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GeForce 7900GT Round Up

PCI Express x16 graphics cards
Chipset GeForce 7900GT 256 MB, 256 bit

Ever since its launch, the GeForce 7900 strongest sales have come from the GeForce 7900GT series. Performance are virtually identical to a GeForce 7800GTX, the old king of the hill, with a much more affordable prices, below USD 400. Of course, it took some time till users all around the world actually enjoy the sub USD 400 price but they are finally here. ATI tried to counter the mass appeal of the GeForce 7900GT with their Radeon X1900GT, but performance was slightly lower and by the time the card was ready, GeForce 7900GT from various vendors have swarm the market.

It wasn't all roses for the GeForce 7900GT though. Ever since the GeForce 6 series, NVIDIA have loosened their policy regarding factory overclocked cards and the GeForce 7900GT has the potential to be another GeForce 4 Ti4200 - an affordable card with a good overclocking potential. Manufacturers quickly seize the opportunity to sell slightly higher clocked SKUs, however it seems that some manufacturers (or both manufacturers and NVIDIA, depending on who you talk to) miscalculated the margin of safety for higher clocked GeForce 7900GTs. Users began complaining about defective cards and after several weeks the issue was finally cleared. Manufacturers begin to adapt a more rigorous testing method in determining which cores can be used for higher clocked SKUs and just how high they can clock the card.

With these issues resolved, the GeForce 7900GT once again takes the spotlight. But this time in tandem - two GeForce 7900 cores is put into a single package and - boom - the GeForce 7950GX2 is here. Well, ok, maybe not as simple is that, but there's no denying that the GeForce 7950GX2 is basically two GeForce 7900GT cores in one card and through SLI, it is recognized as a single card. So now, you can actually have four GeForce 7900GT in a single system - the Quad SLI - even if you only have two PCI-E x16 slots.

What could be better for NVIDIA? By using practically the same chip, they and their partners can offer both an affordable and enthusiast only high end SKUs - the GeForce 7900GT and GeForce 7950GX2. There's no need to push the GeForce 7900GTX anymore and that means they don't have to validate which cores should be used for the GeForce 7900GTX or GeForce 7900GT. With this strategy, it will be easier to get rid of any GeForce 7900 chip still left in inventory. The hardest part of this strategy is not financial or even hardware - it's software and drivers. NVIDIA have to make sure existing and future games will work with SLI and the GeForce 7950GX2. But enough conjecture, let's get back to reality.

NVIDIA's strongest SKUs in the market today is undoubtedly the GeForce 7900GT and 7600GT. We already saw what the GeForce 7600GT, both reference and higher clocked SKUs can do in our last round up. The performance difference, while present, is minimal. The use of a 128 bit memory bus restrains the card from getting enough bandwidth to really stretch its 12 pixel shader units to its maximum potential. So could a higher clocked GeForce 7900GT offer more punch than reference clocked GeForce 7900GT? If it can, would it be significant or even 'just enough'? To answer these questions, we test four cards from different manufacturers: the ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce (GV-NX79T256DP-RH), Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and the reference clocked MSI NX7900GT (VT2D256E) to the test.

Overview

ASUS EN7900GT TOP
520/720 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce 7900GT, 256 MB GDDR3
Core Clock : 522 MHz
Memory Clock : 720 MHz (1440 MHz GDDR3)

Overall Score: 84 points



The ASUS EN7900GT TOP comes in a box like many other ASUS graphics cards - big. It may be good from a marketing point of view, but it's certainly not that practical - the card is only about a quarter of the box. Looking at the card itself, the card is pretty, well, standard looking. However, a close look reveals some subtle things ASUS has thought thru for this cooler / heatsink design. At first glance, the fan seems quite small, but that's just because the intake is smaller than the fan behind it. The cooler itself is actually small, though the base is on par with any other card. The top and left side of the cooler is hollow, allowing air to quickly flow from the fan, through the fins of the heatsink and out. The secret to this design seems to be the use of a fan with a large number of blades.

Bundle wise, the EN7900GT TOP has more software than any other card or maybe just more CDs. The standard accessories are there: two DVI to analog dongles, a 6 pin ATX power cable and a HDTV dongle. Software wise, in addition to the obligatory driver and utilities CD and the two games bundle - King Kong and Xpand Rally, you'll find a DVD playback software, a video editor and a multimedia pack software. We find the bundle quite a bit odd, since the card itself has no Video input capabilities. Since this sample has made quite some rounds to other reviewers, it is possible the bundle got mixed up with another ASUS card, so it's best to check the website to see what you will be getting with the ASUS EN7900GT TOP.

