NVIDIA GeForce 7900 Series Preview @ [H] Enthusiast

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FrgMstr

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NVIDIA GeForce 7900 Series Preview - NVIDIA’s new GeForce 7 series GPUs are poised to provide you with an Extreme High-Definition gaming experience. We’ll talk about what is new, what isn’t, and show you what it all boils down to in terms of the real gameplay experience provided.

NVIDIA has worked hard to try and produce a more powerful, albeit power-efficient GPU in the 7900 GTX and GT, and they’ve succeeded. They run cooler, are smaller, have less transistors, and they don’t make you stuff cotton in your ears. The 7900 GTX and GT are just more efficient while being lightning fast.
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w00t! Thanks Kyle for this!! :D We're all waiting for something 'concrete' to base our purchase decisions on...

- KrulL
 
"gee I dunno if it was thorough enough....they should have done a rectal probe on each of the cards too....jk GJ"

lol Kyle I wasn't bitching I just like anal probes...GREAT review but what's up with the tiny coolers on the 7900GT? it looks silly.
 
Thanks for the ultra in-depth review. I'll be calling EVGA today to find out how the step-up program works so I can trade in my "aging" 7800 GT for a 7900 GT.

The small heatsink kind of bothers me, but I plan to put it under water anyway.
 
If possible, could you add Crossfire results to the SLI benchmarks? I'm debating on whether to purchase a X1900XT Crossfire or 7900GTX SLI setup, and this would be very helpful.

Also, how bad of a performace hit do you take by disabling the optimizations you metioned to get rid of the shimmering on the Geforce cards?

Great preview! Love the ePenis thing. Makes me chuckle everytime I see it.
 
Kyle Bennett said:
Noise

After playing games with our different cards for many days, here is the culmination of our scientific data collection points.

The Radeon X1900 XTX emits an annoyingly loud whining drone; the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX and GT are quiet.
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hahaha

Intended or not, that's an awesome parody on sites that turn noise observations into a full-page ordeal :D

Kyle Bennett said:
Some of you guys would bitch about a free blowjob.
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*snicker* http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1029122594&postcount=5

So I have one question about the review... the 7900GTX seems to be the equal or better of the X1900XTX in every regard, but the problem for me is... I won't be playing any of the games in that review except possibly a bit of CoD2 here and there. The game I really want to know about is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Do you guys have any plans to bench these cards with that game once it's released?
 
so does the 7900gt seem better than the 7800gtx 256? Im not upgrading from it, just wondering
 
Hooray for widescreen benchmarks!

On a side note, what would you say the performance delta is between the ATi and Nvidia cards? To me, both seem really close, one upping each other in different games.

btw I don't see these things on newegg yet. i searched for "7900" and came up with nothing video card related. hopefully newegg lists the 7900 be this afternoon.
 
i think because of the shimmering, one should not even recommend the 7900
 
The Equalizer said:
Explain man, what's the shimmering problem, and is it well known and common?
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kyle even mentioned it in the review.. it's widely known
 
I check and checked again, but I'm not seeing overclocky goodness in this review... considering the die shrink and the improved thermal profile, I was kinda hoping we'd at least see something regarding how much headroom there was in the cards. Even the coolbits "automagical overclocking checkbox" tests would have been somewhat telling... where's the [H] OC Loving?

It's very possible that it's addressed in the review, but I didn't see it... of course, I'm low on coffee and sleep due to trying to track this launch and make a purchase decision.

posterChild
 
yujie said:
great review but there no such thing as a "X8100 XL" on your 7900 GT vs. 7800 GT vs. X8100 XL pages
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Thanks, I think we fixed all of those. Sorry for the typo.
 
It's all going to depend on price, the 7900gtx seems to have taken a very slight performance lead but if it comes at a price premium, it won't be worth it. At $450-$500, it'd be the card to get, at $550-$650, forget it.

Very interested in the 7900GT if it can come in at $300 or less, I'll have to see the price/performance of the x1800gto first, but I'm seriously considering the 7900GT. I'd rather have 512mb, but there don't appear to be any high end options in a single slot card at 512mb...
 
RoffleCopter said:
Hooray for widescreen benchmarks!

