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Home » NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX Review

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

GeForce 7900 GTX is a very high-end graphics chip provided by NVIDIA. In fact, before the release of GeForce 7950 GX2, GeForce 7900 GTX was NVIDIA’s fastest graphics chip. In this review we will compare GeForce 7900 GTX to other products from both NVIDIA and ATI. Check it out.

GeForce 7900 GTXFigure 1: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX.

Our review is based on a reference model from NVIDIA. Video card manufacturers usually have two options for their products: follow the reference board from the chip manufacturer or design a board by themselves. Since the life cycle of video cards are very short these days, almost all manufacturers choose to simply follow the reference design, sometimes changing the cooler or overclocking the card. So by reviewing a reference model or a model based on it we will have an idea of the performance of almost all cards based on the same chip available on the market.

GeForce 7900 GTX runs at 650 MHz and accesses its video memory at 1.6 GHz. Like all high-end GPUs it accesses its video memory using a 256-bit interface. All GPUs on NVIDIA GeForce 7900 family has 24 pixel shader units, so the main difference between the current three members of GeForce 7900 family is the clock used. GeForce 7950 GX2, however, has two GeForce 7950 GPUs, so everything on this video card is doubled.

You can see in our tutorial “NVIDIA Chips Comparison Table” the difference between GeForce 7900 GTX and other chips from NVIDIA, while on our tutorial “ATI Chips Comparison Table” you can compare it to its competitors from ATI.

On Figures 2 and 3 you can see the GeForce 7900 GTX reference model from NVIDIA.

GeForce 7900 GTXFigure 2: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX.

GeForce 7900 GTXFigure 3: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX, back view.

[nextpage title=”GeForce 7900 GTX Reference Model from NVIDIA”]

GeForce 7900 GTX reference model uses a huge cooler, as you have seen on the previous pictures. By using a big fan the video card is able to produce less noise, since it can rotate at a lower speed to achieve the same performance of a smaller fan.

We removed the video card cooler to take a look. It has an aluminum body with a copper base, using four heat-pipes to connect its base to its aluminum fins. As you can notice by looking at Figures 4 and 5 the heatsink touches the memory chips, cooling them down.

GeForce 7900 GTXFigure 4: GeForce 7900 GTX reference model heatsink.

GeForce 7900 GTXFigure 5: GeForce 7900 GTX reference model heatsink.

In Figure 6, you can see the reviewed video card without its cooler.

GeForce 7900 GTXFigure 6: GeForce 7900 GTX reference model without its cooler.

This video card uses eight GDDR3 512-Mbit 1.1 ns chips from Samsung (K4J52324QC-BJ11), making its 512 MB video memory (512 Mbits x 8 = 512 MB). These chips can run up to 1.8 GHz. Since this video card accesses its memory at 1.6 GHz, there is 12.5% headroom if you wish to overclock it inside its specs.

In Figure 7, you can see GeForce 7900 GTX chip. As you can see, it is internally called G71-U by NVIDIA.

GeForce 7900 GTXFigure 7: GeForce 7900 GTX chip.

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

  • Graphics chip: GeForce 7900 GTX.
  • Memory: 1.1 ns 256-bit 512 MB GDDR3 memory from Samsung (K4J52324QC-BJ11), running at 1.6 GHz (800 MHz DDR).
  • Bus type: PCI Express x16.
  • Connectors: Two DVI and one mini-DIN for S-Video and Component Video output.
  • Number of CDs/DVDs that come with this board: N/A.
  • Games that come with this board: N/A.
  • Programs that come with this board: N/A.
  • More information: https://www.nvidia.com
  • Average price in the US*: USD 500.00

* Researched at Shopping.com on the day we published this review.

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only variable was the video card being tested.