Before running our heat stress test to see how effective the EN7900GT TOP cooling solution really is, we did a routine check of RivaTuner's fan control tab. What we saw here seems to suggest the EN7900GT TOP's fan are set to the default values of every other GeForce 7900GT.



Now, we wanted to know how well 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 how hot the card can get. Below is a snapshot from RivaTuner.



62° Celsius is decidedly average. In this regard the ASUS EN7900GT TOP is not worse or better than any other card in this round up. Things maybe be a little bit different if they had used a cooler with a slightly larger heat dissipation area or make the air intake hole a little bit larger. Of course, this could be a cost saving measure, if so they're pretty successful in keeping the core cool and noise levels down with slightly smaller cooler.

Gigabyte GeForce 7900GTX TurboForce
525/720 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce 7900GT, 256 MB GDDR3
Core Clock : 526 MHz
Memory Clock : 720 MHz (1440 MHz GDDR3)

Overall Score: 82.5 points



The Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce is the only dual slot card in this round up. As you can see, unlike the other GeForce 7900GT, the cooler uses a unique design and is made of aluminum radial fins attached to a copper base. There's still room under the fins, so if you want to, you can even put some RAM sinks to cool the memory. The pass-through air from the fan should be enough to cool the RAM sinks and other components near the core. There is one caveat to this design: although it's still technically possible to put two of these cards in a space constrained SLI setup, we would recommend against it. In addition to the of danger of damage to the fan blades, placing an object so close to the fan would also generate a very noticeable noise, though still quite low in pitch.

Another factor that differentiate this card from the other GeForce 7900GTs in this round up is Gigabyte's choice of power connector. Yes, that's a traditional 12 volt ATX molex power connector you see on the card, not your typical 6 pin ATX power connector. This allows Gigabyte not only to forgo a power cable / converter (no doubt saving some cost), but also a boon for those who do not have a power supply with a 6 pin ATX connector.

Inside the usual Gigabyte box, you'll find the card and the standard accessories - a HDTV dongle and two DVI to analog dongles. No S-Video cables though, so you'll have to get one if you want to hook up the card via S-Video or extend the dongle to reach your HDTV set. In addition to the must have CD driver that includes a DVD playback software, Gigabyte was kind enough to  bundle one game with this card -  Serious Sam II. We know, the bundle is quite sparse compared to the other cards and normally this would irk some people, but understand that Gigabyte wanted to save cost and still deliver performance at the same time with this card. Certainly, some compromises had to be made and we think it's not that big of an issue.

Let's take a look at the fan's control speed settings via RivaTuner.



Well, it's the standard values we see in just about every other GeForce 7900GT. At these settings, the fan is barely audible. This doesn't tell the whole story. Keep in mind the fan is larger than any other card's here today. The blades are also thicker. All these factors may just be enough to keep the core down to standard GeForce 7900GT temperatures. Let's look at how the Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT fares in our heat test.



Yep, the temperature is right there with the other cards. The cooling solution is as effective as the other cards and at the same time quite successful in maintaining the same noise levels. The only drawback we can think of with this cooling solution is that it's makes the card a dual slot cooled card, which may limit its appeal to those who do not have enough space in their motherboard or PC.

Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme TDH
520/715 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce 7900GT, 256 MB GDDR3
Core Clock : 526 MHz
Memory Clock : 715 MHz (1430 MHz GDDR3)

Overall Score: 85 points



The PX7900GT Extreme have some subtle differences that is not apparent until you look at it a little closer. The heatsink is shaped in such a way, that there's only one exhaust present - the right side of the cooler. The fan is slightly further to the right, making the cooler slightly longer than standard coolers. In short, this means extra heat dissipation area which is a good thing. Now, look closely at the fan, you'll no doubt notice Leadtek chose to use a lot more blade than usual. Using such a design can have some drawbacks - mainly noise - so it was a pleasant surprise to find this card is barely audible in operation.

The packaging is your typical Leadtek packaging, something which we have much praise in the past. Inside the box, you'll find the standard accessories: a HDTV dongle, a DVI to analog dongle and a 6 pin ATX power cable. It would've been nice to have at least two DVI to analog dongles, but apparently that's optional depending on where you live. The game bundle is the same as with PX7600GT Extreme - Serious Sam II and Trackmania Nations. Of course, the obligatory installer CD with utilities and DVD playback software are included..

A peek at the fan control tab in RivaTuner confirm our suspicion - to keep noise down, the PX7900GT Extreme uses slightly lower values on the fan control slider.



