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Inno3D GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB PCI-E Review |
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Written by Zombie
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Thursday, 25 May 2006 |
Hardware Zone hit us with their review on the Inno3D GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB PCIe graphics card. The reigning kings of consumer graphics are none other than ATI's Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB and NVIDIA's GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB. Both were released this year though with the gradually shortening refresh cycle in the graphics industry, it's hard to say how long these cards would stay at the top. For the moment however, the successors to these cards are still in their infancy so if you are looking for the best, there are only two viable choices. This jockeying for pole position at the top is especially crucial for both sides as the high-end flagship products are the glamour pusses of graphics. Not many can afford or bear to pay the high price of entry and so ogling from the sidelines is the closest equivalent.
 Inno3D GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB PCI-E Review
While ATI's Radeon X1900 XTX holds a certain technological advantage in specific settings, it loses out to the GeForce 7900 GTX in other equally important factors like heat output and power consumption. Meanwhile, the performance of both cards are quite competitive. The only constant between them is that they will both set you back by almost $500. So which card to choose if you have $500 or so to spend? For those leaning towards the green team thanks to its more power efficient architecture, the usual vendors have their own versions available for some time now.
Compared to the hustle and bustle of the mid-range GeForce 7600 series, there is a relative lack of development for the GeForce 7900 GTX. The much more popular GeForce 7600 and even the GeForce 7900 GT has seen various new models introduced, including more exotic, passively cooled or overclocked ones. The moribund GeForce 7900 GTX scene is probably the result of its high price, which limits the market to the smaller group of hardcore enthusiasts, making it less attractive for vendors. The high clock speeds make deviating from NVIDIA's design risky as it could lead to worse performance in terms of heat or noise.
Hence, while we certainly have seen a few extreme models that stretch the limits; in all honesty, these are just pre-overclocked versions and are doable by anyone with any reference GeForce 7900 GTX armed with basic overclocking knowledge and some luck. The GeForce 7900 GTX cards available now are all reference designs and likely to stick to the standard clocks. While we hope to see more interesting designs in the future, though we are not counting on that. So if the best graphics card now is within your budget, your main considerations are reduced to the price,bundle, warranty and support.
For the Inno3D, we have no complaints about its very average performance in the benchmarks. It was roughly the equal of the ASUS card in the comparison and the overclocking was also predictably limited due to its already high clocks. Its noise output was admirably silent but we did notice a slower fan speed that resulted in slightly higher core temperatures. This fan speed could probably be tweaked through software or BIOS hacks and the small gain in temperature was not that alarming. As for the bundle, Inno3D's reluctance to update its game is its main weakness.
We would be more positively inclined if only Inno3D had bundled a 2006 title at least. This is balanced by its competitive price of S$850, which is less than that for the ASUS Extreme N7900 GTX and among one of the lowest for a GeForce 7900 GTX locally. Considering that Inno3D competes more on price rather than quality of the bundle, this may be a reasonable compromise to consumers. Given that they are all reference models anyway, competing on price may just be the smart approach to ringing the cash registers.
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