On a side note, what would you say the performance delta is between the ATi and Nvidia cards? To me, both seem really close, one upping each other in different games.

btw I don't see these things on newegg yet. i searched for "7900" and came up with nothing video card related. hopefully newegg lists the 7900 be this afternoon.
Click to expand...

i find newegg's search engine to be less than awesome. i did the same thing as you and it came up with nothing, so i used "7900gt" and then got a bunch of hits. i guess "7900" != "7900*"
 
digitalfreak said:
If possible, could you add Crossfire results to the SLI benchmarks? I'm debating on whether to purchase a X1900XT Crossfire or 7900GTX SLI setup, and this would be very helpful.

Also, how bad of a performace hit do you take by disabling the optimizations you metioned to get rid of the shimmering on the Geforce cards?

Great preview! Love the ePenis thing. Makes me chuckle everytime I see it.
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Full SLI Vs. CrossFire will be coming. We did not have the time. We either did widescreen or CrossFire and we see widescreen as having more of an impact to our readers currently.
 
dualblade said:
i find newegg's search engine to be less than awesome. i did the same thing as you and it came up with nothing, so i used "7900gt" and then got a bunch of hits. i guess "7900" != "7900*"
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hot damn i searched for prices on the 7900gt/x and let me tell you those prices are SEXY
 
Kyle ok it's a simple decision I guess, which would be overall better to get, an Nvidia 7900GTX or an ATI x1900xtx?
 
Anyone have a link detailing the filtering adjustments that can be done to reduce shimmering? I don't really notice it on my 19" LCD, but I'd like to have the option available in case I suddenly begin to notice shimmering in games.

And I'm assuming that since there wasn't time for a Crossfire test, there wasn't time for an overclocking test either.
 
Great review. I'm just waiting to see the numbers on something a little more in my budget :p :p I would love to see which is better for the buck, a 7600GT or X1600 Pro.


Since you got to play with them, Kyle, do you think the 7600GT will be a worthy upgrade from a 6600GT? Especially for Oblivion? Thanks.
 
Sabrewulf165 said:
So I have one question about the review... the 7900GTX seems to be the equal or better of the X1900XTX in every regard, but the problem for me is... I won't be playing any of the games in that review except possibly a bit of CoD2 here and there. The game I really want to know about is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Do you guys have any plans to bench these cards with that game once it's released?
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Currently no. We tend to go by what is selling best. So if we see it move into the top 10 strongly, it will then be considered.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/charts/?id=176

I do think EQII is becoming a moot point as well. And our WoW accounts get expensive. :( But it looks to be THE game.
 
Well, I recently sold my kick butt rig and got to build a new one. As I build ALOT of high end PC's for my clients, there's not alot of research required when building a new PC. Now however, I'm torn. My last rig had dual 7800GTX 256's in SLI. When I sold the PC, I jumped on the opportunity to try the ATI X1900XTX. The card (1900XTX) is impressive, BUT, the Catalyst Control center is a nightmare to work. Nvidia's control solution in MUCH better. Maybe, Kyle, you could include "software friendliness" as part of the review. Also, a bit of info on overclockability would be nice. Nvidia's Auto Detect is flawless, ATI's version is not even close in it's execution.

Given identical performance, I'll take the Nvidia card all day long because of the Control Panel. So, thankfully, I have a great relationship with my computer store, and an exchange is in order. All this is a shame as my office (work) is a couple of blocks from ATI's world headquarters in Toronto. I'd love to support a Canadian company, but I'm going to buy what works best for me.

One more thing about the X1900XTX, can someone supply me with some ear plugs? WTF? This thing is INSANELY loud!!! I run a watercooled rig, but the GPU is not in the H2O system. All I can hear from my system is the video card. Very annoying.

One more strike against the X1900XTX is the dual display mode...Maybe it's just me, but I can't set different wallpaper on my two displays. Also, it seems to confuse monitor 1 and monitor 2. I can't make sense of it at all. Nvidia's is very straight forward.

On the plus side...It's a physically GREAT looking card, it performs as well as my two GTX's did, it has 6x AA, and it's made by a Canadian company.

As soon as my local computer store gets the 7900 GTX in, that's the card I'll be going with. Also, SLI is much more mature, and one day I hope to add a second card. I'm still not sure about Crossfire technology/drivers.

Thanks for the great review Kyle!!!
 
I see no compelling reason to upgrade from my 7800GT to a 7900GT, especially when I consider how much money I would lose from the upgrade. If anything, this preview confirms how good of a buy my 7800GT was in October.

Also, I think it's important that my next card have 512MB of memory and I can't afford a 7900GTX.

New customers should definitely rejoice though.
 