Hardware Configuration

  • Motherboard: DFI LAN Party 925X-T2 (Intel 925X, Sep. 20th, 2004 BIOS)
  • CPU: Pentium 4 3.4 GHz LGA 775
  • Memory: Two 512 MB DDR2-533 CM2X512-4200 CL4 from Corsair memory modules
  • Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus (40 GB, ATA-133)
  • Screen resolution: [email protected] Hz

Software Configuration

  • Windows XP Professional installed using NTFS
  • Service Pack 2
  • Direct X 9.0c
  • Intel inf driver version: 6.0.1.1002
  • ATI video driver version: 4.10 (6.14.10.6483)
  • ATI video driver version: 4.12 (Radeon X850 Platinum Edition)
  • ATI video driver version: 5.3 (Radeon X800 GT)
  • ATI video driver version: 5.9 (Radeon X800 GTO)
  • ATI video driver version: 6.1 (Radeon X1600 XT from HIS)
  • ATI video driver version: 8.173 beta (Radeon X1000 series)
  • ATI video driver version: 8.203.3.0 (Radeon X1900 XTX)
  • NVIDIA video driver version: 66.93
  • NVIDIA video driver version: 77.72 (GeForce 7800 GTX)
  • NVIDIA video driver version: 78.02 (GeForce 7800 GT)
  • NVIDIA video driver version: 81.98 (GeForce 6800 GS)
  • NVIDIA video driver version: 84.21 (GeForce 7600 and 7900 series)
  • NVIDIA video driver version: 91.29 (GeForce 7950 GX2)

Used Software

  • 3DMark2001 SE
  • 3DMark03 Business 3.50
  • 3DMark05 Business 1.10
  • Doom III
  • Far Cry 1.3

We adopted a 3% error margin; thus, differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.

[nextpage title=”3DMark2001 SE”]

3DMark2001 SE measures video card performance simulating DirectX 8.1 games. It is very effective software for evaluating the performance from previous-generation games, programmed using DirectX 8. In this software we run six tests. We run the software in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and with no frame buffer, then we put the antialising at 4 samples and the frame buffer at triple-buffering. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.

You may be asking yourself why we added an old program in a review of a latest generation video card. To us, it is as important to know the performance of a video card with the latest games as it is to know its performance in an older game. That’s why we kept this software in our methodology.

The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark2001 SE – 1024×768 Score Difference
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 23,004 1.25%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 22,967 1.09%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 22,731 0.05%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 22,720  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 22,347 1.67%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 22,228 2.21%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 21,858 3.94%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 21,510 5.63%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 21,487 5.74%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 21,433 6.00%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 21,043 7.97%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 20,299 11.93%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 20,084 13.12%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 20,072 13.19%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 19,865 14.37%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 19,864 14.38%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 19,797 14.76%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 18,630 21.95%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 17,881 27.06%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 17,412 30.48%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 16,840 34.92%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 14,453 57.20%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 14,132 60.77%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 12,545 81.11%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark2001 SE – 1280×1024 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 21,466 2.80%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 21,449 2.72%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 21,038 0.75%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 20,882  
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 20,868 0.07%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 20,647 1.14%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 20,096 3.91%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 19,924 4.81%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 19,768 5.64%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 19,755 5.70%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 19,465 7.28%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 18,436 13.27%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 18,307 14.07%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 18,228 14.56%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 18,084 15.47%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 17,658 18.26%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 17,005 22.80%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 16,750 24.67%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 15,721 32.83%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 15,464 35.04%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 14,854 40.58%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 11,403 83.13%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 11,274 85.22%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 9,472 120.46%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark2001 SE – 1600×1200 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 20,590 3.63%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 20,369 2.52%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 19,986 0.59%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 19,868  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 19,570 1.52%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 19,382 2.51%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 18,988 4.63%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 18,793 5.72%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 18,749 5.97%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 18,390 8.04%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 18,140 9.53%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 16,784 18.37%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 16,649 19.33%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 16,590 19.76%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 16,483 20.54%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 15,524 27.98%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 15,498 28.20%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 14,481 37.20%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 13,694 45.09%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 12,938 53.56%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 12,741 55.94%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 9,059 119.32%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 8,129 144.41%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 6,729 195.26%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark2001 SE – 1024×768 AAx4, FBx3 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 21,165 3.49%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 21,028 2.82%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 20,783 1.62%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 20,451  
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 20,403 0.24%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 20,145 1.52%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 19,671 3.97%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 19,321 5.85%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 19,208 6.47%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 19,103 7.06%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 18,336 11.53%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 17,187 18.99%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 16,979 20.45%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 16,856 21.33%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 16,834 21.49%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 16,775 21.91%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 16,529 23.73%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 16,408 24.64%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 15,745 29.89%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 15,021 36.15%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 13,635 49.99%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 9,718 110.44%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 8,928 129.07%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 8,210 149.10%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark2001 SE – 1280×1024 AAx4, FBx3 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 19,774 5.30%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 19,440 3.53%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 19,354 3.07%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 18,778  
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 18,447 1.79%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 18,366 2.24%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 18,029 4.15%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 17,682 6.20%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 17,142 9.54%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 17,120 9.68%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 16,302 15.19%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 16,056 16.95%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 15,117 24.22%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 15,080 24.52%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 14,294 31.37%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 13,833 35.75%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 13,655 37.52%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 13,652 37.55%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 12,892 45.66%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 12,364 51.88%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 10,487 79.06%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 6,915 171.55%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 6,049 210.43%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 5,755 226.29%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark2001 SE – 1600×1200 AAx4, FBx3 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 18,772 8.37%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 18,424 6.36%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 18,090 4.43%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 17,322  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 16,919 2.38%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 16,299 6.28%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 16,213 6.84%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 15,920 8.81%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 15,734 10.09%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 15,503 11.73%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 15,362 12.76%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 14,418 20.14%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 11,829 46.44%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 11,663 48.52%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 11,127 55.68%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 10,659 62.51%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 9,891 75.13%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 9,455 83.20%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 8,429 105.50%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 6,620 161.66%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 5,625 207.95%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 3,558 386.85%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 3,205 440.47%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 2,606 564.70%