However, this compromise shouldn't affect the thermal performance of this card since its heatsink's dissipation area is larger than the other cards. Let's see how the PX7900GT fares after a session of Quake 4.



A full load temperature of 62° Celsius is average, typical of what we saw with a GeForce 7900GT. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time and equipment to do any noise levels test, but from our experience the card is no better or worse than any other GeForce 7900GT. In this regard, the PX7900GT Extreme is not that different from any other GeForce 7900GT. It will have to rely on its performance and bundle to differentiate itself from the others.

MSI NX7900GT
450/660 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce 7900GT, 256 MB GDDR3
Core Clock : 450 MHz
Memory Clock : 661 MHz (1322 MHz GDDR3)

Overall Score: 84 points



The NX7900GT is certainly the odd one out of the GeForce 7900GT card in this round up. For one, it's running on standard / reference clocks. It also comes standard with video input capabilities. This card should make an attractive package for gamers who want a well rounded card. Although the cooler is similar to the one used on ASUS EN7900GT TOP and Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme, there are some subtle differences. You couldn't see it on the photo, but the top and right sides of the cooler are hollow, enabling hot air from the fan to quickly blow through the fins on the heatsink upwards and sideways to the left.

The packaging is similar to the MSI NX7600GT. The card itself sits inside a Styrofoam box, though not all the way through. A single piece of plastic helps keep the card inside the Styrofoam. We think it would've been better to use a piece of Styrofoam instead, that way there's protection on both sides of the card which should keep the card safe from harm's way from mishaps and mishandling. Inside the box, you'll find the standard accessories such as HDTV / video input dongle and cables, a 6 pin ATX power cables and two DVI to analog dongles. We say dongles and cables, because MSI was kind enough to include an S-Video cable that you could use to extend the HDTV / video input dongle by 3 feet, very generous of them. Bundled applications are standard fare though: one installer CD with drivers and some MSI utilities, another CD for DVD and multimedia software plus a full version of Peter Jackson's King Kong. Well, at least this time they're kind enough to include one game.

Firing up RivaTuner, we can see the fan control settings are set to the standard values, just like the ASUS EN7900GT and Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce. Those levels are enough to keep the card cool while maintaining low noise levels, even in a quiet environment like an HTPC setup.



Next up we have a screenshot of RivaTuner's hardware monitoring for the NX7900GT. With a pretty standard fan speed settings and roughly the same size cooling solution, we expect pretty much the same full load temperatures from the NX7900GT as from the other cards in this round up. Of course, all of them are tested under the same conditions (the same ambient temperature).



A full load temperature of 62° Celsius is practically the same as the other cards in this round up. The graphs stays fairly the same all through the test, so it's not very likely the core will get any hotter than this. Of course, if you're thinking about using a pair of them in SLI, it's pretty likely the temperature will be slightly higher because ambient temperature is higher when there are two cards in close quarters dissipating heat together.

Performance

Most of the cards here except for the MSI NX7900GT are running at a slightly higher clock than reference specification. In fact, the three other cards - ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce and Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme are basically using the same core and memory clock - about 520 and 720 MHz, respectively. Like our last GeForce 7600GT round up, we expect the higher clocked cards to offer slightly higher frame rates. It will be interesting to see just by how much.

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. F.E.A.R was set to the maximum quality (for both graphics and computer settings) but without Soft Shadows to allow performance testing with AA. 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.

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:

Without AA and AF, the reference clocked MSI NX7900GT was able to keep up with the rest of the pack at 1024 x 768, no doubt because we're system limited at that resolution. Obviously at higher resolutions, it slightly falls behind by about 10 fps or 5 percent. With AA and AF enabled, the difference shows up rather quickly - the NX7900GT is slightly slower than the other three higher clocked cards even at 1024 x 768. The difference stays pretty much the same at higher resolutions, something like 10 percent. However, notice that at 1600 x 1200, even the higher clocked ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce is beginning to buck under the pressure - minimum frame rates are slightly slower than without AA and AF.

In all honesty, while the NX7900GT may seem 'slower', it still performs admirably despite it's clock disadvantage. Looking closely at the 1280 x 1024 results, the card was still able to maintain the same level of minimum frame rate with and without AA and AF. So, the higher average frame rates from the other cards are mostly seen on less graphically intensive parts of the benchmark. The difference in performance is more 'noticeable' at 1600 x 1200, but all the cards experienced quite a big hit at this point. A 5 percent difference is not a strong enough argument to buy these higher clocked cards. Let's see what we can gleam out of the other benchmarks.


