Nvidia 7900 GT and GTX Card Mini Roundup Review
Benchmarks - 3dMark
Published: 18th May 2006 | Source: XFX | Price: |
I used the popular gaming benchmarks made by Futuremark to bench all four of the cards. I used 3dMark 03, 05 and 06. All benches were performed at stock speeds for this section. I ran all benchmarks from the stock settings just like the free versions to give you a good comparison of scores.
The Results were as follows:
3dMark 03
First we start with 3dMark03. This is a benchmark that relies heavily on DirectX 8 features. This will give an indication of how the cards will run on games that rely on DX 8. None of the cards in the review had any problems running this benchmark.
As you can see the Club3d scored quite a lot higher than the ATI card. In fact: all nvidia cards scored a lot higher than the ATI card. I ran all benchmarks through three times to make sure that there was not a problem and this score is accurate. I am slightly confused at this but it appears ATI cards do not fare well in this benchmark. The XFX did very well in this benchmark and left the Gainward trailing behind. The slower memory speed seems to be a definate negative in these benchmarks.
3dMark05
I ran 3dMark05. This benchmark requires some more features of directX 9 and gets slightly more taxing on the cards. Once again this top-end hardware ran the test fine.
3dMark05
I ran 3dMark05. This benchmark requires some more features of directX 9 and gets slightly more taxing on the cards. Once again this top-end hardware ran the test fine.
Once again we see the Gainward trailing behind in this benchmark. The slower memory speed is definately affecting the cards performance in this test. The XFX performed well again with the GTX taking the nvidia's top 3dMark. Here we see the ATI card coming into its own with a higher stock score than the GTX. All nvidia cards performed well in this test and this is an indicator (only) that the cards will be fine with games from that time.
3dMark06
3dMark06 is the latest in the benchmarking tests from Futuremark. It has a lot of DirectX 9.0c features such as HDR and use of Shader model 3.0. This benchmark is very taxing for the cards and also includes quite a harsh CPU benchmark. Seeing as this was run with the exact same CPU this was not an issue.
By this point we see that the trend is for the Gainward card to be slower in the benchmarking stakes than the XFX. As stated before this is almost certainly due to the speed that the memory is running at. The GTX steps slightly ahead in this benchmark over the X1900XTX, but that is not enough of an issue to say that one is definately faster than the other.
Benchmarking Roundup
If you are after cards that score well at stock than the XFX is the best cards out of the GT's by some margain. The battle between nvidia and ATI high-end hardware is somewhat blurry though, with the XTX and the GTX showing strength in different areas.
3dMark06
3dMark06 is the latest in the benchmarking tests from Futuremark. It has a lot of DirectX 9.0c features such as HDR and use of Shader model 3.0. This benchmark is very taxing for the cards and also includes quite a harsh CPU benchmark. Seeing as this was run with the exact same CPU this was not an issue.
By this point we see that the trend is for the Gainward card to be slower in the benchmarking stakes than the XFX. As stated before this is almost certainly due to the speed that the memory is running at. The GTX steps slightly ahead in this benchmark over the X1900XTX, but that is not enough of an issue to say that one is definately faster than the other.
Benchmarking Roundup
If you are after cards that score well at stock than the XFX is the best cards out of the GT's by some margain. The battle between nvidia and ATI high-end hardware is somewhat blurry though, with the XTX and the GTX showing strength in different areas.
Most Recent Comments
Excellent Review Kemp, keep it up 
Sam
Sam
Yup, nice work 
Lovely, now i'm dying for my Asus 7900 512MB GTX 
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Originally Posted by name='MonkeyMeow'
Lovely, now i'm dying for my Asus 7900 512MB GTX
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the problem of the gainward is the same i have on my 7800 so that happend after i overclocked it and i think i f**ked the ram, btw great review all the text must have taken you ages to write
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Originally Posted by name='limqareb'
the problem of the gainward is the same i have on my 7800 so that happend after i overclocked it and i think i f**ked the ram, btw great review all the text must have taken you ages to write
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Thanks guys - glad you like it
Nice job as always kemp, I just got a XFX 7900GT for a customer, they are very pleased with it
Awesome review mate
Nice review Kemp One question...did you notice any kind of high pitch whine coming from any of the cards at any time? There is a thread going over at XS about this and apparently there are some cards that have an IC that gets VERY hot and starts to whine. The thread can be found HERE. Anyone else with a 7900 series card noticed this? It took a little listening to find it on mine since it is already loud in the room that my comp is in but it is there. I ended up just putting a memory heatsink on it and the 120mm fan in the side of my case takes care of the cooling on it.
One question...did you notice any kind of high pitch whine coming from any of the cards at any time? There is a thread going over at XS about this and apparently there are some cards that have an IC that gets VERY hot and starts to whine. The thread can be found HERE. Anyone else with a 7900 series card noticed this? It took a little listening to find it on mine since it is already loud in the room that my comp is in but it is there. I ended up just putting a memory heatsink on it and the 120mm fan in the side of my case takes care of the cooling on it.Hmm I have been noticing a loud pitched whine coming out of this one yes. didn't notice it during the review though
Just me or is there 2 page 6s? :s
And 10 and 11. May be my browzer...
And 10 and 11. May be my browzer...
Ham, your not alone
Fixed, just Kemp accidentally re-submitting the same pages after checking them due to a PM from a spelling whore no doubt.
We'll get it sorted. This is due to WC making me go through the entire review. If I submit a page without making changes another page 
I don't read loads of reviews on any site tbh, however I do think that is the best review/comparison I have read. I enjoy a good comparison and all cards are well described, analysed, well pictured with easy to follow results. It's all very well laid out and this must have taken a lot of time. Fair doos mate 
Thanks mate that's really appreciated. It did take up quite a fair amount of my spare time but hopefully it'll help out a few people who are wanting to make a decision on what to buy.
Kemp: Could you look and see if you can find where the whining is coming from?
I aint getting any right now plus i have to go to bed but I will do tomorrow mate ok
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Originally Posted by Kempez
Thanks mate that's really appreciated. It did take up quite a fair amount of my spare time but hopefully it'll help out a few people who are wanting to make a decision on what to buy.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='Kempez'
I aint getting any right now plus i have to go to bed but I will do tomorrow mate ok
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='Kempez'
We'll get it sorted. This is due to WC making me go through the entire review. If I submit a page without making changes another page
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Anyways, nice review man
Awesome, awesome review!
Good job Kemp!
Good job Kemp!
Please note that I have amended this review conclusion after discussion with Gainward.
Thanks
Thanks
What was changed? I didn't notice anything or did I just miss it?
EDIT: NM I found it...I am just blind
EDIT: NM I found it...I am just blind
good review; solid testing method, I like it, thumbs up.
would have loved to see 7900GT 256Mb vs 512Mb shoot-out between XFX and Gainward with both memory/GPU speeds the same; interesting to see how they stack up.
guess that I'll have to check myself
Sparkle 512Mb vs Club3D 256Mb
would have loved to see 7900GT 256Mb vs 512Mb shoot-out between XFX and Gainward with both memory/GPU speeds the same; interesting to see how they stack up.
guess that I'll have to check myself
Sparkle 512Mb vs Club3D 256Mb
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