[nextpage title=”3DMark03″]

3DMark03 measures performance by simulating games written to DirectX 9, which are contemporary games. We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.

The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark03 – 1024×768 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 26,189 41.83%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 24,670 33.60%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 18,465  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 17,261 6.98%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 16,544 11.61%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 15,631 18.13%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 15,375 20.10%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 15,004 23.07%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 13,760 34.19%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 13,630 35.47%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 13,144 40.48%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 12,782 44.46%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 12,111 52.46%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 11,285 63.62%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 11,223 64.53%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 9,563 93.09%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 9,352 97.44%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 9,134 102.16%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 8,213 124.83%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 8,056 129.21%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 7,295 153.12%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 4,847 280.96%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 4,128 347.31%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 3,468 432.44%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark03 – 1280×1024 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 22,880 48.63%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 21,038 36.66%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 15,394  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 14,324 7.47%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 13,888 10.84%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 13,045 18.01%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 12,578 22.39%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 12,239 25.78%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 11,119 38.45%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 10,997 39.98%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 10,671 44.26%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 10,314 49.25%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 9,529 61.55%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 8,836 74.22%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 8,784 75.25%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 7,472 106.02%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 7,039 118.70%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 6,943 121.72%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 6,277 145.24%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 6,041 154.83%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 5,351 187.68%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 3,538 335.10%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 2,990 414.85%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 2,507 514.04%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark03 – 1600×1200 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 21,176 50.29%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 18,152 28.83%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 14,090  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 12,060 16.83%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 11,680 20.63%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 10,751 31.06%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 10,445 34.90%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 10,127 39.13%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 9,822 43.45%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 9,100 54.84%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 8,743 61.16%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 8,411 67.52%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 7,701 82.96%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 7,144 97.23%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 7,035 100.28%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 5,940 137.21%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 5,295 166.10%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 5,220 169.92%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 4,930 185.80%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 4,640 203.66%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 3,938 257.80%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 2,678 426.14%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 2,131 561.19%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 1,797 684.08%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark03 – 1024×768 AAx4, Anisox4 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 19,582 55.91%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 17,431 38.78%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 12,560  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 11,819 6.27%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 11,576 8.50%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 10,989 14.30%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 10,275 22.24%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 9,929 26.50%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 9,325 34.69%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 8,999 39.57%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 8,834 42.18%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 8,108 54.91%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 7,330 71.35%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 6,919 81.53%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 6,841 83.60%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 5,437 131.01%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 4,978 152.31%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 4,693 167.63%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 4,405 185.13%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 4,177 200.69%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 3,411 268.22%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 2,378 428.17%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 1,966 538.86%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 1,674 650.30%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark03 – 1280×1024 AAx4, Anisox4 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 16,062 60.67%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 14,067 40.71%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 9,997  
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 9,467 5.60%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 9,368 6.71%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 9,050 10.46%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 7,980 25.28%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 7,733 29.28%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 7,249 37.91%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 6,979 43.24%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 6,841 46.13%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 6,278 59.24%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 5,324 87.77%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 5,172 93.29%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 5,025 98.95%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 3,962 152.32%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 3,747 166.80%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 3,475 187.68%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 3,116 220.83%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 2,547 292.50%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 2,454 307.38%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 1,497 567.80%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 1,351 639.97%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 1,212 724.83%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark03 – 1600×1200 AAx4, Anisox4 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 13,355 63.50%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 11,629 42.37%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 8,168  
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 7,852 4.02%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 7,563 8.00%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 7,364 10.92%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 6,317 29.30%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 6,148 32.86%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 5,873 39.08%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 5,807 40.66%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 5,614 45.49%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 5,024 62.58%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 4,530 80.31%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 4,018 103.29%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 3,861 111.55%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 3,091 164.25%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 2,656 207.53%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 2,563 218.69%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 2,377 243.63%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 1,805 352.52%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 1,717 375.71%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 1,027 695.33%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 732 1015.85%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 684 1094.15%

