Thoughts, awards, where2buy, right2reply
We've established that NVIDIA's GeForce 7900 GS is a decent performer from the G71 stable. True high-end heritage pushes gaming performance to a level higher than, say, GeForce 7600 GT and ATI's Radeon X1650 XT. You'll also be comforted in the knowledge that both cards will run Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista Ultimate OS with great ease, although no HDCP support may prove restrictive for some.
Inno3D's effort centres on enhanced aftermarket cooling via the use of an all-aluminium Zalman HSF and memory heatsinks. Both of these combine to provide decent cooling, but the reference-clocked nature of the SKU lets it down somewhat. You could, of course, throttle up clockspeeds yourself, but Inno3D do not guarantee any speed above default, which is a shame.
The Zalman-equipped model is difficult to source in the U.K. and you rely on the retailer's returns service in receiving a quick turnaround should things go awry, so as good as the cooling is, it becomes difficult to recommend this SKU for a multitude of niggling reasons.
XFX, on the other hand, has taken the opposite approach. Using a reference HSF which doesn't concurrently cool the memory chips, the Extreme Edition ships with 480/1400 clocks, up from the Inno3D's 450/1320. The gaming representation of the extra speed is an average framerate which is around 8% higher than reference 7900 GS'. The downside is a street price which, at £140, is £20 or so higher than ye olde reference's. Is it worth it? Probably not, with the meagre bundle and relatively poor warranty not helping. That and the decent performance exhibited by the cheaper Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro.
We come away from this review pleased in the knowledge that current midrange cards still return decent performance, down to both NVIDIA and ATI's offerings being directly based on high-end SKUs. XFX and Inno3D, however, whilst basing their retail cards around 7900 GS, fail to do quite enough to garner an outright recommendation. Given a direct choice out of the two, we'd opt for the XFX card. It's available at a wider range of etailers and offers guaranteed extra performance.
Ultimately, we'd like to see examples furnished with a 3-year warranty, HDCP support, and a decent bundle to boot. Anyone willing to oblige?
HEXUS Awards
The XFX GeForce 7900 GS Extreme Edition 256MiB and Inno3D GeForce 7900 GS Zalman Edition 256MiB are both awarded the HEXUS Labs. certification for passing our rigorous testing without failure. This is not an outright buying recommendation, however.
XFX GeForce 7900 GS Extreme Edition 256MiB
Inno3D GeForce 7900 GS Zalman Edition 256MiB
HEXUS Where2Buy
At the time of publication, you can purchase the XFX GeForce 7900 GS Extreme Edition 256MiB graphics card from Scan.co.uk for £139.97.We have no current buying links for the Inno3D GeForce 7900 GS Zalman Edition 256MiB retail card but you can purchase the non-Zalman-equipped version for £119 here.
