enabled, including the leading Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme (thankfully it's still 10 fps or around 12 percent faster than the other GeForce 7600GT cards). At 1600 x 1200, the burden  is simply too much to bear - minimum frame rates with AA and AF are half that of without AA and AF. Clearly, the GeForce 7600GT is not meant to be run with AA and AF at resolutions higher than 1024 x 768.

A slightly higher clocked card like the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme does offer higher frame rates overall, but with a minimum fps of 70 to 80 fps, that's not a really strong point to buy this card. For those who want to play this game at high resolutions and willing to tolerate some aliasing, any of the GeForce 7600 cards here should be enough for the job. Yes, even the GeForce 7600GS, though we have some reservations about it.  


Since Homeworld 2 is an RTS, you'll most likely won't encounter those minimum fps that often (thankfully). The lowest minimum fps you can get away and still not notice any lag in this game is fairly high - something like 40 fps. All four GeForce 7600GT cards barely pass that mark at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF. Without AA and AF, we do have some leeway available, all the way to 1600 x 1200. Differences between the three referenced clocked cards is likely nothing more than normal variations between runs. Once again, the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme offers slightly higher frame rates overall, but minimum frame rates are similar if not the same as any other GeForce 7600GT cards. 

The Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme does have a slightly higher average fps, most notably at 1600 x 1200 without AA and AF. No doubt, the slightly higher clocked core and memory enables it to better cope with the burden of high resolution. What about with AA and AF? Enabling AA and AF really turns this benchmark into a graphics limited benchmark (at least with these cards). We can already see slightly higher minimum and average fps at 1024 x 768 from the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme. However, the differences we're seeing are only about 6 to 15 fps or 10 percent faster, which is about right if we look back to the Call of Duty results.  You might notice that in actual gameplay, then again you may not.

On a side note, the GeForce 7600GS is not really looking that good here. It barely manage to hit the minimum 30 fps mark at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF. If you want higher frame rates, you have to disable AA, it's just too much of a burden for the card. From the looks of it, without AA and AF, the GeForce 7600GS may be fast enough to play at 1280 x 960, though no such luck at an even higher resolution.


Richard Burns Rally is really sensitive to fillrate and bandwidth, every little bit counts. At 1024 x 768 without AA and AF we can already see the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme edging the other GeForce 7600GT, though in all honesty the difference is nothing you would notice in gameplay. Enable AA and AF and we see the difference grew to a more noticeable degree - not surprisingly about 8 to 15 fps or 12 percent. That's about the same rate we're seeing with the first two benchmarks. The performance difference stays pretty much the same with higher resolutions such as 1280 x 1024 and 1600 x 1200. Since this is a racing game, having frame rates above 40 fps really helps keep the game smooth and you'll most likely experience less twitching or stuttering with the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme. So, here we see the advantage of getting a slightly higher clocked GeForce 7600GT. The other cards are within a hair of each other, most likely from normal variations between runs.

Those who are thinking about buying the GeForce 7600GS should definitely reconsider their decision. The GeForce 7600GS is definitely not on par with the faster GeForce 7600GT cards. The card offers noticeably lower frame rates, both on minimum and average fps at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF. Come to think of it, we already see slightly lower frame rates without AA and AF Seeing this, it's safe to assume if you're serious about gaming, you shouldn't consider anything less than a GeForce 7600GT. While the price of a GeForce 7600GS may seem like a bargain, the performance you get is significantly slower than a GeForce 7600GT.


Since this benchmark uses a realtime cutscene, there will some variations between runs. That's why we see a larger differences from the three reference clocked cards here compared to the previous benchmarks. Repeated runs do show the differences are actually smaller than what we're seeing here. Looking at these results, you will most likely want to stick to 1024 x 768 to play this game. Even then, it's not advisable to enable AA and AF. We're seeing minimum fps around or below 30 fps at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF with these cards. You most definitely will notice some stuttering and lag with that kind of frame rate. Compared to the other GeForce 7600GT, the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme has an 8 to 15 average fps lead. So, does this justify the card's claim as a performance leader? Unfortunately, no. Even with a higher core and memory clock, we're still seeing basically the same minimum frame rates from this card - 25 fps. Minimum fps without AA and AF is also similar to the other cards - around 35 fps.

There's very little to expect from the GeForce 7600GS in this game. At default settings, we're seeing practically the same frame rate as a GeForce 7600GT with AA and AF. If you're using a GeForce 7600GS, you probably have to drop to a lower resolution, something like 800 x 600 which is not pretty at all, since aliasing artifacts are even more noticeable at lower resolutions.


The nominal differences between these cards are small, but they can still be significant. However keep in mind that variations between runs can and does happen, usually within 1 to 2 fps. From the looks of it, the Leadtek PX7600GT can not only offer you higher frame rates, but can sometimes keeps you from seeing lag or stuttering, at least at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF in this game. Unfortunately, even the extra performance it has is not enough to provide high enough frame rates at higher resolutions. At 1280 x 1024, these GeForce 7600GT cards here are basically neck to neck with each other - minimum frame rates from all cards are about 30 fps.

We're already seeing arguably passable frame rates from the GeForce 7600GT. A much lower clocked card like the GeForce 7600GS doesn't even stand a chance - you'll have to use a lower resolution and / or lower settings, even if you're running without AA and AF.


The results speak for themselves. All these cards are not fast enough to run F.E.A.R at our chosen test settings, with AA and AF. Even the higher clocked PX7600GT Extreme isn't putting up a fight. The GeForce 7600 cards are mainstream offerings and that means you'll likely only get high enough frame rates in games without AA and AF. It's true, the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme is the fastest card here but a 3 to 6 fps difference isn't going to do us any good. In all honesty, minimum frame rates are high enough from all GeForce 7600GT cards at 1024 x 768, without AA and AF. While the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme is faster, we don't see a strong enough case to go with the higher clocked card with this game.


Much like the other benchmarks we've seen so far, Quake 4 is just too heavy a load for the GeForce 7600GT above 1024 x 768 with AA and AF enabled. Just look at the AA and AF results at 1280 x 1024 and 1600 x 1200. We're seeing frame rates drop to 25 and 26 fps with all these cards. Now, if you're a serious gamer whose very picky about stuttering and lag like us, you definitely want to run with the best possible frame rate or at least a compromise between frame rate and quality. Here, that means running without AA and AF regardless of what GeForce 7600GT you are using. Even a higher clocked card like the Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme can only do so much. The PX7600GT Extreme is undoubtedly faster, but the difference is not that significant. All the reference clocked GeForce 7600GT can still maintain a 45 fps minimum at 1600 x 1200.