Gaming benchmarks and HEXUS.bang4buck
Far Cry
The XFX Extreme Edition's extra clockspeed, thanks to its 480MHz core and 1400MHz memory, up from the Inno3D's reference 450/1320, helps keep GeForce 7900 GS on the heels of a default-clocked Radeon X1950 Pro. Note that the 7900 GS is 51% and 34% faster than a GeForce 7600 GT at 1280x1024 4xAA 8xAF and 1600x1200 0xAA 8xAF, respectively.
Quake 4
Quake 4 looks decent and runs smoothly on the quintet of GPUs. GeForce 7900 GS leads the way here.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
All cards provide reasonable framerates at 1280x1024 4xAA 8xAF but the Sam Fisher hurt is put on at the harsher setting of 1600x1200 0xAA 8xAF HDR.
The minimum framerates drop to around 24FPS for 7900 GS and the game feels choppy as a result. Incidentally, the HDR settings are the same as our high-end test. As a comparison, GeForce 7950 GT 512MiB averages 52FPS, ATI's X1900 XT 512MiB pushes out an average of 59FPS, and the £470 GeForce 8800 GTX around 99FPS.
Performance summary
NVIDIA's GeForce 7900 GS offers decent framerates for the target market who'll likely use TFT/CRTs with a native resolution of 1280x1024. The XFX Extreme Edition predictably wins the GS battle by outperforming the default-clocked Inno3D card by around 8% in GPU-bound tests.HEXUS.bang4buck?
In a rough-and-ready assessment of the cards' bang per buck, we've aggregated the average 1280x1024 4xAA 8xAF framerates for the three games and listed the cards' price. There are more provisos than I care to shake a stick at. We could have chosen three different games, the cards' prices could have been derived from other sources and pricing is such that it can fluctuate daily. However, to reiterate, the graph below highlights a metric that should only be used as a yardstick for evaluating comparative performance with price factored in. Other architectural benefits are not covered, obviously.| Card | XFX GeForce 7900 GS Extreme Edition 256MiB (UDE3) | Inno3D GeForce 7900 GS Zalman Ed. 256MiB) | Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 256MiB | NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MiB | ATI Radeon X1650 XT 256MiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aggregate marks at 1280x1024 | 251.52 | 231.70 | 253.91 | 156.93 | 159.83 |
| Price | £139.97 | £130* | £131 | £99.51** | £99.99*** |
| Acceptable framerate at 1280x1024 4xAA 8xAF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Just | Just |
* - Price for the Inno3D card is a best guess. We've not found it in stock yet. The non-Zalman-equipped card retails for £120.
** - The price for the GeForce 7600 GT is a Leadtek reference-clocked SKU.
*** - £99.99 is the MRP for the Radeon X1650 XT 256MiB SKU.
The chart above represents aggregate marks divided by the price. The gap between XFX and Inno3D closes, due to the latter's cheaper (guesstimated) price. ATI's Radeon X1950 Pro looks good, and GeForce 7900 GS and X1950 Pro offer performance that is, in our opinion, worth the extra outlay over GeForce 7600 GT and Radeon X1650 XT.
