Fall '06 NVIDIA GPU Refresh - Part I: GeForce 7900 GS
by Derek Wilson on September 6, 2006 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
XFX 480M Extreme vs. Stock Performance
We are quite interested in understanding the scalability of this new 7 vertex pipe, 5 quad configuration. In order to demonstrate the performance increase we can expect from overclocked 7900 GS parts, we've run percent increase numbers from stock performance to the performance we measured with the XFX 480M Extreme version.
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Interestingly, it seems like the largest performance difference between our stock and overclocked 7900 GS cards occurs at 1024x768. With a 6.7% core clock boost and a 6% memory clock increase, the XFX 480M Extreme is able to consistently perform over 6% faster than its stock brethren. The increased clocks allow for an increase in performance of up to 12% if a game makes full use of both memory bandwidth and pure processing power. Note, that the maximum theoretical performance increase shouldn't simply be memory clock percent increase added to core clock percent increase: it's a much more complex relationship that we can't explain without intimate knowledge of how NVIDIA handles latency hiding, data moving, and scheduling.
With Oblivion, we hit over a 11% increase. This indicates that the latest Elder Scrolls game is very tough on all aspects of a graphics card. The fact that the game reflects a very higher performance increase can also be explained by the higher than normal variance of our FRAPS test with Oblivion.
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sirfergy - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
Woot had this card for $139 a few weeks ago. So glad I jumped!artifex - Thursday, September 7, 2006 - link
I wish I'd bought 3 and sold them on eBay. Instead, I bought 0. :(http://www.woot.com/blog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryI...">woot entry
Spoelie - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
I dunno the situation in the US, but Europe is seeing an interesting war. We have 7900GT's costing 230€, right above there is the X1900XT 256mb at 244€ and the X1900XT 512mb at 280€, with the overclocked 7900GT's overlapping in price with the X1900XT's.Check it on www.alternate.de for example.
At these prices, the X1900XT's are a pretty sweet deal, and warrant the little extra money paid over the 7900GT imho.
Spoelie - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
just to be clear, those are the minimum prices found, in general you have about price parity between the GT's and XT 256mb, with a few superclocked cards costing as much or more as the XT 512mb...Incredible value in the 200-300€/$ range imho, with cards that just months ago were in the 300-500€/$ range
Spacecomber - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
The concluding paragraphs on pages 4 and 5 are identical (i.e., the proper paragraph is missing for the XFX 480M Extreme vs. Stock Performance section).DerekWilson - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
thanks, fixedSpoelie - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
there's also a layout error in the table on page 9TheLiberalTruth - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
I don't know if it's just me or what, but I can't get any page from this article after 1 to load. :\peldor - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
The BFG 7600GT is down to $115 after rebate at Newegg.