[nextpage title=”3DMark05″]

3DMark05 measures performance by simulating DirectX 9.0c games, i.e., using the new Shader 3.0 model. This programming model is used by Far Cry game and other games to be launched in the future. This new programming model is used by GeForce 6 and 7 series from NVIDIA and Radeon X1000 series from ATI.

We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our benchmark, allowing direct comparison between them.

The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark05 – 1024×768 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 8,172 10.88%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 8,096 9.85%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 7,370  
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 7,342 0.38%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 7,222 2.05%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 7,220 2.08%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 6,982 5.56%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 6,863 7.39%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 6,789 8.56%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 6,471 13.89%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 6,343 16.19%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 5,732 28.58%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 5,594 31.75%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 4,991 47.67%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 4,941 49.16%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 4,537 62.44%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 4,301 71.36%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 3,993 84.57%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 3,675 100.54%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 2,886 155.37%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 2,872 156.62%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 1,701 333.27%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 1,433 414.31%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 1,365 439.93%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark05 – 1280×1024 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 7,918 13.73%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 7,804 12.09%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 6,962  
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 6,761 2.97%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 6,726 3.51%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 6,699 3.93%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 6,534 6.55%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 6,208 12.15%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 6,067 14.75%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 5,554 25.35%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 5,504 26.49%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 4,780 45.65%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 4,740 46.88%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 4,130 68.57%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 4,085 70.43%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 3,745 85.90%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 3,479 100.11%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 3,192 118.11%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 3,093 125.09%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 2,253 209.01%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 1,957 255.75%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 1,259 452.98%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 1,040 569.42%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 992 601.81%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark05 – 1600×1200 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 7,749 18.14%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 7,598 15.84%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 6,559  
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 6,513 0.71%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 6,220 5.45%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 6,191 5.94%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 5,862 11.89%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 5,524 18.74%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 5,371 22.12%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 4,786 37.05%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 4,785 37.07%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 4,096 60.13%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 3,931 66.85%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 3,455 89.84%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 3,376 94.28%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 3,091 112.20%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 2,856 129.66%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 2,608 151.50%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 2,430 169.92%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 1,789 266.63%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 1,264 418.91%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 944 594.81%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 814 705.77%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 708 826.41%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark05 – 1024×768 AAx4, Anisox4 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 7,845 13.81%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 7,735 12.22%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 6,893  
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 6,788 1.55%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 6,717 2.62%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 6,656 3.56%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 6,655 3.58%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 6,123 12.58%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 6,052 13.90%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 5,874 17.35%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 5,559 24.00%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 4,971 38.66%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 4,634 48.75%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 4,108 67.79%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 4,072 69.28%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 3,700 86.30%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 3,655 88.59%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 3,523 95.66%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 2,881 139.26%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 2,232 208.83%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 1,287 435.59%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 1,038 564.07%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 935 637.22%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 903 663.34%

GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark05 – 1280×1024 AAx4, Anisox4 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 7,647 20.90%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 7,485 18.34%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 6,571 3.89%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 6,325  
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 6,040 4.72%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 5,968 5.98%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 5,955 6.21%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 5,277 19.86%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 5,186 21.96%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 4,915 28.69%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 4,664 35.61%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 4,028 57.03%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 3,738 69.21%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 3,295 91.96%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 3,286 92.48%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 2,969 113.03%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 2,891 118.78%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 2,510 151.99%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 2,232 183.38%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 1,722 267.31%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 803 687.67%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 581 988.64%

