GeForce 7900 GT - Reference Board Exam
The GeForce 7900 GT uses a smaller PCB (width and height) and a different cooler.
PCB wise all the DRAMs are on the front of the board again, but with only half of the 7900 GTX's 512MiB of memory. The 256Mib DRAMs are 1.4ns GDDR3 devices from Samsung (K4J55323QG), BGA packaged. They're arranged in pairs, each one alternating its orientation to satisfy the GPU and how it needs the I/O pins connected.
Power circuitry is much much simpler, and with an 80W maximum thermal output from G71 at 450MHz, the board doesn't need a dual-slot cooler. However, the small folded-fin design with 60mm high-speed blower that NVIDIA choose to employ for 7900 GT is somewhat loud. The pitch of the noise is high, too, making the cooler a disappointment.
It's fairly cheap and nasty in construction terms, and something akin to GeForce 7800 GTX's single-slot cooler would have been much more effective. Yes, the DRAMs don't need passive or active cooling and yes, cost is a consideration, but the board falls down in a physical sense because of the cooler it uses.
The SLI port is well evident and like the GTX, both DVI ports are dual-link capable and set for driving big displays.
A big 'hrmph' overall, then, for the physical characteristics of 7900 GT in reference form. The fan is too willing to spin up and down, so we advise AIBs to change the cooler and BIOS steppings for fan control, and we advise any of you readers looking to pick up a 7900 GT to avoid vendors poking the reference cooler your way.
The good news is that AIBs do look likely to give the reference cooler a miss. And you'll even see one vendor go passive with 7900 GT, such is the limited heat a 450MHz G71 gives out, even under maximum utilisation.
7600 GT is the last of the G71 and G73 launch day SKUs, so let's have a look at that.