RoffleCopter said:
what would you say the performance delta is between the ATi and Nvidia cards? To me, both seem really close, one upping each other in different games.
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Mentioned in detail on this page.

If you’ve currently own a X1900 XT or XTX, stick with it. Those are great performing video cards and nothing here is enticing enough to move from them. If however you have an X1800 XT or XL, moving to a GeForce 7900 GTX or GT may give you a good boost in your visual gameplay quality. Or if you’ve got an older Radeon X800 series, the 7900 GT would be great improvement.
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posterChild said:
I check and checked again, but I'm not seeing overclocky goodness in this review... considering the die shrink and the improved thermal profile, I was kinda hoping we'd at least see something regarding how much headroom there was in the cards. Even the coolbits "automagical overclocking checkbox" tests would have been somewhat telling... where's the [H] OC Loving?

It's very possible that it's addressed in the review, but I didn't see it... of course, I'm low on coffee and sleep due to trying to track this launch and make a purchase decision.

posterChild
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We don't cover OCing in PREviews of non-retail products as in the past they have shown to not be conclusive. OCing will be covered in our retail product evaluations.
 
Looks good.

My credit card hates you Kyle.

I'm holding you personally responsible.
 
The Equalizer said:
Kyle ok it's a simple decision I guess, which would be overall better to get, an Nvidia 7900GTX or an ATI x1900xtx?
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I think it just is not that simple. What is your system? What is your display? What games do you want to play? There are a lot of considerations here. I wish it was as easy as the VoodooII days, but that just aint the case any more.
 
nice, its about time we got some real world gaming numbers insted of 3dmark scores :). it looks like a 7900GT will be my next card, i guess i need a new mobo and cpu while i am at it (darn s754 :( )
 
My system will be hopefully

Intel BOXD975XBXLKR ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Pentium D 930 800MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core Processor
OCZ Gold Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive x2
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive x1
SAMSUNG Black ATA/ATAPI LightScribe DVD Burner With 5X DVD-RAM Write Model SH-W162L/BEBN x2
ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500W Power Supply
OPTI-UPS GS1100B UPS
NEC MultiSync 20WMGX2-BK
Lian Li v1000b.
 
Very nice eval guys! I'm glad that you guys use the most popular game at the time (namely WoW which I play 99-100% of the time). :D One thing I would like to note though. You guys have "Level of detail" checked, which "dynamically" reduces the polygons to increase performace.... Ever notice mountains strangely changing form (slightly) when moving along flight paths? That's level of detail at work. With that disabled everything is steady.
 
mjz_5 said:
i think because of the shimmering, one should not even recommend the 7900
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to get rid of the shimmering you just set go into the display settings, set the negative LOD bias to clamp and set the image quality to high. i run at 1920x1080 on my 24" sony and havent seen any shimmering or texture crawling since doing so. this fix has been around for quite a long time. i think its becoming more prevalent as average monitor sizes increase and more people notice.

EDIT: looks like i got this in seconds before Kyle posted below....
question for Kyle or Brent: have you guys tried the above? or do you do all testing at default settings?
 
killxswitch said:
Anyone have a link detailing the filtering adjustments that can be done to reduce shimmering? I don't really notice it on my 19" LCD, but I'd like to have the option available in case I suddenly begin to notice shimmering in games.
Click to expand...

You can turn off the filtering optimizations in the NVIDIA control panel.

But let me suggest this and I did mention this. If you dont have any issues with shimmering, which most dont, DO NOT got looking for it. It is likely something that simply does not currently bother you in any games. But once some rabid shimmering rumor monger takes time to define and point out exactly what he thinks SHOULD be a problem, then all of a sudden you do have an issue where it never bothered you before. So if you don't see it now, damn sure don't go looking for it.

The truth is if you sit down and start studying your game for visual artifacts, you WILL find them. It just comes down to, "Do you want to see the artifacts or do you want to see the game?" Don't make issues for yourself where you don't have any.

That all said, we do see shimmering being an issue on larger displays at high resolutions, and that is why we discussed it.
 
icthus13 said:
Since you got to play with them, Kyle, do you think the 7600GT will be a worthy upgrade from a 6600GT? Especially for Oblivion? Thanks.
Click to expand...

We don't have enough solid experience to make that call yet. Sorry. :( But my guess is YES.
 
Kyle: What do you consider "High Resolution"? Is 1600x1200 high, or anything above that?
 
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