Obviously, we're very system limited at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF. Don't even bother looking at non AA and AF scores, they're all the same up to 1600 x 1200. It's only at 1280 x 960 and 1600 x 1200 with AA and AF do we see a difference between running the game with and without AA and AF. Unlike Call of Duty, here we see a pretty large gap opening up between the MSI NX7900GT and the other three cards at 1280 x 960 with AA and AF - something like 25 fps. But once we take into account the high frame rates we're seeing, that's only a 10 percent difference or about the same as we saw earlier with Call of Duty.

It may not seem a big deal at1280 x 960, but once we hit 1600 x 1200, the reference clocked NX7900GT offers less than stellar frame rates - a 36 fps minimum. Remember, we generally want at least a 40 fps minimum for this game to run smoothly. The ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce is just a shy away of that.

Of course, these benchmarks are fairly old games, so the results with newer games may be different, but not necessarily so. We saw a similar trend with our round up of GeForce 7600GTs - a slightly higher clocked card isn't going to give you night and day difference in the frame rate department  However, if you want slightly higher frame rate at 1600 x 1200, any of these higher clocked GeForce 7900GT may deliver the goods. They can be a good alternative if you can't get your hands on a GeForce 7900GTX or unable to use one because of space constraints.


Since all these cards  are all system limited without AA and AF up to 1600 x 1200, the only results worth seeing here are AA and AF results. In that light, the MSI NX7900GT have already begun losing frame rates at 1024 x 768. At the sweet spot of 1280 x 1024, the difference becomes more noticeable - 12 fps - but that's still only a 10 percent difference. However, note in this game the minimum frame rates are also lower  - 85 fps  compared to the 97 - 98 fps of the higher clocked cards. Arguably, you won't notice that in gameplay but once you hit 1600 x 1200, the same 10 percent difference can be noticeable though not necessarily significant.

Those people who buy cards like the GeForce 7900GT no doubt will want to run AA and AF at the highest possible resolution with all the graphical details turned up high. On graphically limited situations, the higher clocked cards do give some head room, but not by much. You really need the clock rates of a GeForce 7900GTX to comfortably play at 1600 x 1200 and the ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce only comes about half way between a reference clocked GeForce 7900GT and 7900GTX.

So, are these cards even worth it? We'll let you decide that for yourself. One thing to note is that two of these higher clocked GeForce 7900GT are single slot solutions while most if not all GeForce 7900GTX are dual slot solutions. A higher clocked, single slot GeForce 7900GT can still squeeze inside an HTPC case or maybe you could still squeeze two of them for an SLI setup in most NForce 4 SLI motherboards.


While the Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme seems to have a lead over the ASUS EN7900GT TOP and Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce in this game, that's probably just normal variations between runs. Once we hit 1600 x 1200, all the higher clocked cards offer pretty much the same level of frame rate, but you probably don't want to play at resolutions above 1024 x 768. This game is the heaviest of the 'old guard' in our benchmark suite  - even the higher clocked GeForce 7900GT is only fast enough to provide fluid frame rates at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF. At higher resolutions such as 1280 x 1024, you'll start to see lag here and there .At 1600 x 1200, minimum frame rates can even go below 20 fps.

How do the higher clocked cards compare to the reference clocked MSI NX7900GT? Not that different really - 3  fps on the minimum side and 7 fps in average. Still within the 10 percent window so you really don't gain any substantial increases in frame rate with a higher clocked card. If we looked at performance without AA and AF the trend persist. Only 1280 x 1024 is a viable choice and frame rates are similar to running at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF.


A relatively new game with a liberal use of shaders than the previous four, Brothers in Arms is only fast enough with these cards at 1600 x 1200 without AA and AF and 1280 x 1024 with AA and AF. Not that much different from a GeForce 7800GTX, really. All these cards can still pretty much maintain the same level of performance at 1024 x 768, with the NX7900GT coming slightly behind.  At 1280 x 1024, the frame rates of the NX7900GT are still comparable to the ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and Gigabyte 7900GT TurboForce. There are differences but they are small enough to be discounted as normal variations between runs. It's only at 1600 x 1200 without AA and AF do we see some lag, mostly with explosions, smoke and dirt. The higher clocked cars fared better here, but even their advantage is not enough to push AA and AF at 1600 x 1200.

We think most people will likely run with AA and AF than without, so if you mostly play this game at 1280 x 1024 with AA and AF, you can choose any of the card here today. They all provide high enough frame rates at that resolution. However, if you're willing to forsake AA and AF and play at 1600 x 1200, you're going to need the performance of the higher clocked cards. For obvious reasons, we don't recommend you using higher resolutions than that.


