XFX GeForce 7900 GT 256MB PCI-E XXX Edition

Reviews: Hardware

Motherboards | Power Supplies | Memory | Systems | Video Cards

XFX GeForce 7900 GT 256MB PCI-E XXX Edition

Author:
Editor:
Sponsor:
Published:

Kurtis Kronk
Brian
XFX
Jun. 8, 2006

<< Home

Next >>

Introduction

Last month NVIDIA launched three new video cards: the 7900 GTX 512MB, 7900 GT 256MB, and the 7600 GT 256MB. The GTX is the highest-end card, priced at around the $600 mark. The 7900 GT is what you could call an "affordable" high-end card, priced at about $300. The 7600 GT is the new mid-range card (we've been waiting for this one for a while) and you can buy it for around $200.

I don't have a 7900 GTX as of yet, but I hope to obtain one for review soon. What I keep hearing, and not from just one person, is that the 7900 GTX's are selling extremely well, despite their high price point. Interestingly, that has made it difficult for me to obtain a review sample, because these things have more demand than they have quantity available. So basically, NVIDIA is pumping out these cards to keep up with backorders, which means no card for me.

In today's review I will be taking a look at a 7900 GT from XFX. The reason I say "a" 7900 GT is that XFX has 5 versions of the 7900 GT, with the only difference being the clock speeds of the core and memory. It's actually a little confusing; when I asked XFX why they have so many versions, I was told they are experimenting with various price points and clock speeds to see what the consumer really wants. My personal opinion is that the company should just have a standard version and an overclocked version, because paying a little extra for a tiny overclock doesn't make much sense to me. It should either be all or none; but I digress. Here's a breakdown of XFX's various cards:

The specific 7900 GT card I have from XFX is the XXX Edition - the most overclocked version they offer. This card has a core clock speed of 560MHz and a memory clock of 825MHz (1.65GHz DDR), whereas NVIDIA's reference 7900 GT has a core clock of 450MHz and a memory clock of 660MHz (1.32GHz DDR) - that's a rather sizeable increase. The XXX version will cost you an extra $40 over the standard 7900 GT, but it could be worthwhile if you want the extra speed without the risk of overclocking it yourself. The fact that you get a guaranteed overclock out of the box without voiding your warranty certainly has some appeal. Of course, more adventurous buyers might go for the standard edition and then attempt to overclock to XXX speeds.

I don't know about you, but I'm excited to see how this bad boy performs! We've gathered 10 other cards for this review, so let's see how XFX's 7900 GT XXX Edition stacks up to the competition.

We'd like to thank Directron.com for donating the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 Motherboard which we used for testing.

<< Home

Page 1 of 16

Next >>

Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The Card & Bundle
Page 3: The HDR+AA Fiasco
Page 4: Test Setup
Page 5: Benchmarks: Half-Life 2
Page 6: Benchmarks: Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
Page 7: Benchmarks: Quake 4
Page 8: Benchmarks: X3 Reunion Demo
Page 9: Benchmarks: Chronicles of Riddick
Page 10: Benchmarks: F.E.A.R.
Page 11: Benchmarks: Need for Speed Most Wanted
Page 12: Benchmarks: Black & White 2
Page 13: Benchmarks: 3DMark '06
Page 14: Overclocking... and Underclocking?
Page 15: Performance Summary
Page 16: Conclusion

Subscribe to Video Cards [more info]

Add Comment

1 User Comment

1 - Posted by Kurtis on June 8, 2006 - 3:48 pm

I've updated this review. (See conclusion)

Add Comment

To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields.