Final Words

Even though we didn't test as many games as we usually do, there is quite a bit of data to digest. On the high end, the 7900 GTX generally performs around the X1900 XT and X1900 XTX. This isn't a blow out victory for either NVIDIA or ATI as far as performance goes, and it looks like we have some very good competition here.

In general, SLI edges out CrossFire in most cases. Under F.E.A.R., Quake 4 and BF2 at high resolutions, SLI shows a larger performance increase than CrossFire. Splinter Cell does do a good job of showing the potential of Crossfire, but as of now we don't see as many games scaling as well with CrossFire as they do with SLI.

While the 7900 GT generally spent its time at the bottom of our high end tests, remember that it performs slightly better than a stock 7800 GTX. This puts it squarely at or better than the X1800 XL and X1800 XT. We didn't include these cards as ATI seems to be backing away from the X1800 lineup with the exception of the X1800 GTO that we were unable to obtain for this launch. As the X1800 GTO looks like a cut down X1800 XL, we can certainly expect the 7900 GT to outperform it as well.

The 7600 GT does quite a good job of splitting the performance difference between the 6800 GS and the 7800 GT. NVIDIA is hoping that we will concentrate on how well the 7600 GT does in comparison to the X1600 XT, but unless the price of the 7600 GT falls to about $150 really fast the comparison isn't really fair. The 6800 GS already performs better than the X1600 and can be found for about $170. It's clear the 7600 GT needs to be positioned against a faster offering from ATI such as their upcoming X1800 GTO. With the X1800 GTO poised to come in at between $250 and $300, we would expect it to compete more with the 7900 GT which will come in somewhere between $300 and $350. The next step up in ATI's lineup after the X1600 XT will be the X1800 GTO, so we need to take that into consideration when looking at the 7600 GT (even though it should be less expensive than the ATI part).

The bottom line here is that it all comes down to price. With the close competition at the high end, we still really don't recommend the X1900 XTX which generally comes in between $580 and $650. In order for the 7900 GTX to really look good compared to the X1900 XT, we will have to push below the $500 mark. NVIDIA has positioned the 7900 GTX as a $500 part, but we can already find X1900 XT cards for about $475; with the tight competition, we would really like to see NVIDIA take advantage of their cost saving die sizes and bring prices down.

The NVIDIA solutions use less power, generate less heat, and are cheaper to produce, but what matters in the end is the performance the end user gets for the price he or she pays. Yes, the 7900 GTX performs on par with the X1900 XT and XTX. With ATI's additional features, will NVIDIA's street prices be low enough to entice gamers? We'll have to wait and see.

Quad SLI and Purevideo
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  • DerekWilson - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    there is not a 256bit version of the 7600 gt as far as we know
  • inthell - Friday, March 10, 2006 - link

    hmmm, must be a mis-print on NEWEGG they have a XFX and a EVGA with 256bit
  • supafly - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    Could you do some benchmarks for COD2? If you have the time... thanks :)
  • vaystrem - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    It would be really helpful if you had SLI data and Single card data seperate on each benchmark. If a single card is beating an SLI setup - I can figure that out for myself. In the current charts a lot of cards that should be there, or could be there, aren't because your running out of space.

    I mean the high performance benchmarks include nothing lower end from ATI than a 1900XT? You are also only reporting on the SLI performance of the 7600GT in the first 4 benchmarks. Most of us aren't going to go out and drop the cash on an SLI setup right off the bat but instead use it as an incremental upgrade.

    Just a thought.

  • shabby - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    I agree they should be split up, it just looks too cluttered up.
  • R3MF - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    hoorah for the 7900GT, just dropped £244 on one inlcuding p&p.
  • Teetu - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    they mention they didn't run all the tests they usually do... why not? time?
  • DerekWilson - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    There were a lot of factors that went in to our decision to cut down the number of tests for this article. Our testing is not over, as we are planning a follow up article as well.
  • 5150Joker - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    You mention the X1900 XTX costs $580-$650 yet you can find it at a popular e-tailer like Newegg for as low as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">$509 for an OEM XTXand http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">$531.99 for a retail XTX (MIR)
  • classy - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    I never really noticed how bad Crossfire sucks. While a 1900 xtx is about as faster and in many cases faster than 7900, when put in Crossfire vs SLI it just blows.

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