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Inno3D GeForce 7600 GST 256MB PCI-E Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Friday, 23 June 2006 |
Hardware Secrets comes up with a review on the Inno3D GeForce 7600 GST 256MB PCIe video card. The CeForce 7600 GS is the simplest GPU from the new mid-range GeForce 7600 series from NVIDIA. Inno3D launched a highly overclocked model, dubbed GeForce 7600 GST, which promises to have a performance reaching the GeForce 7600 GT levels. The GeForce 7600 GS normally runs at 400MHz accessing its memory at 800MHz. The Inno3D GeForce 7600 GST however runs at 500/1400MHz, almost the same settings as the GeForce 7600 GT, which runs at 560/1400MHz. Since both chips share the same technical specifications, the GeForce 7600 GST promises to have a performance level very close to GT but costing less.
 Inno3D GeForce 7600 GST 256MB PCI-E Review
We think the name Inno3D chose for this product, the GST was a very good choice. The name implies that this product isn't a regular GeForce 7600 GS and, at the same time, it isn't also a GeForce 7600 GT. While the T probably stands for Turbo, the name chosen may also suggest that this product has a performance level between GS and GT. This name is also great if you think that some manufacturers don't label properly their overclocked models, making it very hard to correctly identify such models. And this certainly deserve some recognition with this card being clocked at 500/1400MHz.
This video card uses GDDR3 1.4 ns chips from Infineon, making it 256MB of available video memory. These chips can run up to 1.4GHz. Curiously these are the same chips used by the NVIDIA reference model for GeForce 7600 GT and all GeForce 7600 GT models that follow NVIDIA reference model. We were really impressed by GeForce 7600 GST, as it delivers what it promises. It is a video card with a performance level near GeForce 7600 GT but costing less. In almost all scenarios the GeForce 7600 GT and GST achieved the same performance level and when GeForce 7600 GT was faster, it was by a small margin.
We must make it clear that GeForce 7600 GST has nothing to do with the regular GeForce 7600 GS. As you can see on our results, the performance difference between them is huge depending on the program and configuration. Also, the GeForce 7600 GST achieved a performance similar to high-end video cards from NVIDIA's previous family, like GeForce 6800 GS and GeForce 6800 GT. The GeForce 7600 GST also kept the Radeon X1600 XT eating dust. With this video card you will be able to play games in high resolutions enabling video quality settings a little bit.
The magic behind GeForce 7600 GST is quite simple. Inno3D got a GeForce 7600 GT PCB and memories and soldered a cheaper GPU, a GeForce 7600 GS on it. You won't achieve the same overclocking level on a regular GeForce 7600 GS simply because you won't find the 1.4 ns Infineon memories on any GeForce 7600 GS. The specifications are completely different, while on a regular GeForce 7600 GS the memory runs at 800 MHz, on this Inno3D the memory runs at 1.4GHz. The memory chips that come with the regular GeForce 7600 GS simply can't support this overclocking.
The problem with GeForce 7600 GST, and that's a huge problem, is that it is very hard to find this video card in the USA. Inno3D sent us a list of official distributors and none of them were carrying this graphics card. Actually no US-based price comparison websites list Inno3D products. InnoVision, the company behind Inno3D, has to solve this huge distribution issue if they want to grow. So the bottom line really comes down to this, it is a great product if you are able to find it.
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