First of, let's talk about results with AA and AF - that means only focusing on 1024 x 768 results. Here, the cards are basically neck to neck, with the NX7900GT slightly behind on both average and minimum fps. If you look at these results from a performance perspective, the 10 percent difference between the higher clocked cards and the reference clocked MSI NX7900GT persist. The higher clocked cards do offer a higher minimum fps (4 - 6 fps higher) so these cards offer a better chance you can avoiding graphically related lag or stutter at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF. For F.E.A.R, that's quite significant.

If you're willing to forsake AA, you may even be able to play at 1600 x 1200 with the higher clocked cards. This is the resolution where the MSI NX7900GT can't compete with the ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce. Enabling AF will likely incur some hit so it's very likely you'll lower than 30 fps minimum with the NX7900GT at 1600 x 1200 without AA but with AF. The other three cards still have enough pixel processing power to absorb the penalty and deliver minimum frame rates above 30 fps. 


The reference clocked NX7900GT is able to keep up with the rest of the pack without AA and AF, but it quickly falls behind by 9 to 10 fps or  - guess what - 10 percent once AA and AF is enabled. The higher clocked cards are able to better 'absorb' the penalty of AA and AF. The ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce can provide the same minimum fps with and without AA and AF at 1024 x 768. There's still a performance hit with AA and AF, though so they're not entirely off the hook. Only 1280 x 1024 with AA and AF is viable with these cards, any more and you'll likely see frame rates drop to below 30 fps in some occasions, even with the higher clocked cards.


No surprises here. We can already see the telltale signs of lower frame rates on the NX7900GT at 1024 x 768, which becomes more noticeable at 1280 x 960 and 1600 x 1200. The higher clocked ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce is fast enough to barely pass the minimum 30 fps mark at 1600 x 1200 while the NX7900GT goes below 30 fps more than once throughout the benchmark. Looks like an increase in clock is more 'appreciated' by new games - probably because we're seeing much lower frame rates than in older, DirectX 8 games. A 3 fps difference between 60 and 63 fps is less noticeable than the same difference between 27 and 30 fps.


Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory provides some insight into what kind of future lies ahead. Like F.E.A.R, this game is a little bit heavy on shaders. Here we can see the higher clocked cards retain a 10 percent higher frame rates, but that advantage is not enough to push 1600 x 1200 with AA and AF. You can still play at 1600 x 1200 if you want, but it would be wise to at least turned off AA if you do.

Conclusion:

The GeForce 7900GTs are, in a sense, comparable replacement of the GeForce 7800GTX so it's no surprise the optimal resolution is 1280 x 1024 or 1280 x 960. Higher clocked cards such as the ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce do offer a 10 percent performance advantage over the reference clocked cards such as the MSI NX7900GT. And just like what we saw with the higher clocked GeForce 7800GTX, the higher clocked GeForce 7900GT cards retained that lead at 1600 x 1200, offering just enough frame rates in some cases for comfortable gameplay. Unlike our last GeForce 7600GT round up, the increase is more evenly spread between minimum and maximum fps. No doubt the use of the 256 bit memory bus helped here.

If you're only going to play at 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024 or 1280 x 960, the MSI NX7900GT has more bang for the buck, particularly if you're a budget conscious gamer and more appreciative of the video input capabilities of the card,. This card becomes more appealing once you factored in SLI and its physics acceleration potential. Not only do you get a 2nd graphics card, you also get a capture card and a physics accelerator in one convenient package. However, pure performance aficionados will be advised to take a good look at the Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce - it's slightly cheaper than the other higher clocked cards with similar performance. One minus point we can think of with this card is it's dual slot cooling solution. It's not a good idea to squeeze in two of them into an SLI setup if the space between your PCI-E x16 slots is not wide enough. Of course if asynchronous physics acceleration becomes a reality, you can always 'sacrifice' 2 PCI slots and put it in the second PCI-E x16 slot. The Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme is also worth mentioning - it comes with slightly lower noise levels, no doubt due to it's lower fan operating speed. At the same time, it's still able to maintain similar heat levels at full load. The major good news for users everywhere is that these higher clocked cards do not have the problem early, higher clocked GeForce 7900GTs have - defective cores most likely caused by clocking the card beyond the safety margin set by NVIDIA.

In conclusion, we recommend the Gigabyte 7900GT TurboForce, Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and MSI NX7900GT. These cards have enough differentiating factor, each with different appeal - price, low noise levels and video input features. However, do remember each of them have some drawbacks as well, so there's no clear cut winners in this round up.

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