NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX Review

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.