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BFG GeForce 7900 GT, GTX and 7600 GT OC Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Sunday, 09 July 2006 |
Hexus brings us an triple review about the BFG GeForce 7900 GTX OC 512MB PCIe, BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC 256MB PCIe and the BFG GeForce 7600 OC 256MB PCIe graphics cards. When we took at look at the first 90nm NVIDIA GPU's, we concluded that the G73 powered GeForce 7600 GT was the most promising, GeForce 7900 GT and GTX not doing enough to really take the fight to ATI's competing SKU's. We weren't too impressed with the reference cooler for the GeForce 7600 GT and GeForce 7900 GT, either. Obnoxious is the right word to describe it, we feel, with a cooler like that fairly unexcusable in this day and age. The company's saving grace, however, is its leniency in allowing AIB partners to customise the reference designs.
 BFG GeForce 7900 GT, GTX and 7600 GT OC Review
BFG were gracious enough to provide their OC examples of all three products, two-up for some SLI testing. BFG are staid factory overclockers with the majority of their gamer-led products, bumping things up above stock as a way to appeal. Taking a good look at their versions of GeForce 7600 GT, GeForce 7900 GT and GTX was therefore always going to be interesting. That the reference cooler is carried over to BFG's OC SKU is where we find most fault. It's a frustrating cooler to live with and makes a lot of noise dealing with GeForce 7600 GT's rough 70W of heat output, at the overclocked frequencies.
The 1.4ns GDDR3 DRAM's are a nice choice for the G73 graphics processor, giving mostly sufficient bandwidth in the face of a restricted bus interface. Like the reference board, just one of the DVI ports is dual-link capable, and the video output port is just that, with no input capablility. Clocked at 580/1450MHz, versus 560/1400MHz from the reference board, the theoretical figures show some extra performance possible from the BFG board, compared to the reference example, at peak execution. Given the GeForce 7600 GT OC, it's no surprise to see BFG's GeForce 7900 GT OC be resolutely reference in appearance, too.
The GeForce 7900 GT needs assistance from your PSU to run properly, hence the 6-pin PCI Express graphics power connector now standard on hardware in this kind of class. Both DVI ports are dual-link this time, should you be up for running a pair of 30" LCD screens without issues. You get 1.4ns again, produced by Samsung and rated to just over 1400MHz. BFG run them at 1360MHz, 40MHz more than NVIDIA do on the reference version. The GPU comes clocked at 475MHz versus 450MHz, giving this OC variant some possible extra performance, depending on the task at hand.
We forgive the use of the reference cooler when it comes to retail GeForce 7900 GTX boards, simply because it's so effective without making a racket. It's not perfect, but it's closer than most, and makes nary a whisper even when asked to work hard by the G71 GPU and Samsung 1.1ns DRAM's underneath. Like the GT, it needs external power help and both DVI ports are the dual-link variety, powered by the pair of internal transmitters hosted by the GPU package. It's a big board and the cooler is dual slot, meaning it won't fit in every chassis on the planet, but then you already knew that.
Clocked at 670/1640MHz, versus 650/1600MHz, the GeForce 7900 GTX OC doesn't increase clocks by much more compared to reference, so the real world difference stands to be pretty negligable. Taking into account cooler choice, price, availability, warranty, bundle and performance, we can honestly conclude that while BFG's GeForce 7900 GT, GTX and GeForce 7600 GT products are decent in isolation, they don't do enough to entice a purchase versus competing products. BFG don't do as much with the clocks as other vendors, and the bundle on all but the GeForce 7900 GTX doesn't go the extra mile.
Their warranty is strong, however, which should factor in to any purchasing decision, but that's not to say it's unique in the company that BFG's products keep. You can find similar warranty terms from some of their competitors these days, as everyone steps up their support game. The cooler on the GeForce 7900 GT and GeForce 7600 GT is one of the poorest we've seen in recent times, too, not helping BFG's cause when trying to appeal to potential customers. In short, our analysis shows that while performance is adequate, it's deficient compared to others for similar money, all other things being equal.
Not enough to recommend, although if you're buying a the very high-end and are happy with G71's image quality, BFG's GeForce 7900 GTX is worth consideration if you can find it at a better price than normal, via a special deal or similar. BFG do too little to put these products at the top of shopping lists, we feel, given the latitude that's available to NVIDIA AIB partners when creating retail SKU's. Simply put, you can find better GeForce 7900 GTX, GT and GeForce 7600 GT boards elsewhere.
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