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XFX GeForce 7900 GT 256MB Extreme Edition Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Saturday, 22 July 2006 |
HotHardware sends word about their review on the XFX GeForce 7900 GT 256MB Extreme Edition graphics card. As of late, due to reported issues with overheating and graphics anomalies with overclocked GeForce 7900 cards, many gamers are starting to think twice before purchasing factory overclocked cards. Some hesitation before buying the highest overclocked card makes sense, but XFX along with the other companies affected by this problem are addressing these concerns and backing up their products with solid warranty support. If you've lost some faith, remember that NVIDIA appears to be 100% behind the company. The only factory overclocked GeForce 7950 GX2 at launch was from XFX.
 XFX GeForce 7900 GT 256MB Extreme Edition Review
XFX probably offers the widest variety of GeForce 7900 GT's on the market. The company's web site lists nine different GeForce 7900 GT models. As you probably already know, XFX likes to overclock its cards. Instead of offering just one set of clock speeds, though, XFX offers several. This is just one way that it differentiates between its GeForce 7900 GT models. Our XFX model, which is overclocked to 550MHz for the core and 1.63GHz for the memory. These Extreme edition clock speeds are not far behind XFX's top GeForce 7900 GT XXX edition model, which is set at 560/1650MHz.
Although the GeForce 7900 GT Extreme is already overclocked to 550MHz for the core and 1.63GHz for the memory, we had to see if we could crank it up any more and actually see some performance benefit from it. We used CoolBits to overclock the solo and SLI configurations to 565MHz for the core and 1.7GHz for the memory. These clock speeds are actually higher than the XXX edition from XFX , which certainly proves the quality of their products but the performance increase isn't that spectacular. The factory overclocks are sufficient, and we see no reason to push them any higher.
We found the XFX GeForce 7900 GT Extreme's performance to be quite impressive, especially when stacked up against the Radeon X1900 XTX, a card that typically costs $200 more. We are pleased with both the single card and SLI performance of XFX's overclocked GeForce 7900 GT. XFX's GeForce 7900 GT Extreme offers a nice combination of performance and features. Although it is not NVIDIA's current flagship card, it performs quite respectably against ATI's current flagship. Not only does the card offer a warrantied factory overclock, but it also features VIVO capability, making a very capable card even better.
The bundle is a little understated, but the inclusion of the latest Tomb Raider game is appreciated. We also like the fact that XFX includes not one but two S-video cables. It's always nice to have extra cables around. What we really find attractive about XFX's cards is the Double Lifetime warranty offered with GeForce 6 and 7 series cards. This warranty allows you to have a lifetime warranty that carries on to the next person you sell the card to, which means two people can benefit from the lifetime warranty. While the GeForce 7900 GT Extreme is a great card, it is not perfect.
The biggest complaint we have about the card is its fan noise. We could easily hear the card over all the other fans in our test system. Unfortunately, this could be a deal breaker for many people since quiet/silent computing's popularity continues to grow. As we mentioned already, we did not experience any problems with these factory overclocked XFX cards. They proved to be stable and solid pixel pushing powerhouses.
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