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XFX GeForce 7600 GT 256MB PCI-E XXX Edition

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
XFX
May. 23, 2006

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Performance Summary

Half-Life 2

At 1024x768, the X1800 GTO and 7600 GT perform basically the same. At 1600x1200, the 7600 GT leads slightly with NoAA/NoAF, but the X1800 GTO takes the lead with 4xAA/8xAF. At 2048x1536, the 7600 GT starts out 5fps ahead, but then with 4xAA/8xAF the X1800 GTO jumps 4fps ahead. Essentially, these cards are on an even playing field in Half-Life 2. You'll be able to play just fine up to 1600x1200 with 4xAA/8xAF. You could even play up to 2048x1536 with NoAA/NoAF, actually, but enabling AA/AF will be too much and you'll get frame rates in the mid-30s.

Verdict: X1800 GTO or 7600 GT (tie)

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

At first glance, the 7600 GT and X1800 GTO appear to perform the same in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory! It isn't until you look at the 4xAA/8xAF graphs that you'll notice why the X1800 GTO clearly beats the 7600 GT - the NVIDIA cards all score 0 with AA enabled in Splinter Cell! That's because you can't run HDR with Anti-Aliasing in most games with NVIDIA's current cards. I wrote about this in detail in a section called "The HDR+AA Fiasco" as part of my recent XFX 7900 GT XXX Edition review. This game will be best enjoyed at 1024x768 for stutter-free play. Beyond that, you're going to be getting low frame rates and/or stuttering.

Verdict: X1800 GTO

Quake4

At 1600x1200 with NoAA/NoAF, the 7600 GT wipes the floor with the X1800 GTO, getting over 15fps more on average. However, things even out with 4xAA/8xAF, as they both get 36fps average. So with that said, I wouldn't say the 7600 GT is better overall in Quake4. The most enjoyable gameplay in my opinion will be at 1024x768 with 4xAA/8xAF, or at 1280x960 or 1280x1024 with moderate AA/AF.

Verdict: X1800 GTO or 7600 GT (tie)

X3 Reunion Demo

With NoAA/NoAF, the X1800 GTO and 7600 GT are very close at all resolutions. But when you enable 4xAA/8xAF, the X1800 GTO is always 4-6fps ahead - not a big difference, but it is ahead. I've never played the actual game (the benchmark uses a rolling demo), but it looks like you'll need to stick to 1024x768 for smooth gameplay. I could be wrong though, if this is a game where you don't need precise control (like with racing games) - it just depends on the gameplay.

Verdict: X1800 GTO (by a nose)

Chronicles of Riddick

Hands-down, the 7600 GT beats the X1800 GTO in Riddick, at every setting. Most notable are the NoAA/NoAF tests, where the X1800 GTO just gets slaughtered. The best setting in my opinion for this game would be 1600x1200 with NoAA/NoAF on the 7600 GT. For some reason, I always found aliasing to be less bothersome in this game than in most others. Alternatively you could play at 1024x768 with 4xAA/8xAF and get about 50fps! Don't even bother trying to play Riddick beyond 1024x768 with the X1800 GTO, though.

Verdict: 7600 GT

F.E.A.R.

In F.E.A.R., like with Quake4, the 7600 GT beats the X1800 GTO every time with NoAA/NoAF. With 4xAA/8xAF, however, it's a tie every time. I guess that means the 7600 GT wins, since I only found this game playable at 1024x768 with NoAA/NoAF on these cards. The 7600 GT gets 50fps (vs. the X1800 GTO's 36fps) at 1024x768 with NoAA/NoAF.

Verdict: 7600 GT

Need for Speed Most Wanted

In Need for Speed Most Wanted, the highest settings you can expect to play with the X1800 GTO or 7600 GT should be 1024x768 with full AA/AF. They both score 40fps at this setting (tie), which is perfectly playable in this game. Above that, you'll have to compromise image quality to get smooth gameplay.

Verdict: X1800 GTO or 7600 GT (tie)

Black & White 2

At 1024x768, the 7600 GT performs WAY better than the X1800 GTO, getting nearly twice the performance. At 1600x1200 and 2048x1536, though, I noticed the game freezing with the 7600 GT, although the X1800 GTO wasn't producing playable frame rates anyhow. That said, since my benchmarking, there has apparently been a Black & White 2 patch which should make ATI cards perform nearly as well as NVIDIA cards. Since I haven't verified this in my own testing, I'll have to go with the 7600 GT as the winner for now.

Verdict: 7600 GT

3DMark '06

Um! 3DMark '06 is! pretty? As I mentioned earlier, I don't take 3DMark scores seriously, so I won't comment on performance there.

Verdict: Hooray for puddin' pops!

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

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Page 13 of 14

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

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3 User Comments

1 - Posted by CTM420 on May 23, 2006 - 8:42 am

The XFX 7600 GT XXX Edition is what I just put in a new PC and every game I try runs great with this card. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Call of Duty 2, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas all run excellently with it.

Mine didn't come with Ghost Recon but it's still a great value.

2 - Posted by Kurtis on May 23, 2006 - 2:23 pm

yeah, they just started bundling GRAW

3 - Posted by dparakatis on October 16, 2006 - 5:25 am

HI THERE, I JUST PURCHASED THE BEAUTIFULL GPU AND WORKS PRETY WELL.I OVERCLOCKED HER WITH THE BUNDLE SOFTWARE AT 634 Mhz (CLOCK) AND 815 Mhz (MEMORY) AND IT WORKS PREETY WELL (5 HOURS PLAYING ROME-TOTAL WAR), BUT DOESN'T GO ANY MORE. IF YOU HAVE ANY BETTER RESULTS PLEASE DROP ME A MAIL WITH HOW YOU DID IT. WITH THIS TUNNING I MANAGED TO ADD AN AVERAGE OF 1,5 FPS IN EACH GRAPHIC TEST OF 3DMARK06. ANY FURTHER INFO WOULD BE VALUABLE FOR ME. THATS ALL

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