 GeForce 7950 GX2

3DMark05 – 1600×1200 AAx4, Anisox4 Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 7,447 31.39%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 7,209 27.19%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 6,253 10.32%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 5,668  
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 5,288 7.19%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 5,285 7.25%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 4,266 32.86%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 4,205 34.79%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 4,168 35.99%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 3,776 50.11%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 3,746 51.31%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 3,325 70.47%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 2,644 114.37%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 2,553 122.01%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 2,365 139.66%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 2,235 153.60%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 2,233 153.83%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 1,948 190.97%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 1,552 265.21%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 1,374 312.52%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 589 862.31%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 341 1,562.17%

[nextpage title=”Doom 3″]Doom 3 is one of the heaviest games available today. As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions: 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and high. We ran demo1 four times and wrote the obtained number of frames per second. The first result we discarded at once, since it is far inferior than the other results. This happens because at the first time we run the demo the game must load all textures to video memory, fact that doesn’t happen from the second time we run the demo on. From the three results left, we consider as our official result the middle result, i.e., we discard the highest and the lowest values. Curiously almost all times the values obtained at the second round on were the same.

A very important detail that we must mention is that Doom 3 has an internal FPS lock: it is only capable of generating 60 frames per second, even if your board is able to produce more frames per second than that. This is done in order to make the game to have the same “playability” sensation independently from the video card installed on the PC. This lock, however, is disabled in the game benchmarking mode.

For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Doom 3, read our tutorial on this subject.

The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).

GeForce 7950 GX2

Doom 3 – 1024×768 Low Score Difference
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 96.7 1.68%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 95.9 0.84%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 95.2 0.11%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 95.1  
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 94.7 0.42%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 94.5 0.63%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 94.1 1.06%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 94.1 1.06%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 93.4 1.82%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 92.2 3.15%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 92.1 3.26%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 91.4 4.05%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 91.3 4.16%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 84.5 12.54%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 82.7 14.99%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 79.5 19.62%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 77.1 23.35%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 75.9 25.30%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 69.7 36.44%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 66.6 42.79%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 55.6 71.04%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 54.1 75.79%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 30.9 207.77%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 25.2 277.38%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Doom 3 – 1280×1024 Low Score Difference
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 94.9  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 94.1 0.85%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 93.9 1.06%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 92.0 3.15%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 91.6 3.60%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 91.4 3.83%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 91.4 3.83%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 90.4 4.98%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 87.5 8.46%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 85.3 11.25%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 82.2 15.45%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 80.8 17.45%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 77.5 22.45%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 76.6 23.89%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 75.8 25.20%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 61.5 54.31%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 59.9 58.43%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 55.1 72.23%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 46.8 102.78%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 44.7 112.30%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 37.3 154.42%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 36.6 159.29%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 19.6 384.18%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 16.0 493.13%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Doom 3 – 1600×1200 Low Score Difference
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 92.0  
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 91.8 0.22%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 91.6 0.44%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 89.0 3.37%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 86.6 6.24%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 83.4 10.31%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 80.8 13.86%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 77.5 18.71%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 76.2 20.73%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 70.9 29.76%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 69.1 33.14%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 64.4 42.86%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 63.4 45.11%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 63.1 45.80%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 62.4 47.44%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 46.2 99.13%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 45.9 100.44%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 38.9 136.50%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 31.7 190.22%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 31.5 192.06%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 26.5 247.17%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 25.5 260.78%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 13.1 602.29%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 10.6 767.92%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Doom 3 – 1024×768 High Score Difference
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 95.3 0.53%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 94.8  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 94.8 0.00%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 94.6 0.21%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 94.4 0.42%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 93.6 1.28%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 92.3 2.71%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 92.2 2.82%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 92.1 2.93%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 91.8 3.27%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 91.7 3.38%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 90.9 4.29%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 88.8 6.76%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 83.6 13.40%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 81.7 16.03%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 76.5 23.92%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 73.8 28.46%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 70.8 33.90%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 65.5 44.73%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 61.0 55.41%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 50.4 88.10%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 48.7 94.66%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 27.8 241.01%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 22.9 313.97%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Doom 3 – 1280×1024 High Score Difference
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 94.9  
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 94.8 0.11%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 93.8 1.17%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 91.6 3.60%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 91.3 3.94%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 91.2 4.06%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 90.2 5.21%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 88.7 6.99%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 86.7 9.46%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 82.4 15.17%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 80.9 17.31%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 78.2 21.36%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 74.4 27.55%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 73.9 28.42%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 72.4 31.08%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 58.5 62.22%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 55.5 70.99%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 52.6 80.42%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 44.4 113.74%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 41.7 127.58%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 34.4 175.87%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 33.4 184.13%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 18.4 415.76%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 15.0 532.67%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Doom 3 – 1600×1200 High Score Difference
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 91.5  
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 91.4 0.11%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 91.4 0.11%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 88.4 3.51%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 88.3 3.62%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 82.2 11.31%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 79.9 14.52%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 75.8 20.71%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 75.2 21.68%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 68.5 33.58%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 67.8 34.96%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 61.4 49.02%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 61.1 49.75%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 60.6 50.99%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 60.3 51.74%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 44.2 107.01%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 43.4 110.83%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 37.7 142.71%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 30.5 200.00%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 30.4 200.99%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 25.0 266.00%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 24.1 279.67%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 11.6 688.79%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 10.3 788.35%

[nextpage title=”Far Cry”]

Far Cry is a game based on the new Shader 3.0 (DirectX 9.0c) programming model available on series 6 and 7 from NVIDIA and series X1000 from ATI graphics chips. We’ve updated the game to version 1.3.
 
As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and very high. To measure the performance we used the demo created by German magazine PC Games Hardware (PCGH), available at https://www.3dcenter.org/downloads/farcry-pcgh-vga.php. We run this demo four times and made an arithmetical average with the results. This average is the result presented in our graphs.

This game has a very important detail in its image quality configuration. Antialising, instead of being configured by numbers (1x, 2x, 4x or 6x) is configured as low, medium or high. The problem is that on NVIDIA chips both medium and high mean 4x, while on ATI chips medium means 2x and high means 6x, making the comparison between ATI and NVIDIA chips completely unfair. Because of that we configured antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering at 8x manually at the video driver control panel.

For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Far Cry, read our tutorial on this subject.

The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).

GeForce 7950 GX2

Far Cry – 1024×768 Low Score Difference
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 148.26 9.28%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 145.56 7.29%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 145.51 7.25%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 145.42 7.19%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 145.16 6.99%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 144.93 6.83%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 144.54 6.54%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 144.44 6.46%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 144.02 6.15%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 136.68 0.74%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 136.43 0.56%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 135.74 0.05%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 135.72 0.04%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 135.67  
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 135.44 0.17%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 134.94 0.54%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 134.93 0.55%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 132.76 2.19%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 131.69 3.02%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 131.48 3.19%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 130.43 4.02%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 123.60 9.77%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 120.56 12.53%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 112.52 20.57%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Far Cry – 1280×1024 Low Score Difference
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 145.00 8.95%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 143.19 7.59%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 142.98 7.43%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 142.41 7.00%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 141.73 6.49%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 140.71 5.73%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 140.49 5.56%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 138.43 4.01%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 133.27 0.14%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 133.24 0.11%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 133.09  
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 132.52 0.43%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 132.32 0.58%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 132.16 0.70%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 131.86 0.93%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 131.78 0.99%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 131.03 1.57%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 127.99 3.98%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 127.89 4.07%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 127.71 4.21%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 127.24 4.60%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 89.16 49.27%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 87.83 51.53%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 72.96 82.42%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Far Cry – 1600×1200 Low Score Difference
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 145.81 8.79%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 143.59 7.13%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 142.30 6.17%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 141.82 5.81%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 139.29 3.92%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 134.03  
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 133.96 0.05%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 133.93 0.07%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 133.71 0.24%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 133.59 0.33%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 133.18 0.64%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 132.30 1.31%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 130.85 2.43%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 128.99 3.91%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 128.38 4.40%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 128.32 4.45%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 127.64 5.01%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 121.01 10.76%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 109.30 22.63%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 108.98 22.99%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 105.22 27.38%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 63.37 111.50%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 59.82 124.06%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 48.85 174.37%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Far Cry – 1024×768 Very High Score Difference
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 78.79 4.57%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 76.61 1.67%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 76.55 1.59%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 76.18 1.10%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 75.82 0.62%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 75.38 0.04%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 75.35  
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 74.65 0.94%
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 73.93 1.92%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 73.31 2.78%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 73.03 3.18%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 72.70 3.65%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 70.72 6.55%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 69.40 8.57%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 67.93 10.92%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 63.05 19.51%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 54.82 37.45%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 48.28 56.07%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 47.91 57.27%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 40.72 85.04%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 38.28 96.84%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 23.67 218.34%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 20.41 269.18%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 18.74 302.08%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Far Cry – 1280×1024 Very High Score Difference
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 75.28 2.69%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 73.31  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 72.96 0.48%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 71.77 2.15%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 71.17 3.01%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 71.13 3.06%
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 71.13 3.06%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 71.03 3.21%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 70.00 4.73%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 68.59 6.88%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 67.93 7.92%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 67.09 9.27%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 53.88 36.06%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 53.81 36.24%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 51.53 42.27%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 45.80 60.07%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 38.43 90.76%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 35.59 105.98%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 31.41 133.40%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 28.20 159.96%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 25.82 183.93%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 15.07 386.46%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 14.15 418.09%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 13.62 438.25%

