GeForce 7900GS Round Up
PCI Express x16 graphics cardsChipset GeForce 7900GS 256 MB, 256 bit
Its been a long time coming, but the GeForce 7900GS is finally here. This is quite probably the most affordable card of the GeForce 7900 series. Although its missing one vertex unit and one quad pixel pipeline, it still retains much of the capabilities and performance of a GeForce 7900. Performance wise, it offers performance similar to the original GeForce 7900GT, which also means it's also very close to the original GeForce 7800GTX.
Finally, we're beginning to see higher clocked versions of the GeForce 7900GS throughout the world and not just the US and Europe, merely a month after it was officially launched. After all, NVIDIA have very little time to push the GeForce 7900GS to a market in which they do not have a contending SKU from ATI - the recently launched Radeon X1950 Pro. The introduction of higher clocked SKUs will allow NVIDIA and its partners some leverage in performance, at least at first before ATI's Radeon X1950 Pro start trickling down.
We said in our last article, the most appealing aspect of the GeForce 7900GS is its price. We already saw what a standard, reference clocked GeForce 7900GS can offer. Today we will try to find what kind of performance higher clocked versions offer. We have cards from three manufacturers, they are the ASUS EN7900GS, Gigabyte GeForce 7900GS TurboForce and Leadtek PX7900GS TDH Extreme.
Overview
ASUS
EN7900GS
450/660 MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 7900GS, 256 MB GDDR3Core Clock : 450 MHz
Memory Clock : 661 MHz (1320 MHz GDDR3)
Overall Score: 80 points
The ASUS EN7900GS is probably the odd card out of this round up. Those of you familiar with ASUS products will likely notice the lack of 'TOP' nomenclature, which indicates this is a standard, reference clocked GeForce 7900GS. Well, you're right. The card's core and memory clocks are running at standard specifications for a GeForce 7900GS.
Looking at the card itself, you'll no doubt notice the lack of any RAM sinks. We think this is unfortunate, since other vendors still manage to pack RAM sinks or at least integrated core and memory heatsinks with their offerings. Of course, this makes us wonder if the cost savings measure is offset by the bundle or the price. One explanation could the the software bundle - ASUS chose to bundle Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter with the EN7900GS. There's also the traditional CD case and the standard bundle: one DVI-to-analog dongle, an HDTV output cable and 6 pin ATX power cable, one driver CD containing ASUS utilities, enhanced drivers and other software extras and one CD containing the electronic version of the card's manual. There is a print version of SpeedSetup, containing most of the information a user will need to install the graphics card in their system. Except for the game bundle, it's a pretty standard bundle for a standard card. Hopefully ASUS will price the card accordingly for this card.
We did a routine check of RivaTuner's fan control tab to see what the fan control settings default value were. What we saw here seems to suggest the EN7900GS fan are set to the default values of every other GeForce 7900GS.
Pretty low settings, no doubt to maintain noise levels to a minimum. You might want to keep it at the level. At 100 percent (during boot up), the fans can be heard over your typical CPU and chipset fans, sounding much like the noise we heard from a GeForce 5900 Ultra at boot up. It does get pretty noticeable after long periods of heavy loads but those using a closed case shouldn't be bothered.by the noise. We fired up Quake 4's final level - the Nexus - for about 20 minutes to see how hot the card can get. Below is a snapshot from RivaTuner Hardware Monitoring window.
62° Celsius is average to say the least. Too bad ASUS decided not to include RAM sinks with this card, it would've made the card nicer and at least have a fighting chance compared to the other cards. There's a difference between cost savings and offering value to the customer. We think the lack of RAM sinks is a negative point for this card. While Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is a good game, we don't thin its worth the lack of RAM sinks. Other reference clocked GeForce 7900GS cards like we used in our previous GeForce 7950 & 7900GS article, the Leadtek PX7900GS TDH bundled two games and include RAM sinks and cost about the same.
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