If you have been drooling over the new GeForce 7900 GTX but can't afford it, you may be interested to know that it is actually not quite the best thing in NVIDIA's line-up. That, we think, is a title that belongs to the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT! Find out why we love it so much that we gave it our Editor's Choice Award! Link : NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT Graphics Card Review!
Great review Adrian!! I was really looking forward to reading your review on the 7900 GT. You have a penchant for details and exactly that's what makes your reviews delicate. Thank you so much for testing these cards on an Athlon 64 3200+ since in terms of performance this CPU is very close to my P4 3200. Not everybody can afford all the high end machines other reviewers like to use for their GPU reviews. In other words: Until I read your review I did not know whether these cards would perform well on older rigs too! I got a question: I've heard that the 7x00 cards' AF mode tends to flicker - did you notice that too and how serious a problem is it? Thanks, GOOD JOB!
Oh, crap. Made a mistake in the review! Forgot to state the exact testing configuration! The Athlon 64 was overclocked to 2.6GHz, similar to a 3800+. Naturally, the RAM was slightly overclocked to 236MHz with RAM divider. If there's interest in CPU scaling with high end cards, we might consider publishing an article on it.
Hi guys, Don't get me wrong I don't dislike my 7900GT but I'm having really bad overheating problems with it. It runs fine at standard speeds about 65deg at idle but as soon as you overclock the core to say 460 and mem to 675, the temps will go straight to 95 on any 3d game. As soon as the temps hit 95 it shuts down to the desktop to recover back to "normal" temps. If I use the optimal clock button on the overclock page it will give me an outrageous overclock, something like 580 core and over 780 mem! Once again, on a 2d desktop the temps are fine but as soon as any 3d is needed, up they go, you can gaurantee it. I used to own a 6800 ultra and it overclocked great, although not with the massive percentage increase this baby can give, but it never got close to overheating- max at 70deg. I'm sure the problem lies in the cooler. For something this powerful it's a bloody joke. It's tiny. Looks like I'm going to have to fork out another 50 bucks for a Zalman. I've never needed an aftermarket cooler before. Looks like I do now though. I hope this info helps, Don't despair but, this card really is a rocket ship for the money you pay! Cheers
Welcome to ARP, fellow WA resident It could be an issue with your cooler - maybe poor contact, maybe the fan isn't spinning properly?
G'day Papercut, Thanks for the welcome. Yeah have looked at the obvious things i.e loose cooler,sticky fan etc. Alas all looks ok, only thing is if I place my fingers on the copper it doesn't seem that hot. With the case side off and my hand about 2 inches above the card you can really feel the heat radiating upwards, and it's coming from the rear end of the card, sort of above the capacitors if you look at the photos in the review you'll see where I mean. I'm thinking that, at that end of the card it could be a power issue, what kind, I have no idea ( I'm just a dumb chopper pilot) The other thought is the ram chips, they have no cooling whatsoever although if I o'c the core even by 5% it still heats up. My next step is to remove the cooler reapply AS5 thermal paste and see what happens. Don't get me wrong though I'm not bagging the card, I reckon it's fantastic. At stock speeds it beats a 7800GTX for $350 less. I've just never had a thermal issue with Nvidia cards.
You are not 'stupid' enough to get that kind of setup! Nvidia is obviously trying to cripple 7900GT to protect the GTX market, by reducing the voltage and cooling. You know what you should do if you want to overclock higher.
I don't really need to o'c, the card is powerful enough as is, it's just that in the review the reveiwer got his to o'c quite nicely, which isn't the case with me. Yeah you can get great numbers, but not for any length of time without suffering from overheating problems. I know exactly what I need to do to get it to run faster, it's just that in the past you didn't need to do anything to o'c an Nvidia card all that was needed is coolbits. I'm trying to point out that maybe if you do want to run this card hard, you might like to take a look at the cooling situation. I for one am going to order the new Zalman vga cooler (sorry I can't remember the model #) but when I bolt it on I'll post the results.
The VF900? Yeah, Chai has a review of that coming up Do let us know how it goes Where are you getting it from, btw?
Nintek have em for $55 Nintek.com.au, not bad if you haven't tried them. Bit expensive on some things but they stock everything and are in Perth. Free postage to metro area too.
Yeah, most of my components were actually bought from Nintek - the motherboard, RAM, 6800GS, PSU...in fact I even applied for a job when they had some openings several weeks ago
The reviewer is me, sort of anyway, and we did mention in the review that there was additional cooling to reduce the likelihood of overheating while testing.
Yeah good point. All I'm trying to say, is that the card has inadequate cooling. At the same time it's the best card I've ever owned! I liked your review and if I hadn't already purchased one, I would have after reading that review. Also you did point out that not all cards are the same. My 6800 ultra could not o'c as well as some I'd heard about. I should also tell you that my card is a Prolink, it was the only thing you could get in Australia at the time. I've never heard of them before and maybe their cooling is not up to scratch, although it looks the same as the reference design. I'm not bagging them either, just saying that you 'might' need to get an aftermarket cooler with this card.
Yup, you are absolutely right. This card has got to be the best card of the 3 new cards I have tested. But I was surprised at the cooling, it tells 2 things. It doesn't generate a lot of heat and it won't overclock far with that. Although I was the tester of the card, I didn't write it.
aw, i hate nvidia, they keep coming great cards, so tempted to buy one. I wonder why don't they make any cheap card yet good one any more...
Haha nah they didn't get back to me... On second thought though, I really should focus on my Uni work this year since it's _probably_ my last