GeForce 7950 GX2

Far Cry – 1600×1200 Very High Score Difference
GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) 72.35 1.09%
Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) 71.88 0.43%
GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) 71.70 0.18%
GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) 71.57  
GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) 69.37 3.17%
Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) 68.62 4.30%
Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) 60.12 19.05%
GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) 59.50 20.29%
Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) 59.36 20.57%
GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) 58.10 23.18%
Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) 54.23 31.97%
GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) 52.35 36.71%
GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) 39.93 79.24%
GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) 39.62 80.64%
GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) 34.29 108.72%
Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) 34.06 110.13%
Radeon X800 GT (HIS) 27.74 158.00%
Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) 24.51 192.00%
GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) 22.78 214.18%
Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) 20.01 257.67%
GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) 19.53 266.46%
GeForce 6600 (Albatron) 11.28 534.49%
Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) 8.04 790.17%
Radeon X600 XT (ATI) 7.01 920.97%

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

GeForce 7900 GTX showed to be a true high-end chip, as expected. Unfortunately we didn’t have a Radeon X1900 XT from ATI for a direct comparison, which would make this review even more complete. Compared to Radeon X1900 XTX we have no doubt on which video card is the best.

GeForce 7900 GTX was between 4% and 12% faster than Radeon X1900 XTX on 3DMark03, while they both achieved a similar performance on other programs we used, sometimes with a small advantage (i.e., up to 8%) to NVIDIA’s part. Radeon X1900 XTX was faster only on 3DMark05 at 1600×1200 with image quality settings enabled (10% faster).

Then comes pricing. At Shopping.com GeForce 7900 GTX is quoted, on average, at USD 500, while Radeon X1900 XTX is quoted, on average, at USD 600. That’s a huge difference.

Of course we are talking about arithmetic averages, i.e., we take the lower price, add to the higher price and divide them by 2. You can find both cards being sold by less. The lower price we’ve seen for GeForce 7900 GTX was USD 450 (a model from eVGA at TigerDirect.com) while the cheapest Radeon X1900 XTX models can be found at USD 500 (TigerDirect.com carries a model from HIS costing USD 470, though).

Deciding between a GeForce 7900 GTX and a Radeon X1900 XTX is a no-brainer: go for the NVIDIA model.

So, if you are looking for the most very high-end video card for playing games at very high resolutions with all image quality settings enabled and don’t want the “GT” models, GeForce 7900 GTX is the right choice.

Of course for the average user, GeForce 7900 GT carries a far better cost/benefit ratio, as it costs “only” USD 270, providing a great performance for the normal user. Of course GTX is faster, but performance depends a lot on the program used. On Far Cry, for example, GTX was faster than GT only at 1600×1200 enabling image quality settings and on Doom 3 GTX was faster than GT only at 1600×1200. On 3DMark03, however, GTX was between 20% and 35% faster, and on 3DMark05 GTX was between 7% and 50% faster.

If you are a hardcore gamer and don’t want to spend USD 600 or more on a GeForce 7900 GX2, GeForce 7900 GTX is the video card you are looking for. However, if you are a true gamer but don’t want to spend between USD 450 and USD 500 on a video card, GeForce 7900 GT – which can be easily found at USD 270 range – is the video card for you.

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