The NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS: A Closer Look
by Josh Venning on September 19, 2006 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Leadtek
The next 7900 GS we are looking at is from Leadtek, and it has a different heat sink design.
The heat sink and fan combo is a bit larger on this board than the reference 7900 GS, giving it the appearance of something similar to the 7800 GS. The design on the heatsink is simple, with the WinFast logo and the card name over a black heatsink with blue stripes across it. This card also comes with two games included in the bundle, Serious Sam 2 and Spellforce 2.
Something slightly unique about this 7900 GS is that it's one of the two cards we have for this review that has a factory overclock on the memory clock as well as the core. The extra 40MHz of memory speed (700MHz verses the standard 660MHz) won't really give this card a big edge in performance over the other cards in this review, but it's still a nice bonus all other things being equal. Depending on the game, the core clock speeds of a graphics card will usually have a larger impact on performance than the memory clock speeds.
The next 7900 GS we are looking at is from Leadtek, and it has a different heat sink design.
The heat sink and fan combo is a bit larger on this board than the reference 7900 GS, giving it the appearance of something similar to the 7800 GS. The design on the heatsink is simple, with the WinFast logo and the card name over a black heatsink with blue stripes across it. This card also comes with two games included in the bundle, Serious Sam 2 and Spellforce 2.
Something slightly unique about this 7900 GS is that it's one of the two cards we have for this review that has a factory overclock on the memory clock as well as the core. The extra 40MHz of memory speed (700MHz verses the standard 660MHz) won't really give this card a big edge in performance over the other cards in this review, but it's still a nice bonus all other things being equal. Depending on the game, the core clock speeds of a graphics card will usually have a larger impact on performance than the memory clock speeds.
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sum1 - Friday, September 22, 2006 - link
It’s listed at 540MHz everywhere else in this article (including the benchmarks).I posted this discrepancy twice, days ago, hasn’t anyone else noticed yet?
Josh Venning - Saturday, September 23, 2006 - link
It's been fixed. Thanks for pointing this out, and we apologize for not fixing it sooner.PerfectCr - Thursday, September 21, 2006 - link
Fan Noise? How do I know how loud/quiet the fans are? Do they throttle?kmmatney - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
Its interesting how the XFX card (the only RoHS card - uses less lead and other hazardous chemicals) uses more power. I wonder if this will be true of other RoHS devices.yyrkoon - Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - link
I can tell you that the motherbord I use, which is also RoHS 'certified' (Asrock AM2NF4G-SATA2) runs pretty dahmed cool (sub 95F, when ambient is 80F ish), doesnt even use active cooling for the chipset etc either. Reguardless, if its the actual cause or not, I think its well worth it in the long run.Zaitsev - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
On page 3 third line, "NVIDIDA intends for it to be a direct competitor to ATI's X1900 GT"Zaitsev - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
Sorry, that should be page 2.Josh Venning - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
fixed, thanksHoward - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
I believe the bar is there to reduce PCB bending under weight.DerekWilson - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - link
It's possible I suppose ... but it seems to me that you'd want to attatch the bar to the pcb at more than two points if this is the case. And you might also want to connect it to the slot cover for the added support of the case screw. Granted, I'm not a mechanical engineer, but it seems to me that connecting one part of the pcb to another like this would just move any moment created by the weight of the HSF somewhere else on the pcb.I've also never seen a graphics board bend under normal use. Intel motherboards are another story though. :-)
Whether or not its made for this, I do have a good use for it: having this bar makes it easier to find a place to grab when removing the card. Sometimes it's tough to find a spot on the pcb to grab, and sometimes the HSF solution isn't mounted in such a way that it's stable enough to use either (I distinctly remember the 6600 GT really disliking any contact with the HSF). This doesn't apply to the huge heat-sink-is-bigger-than-my-forearm solutions though -- they're usually bolted on pretty tight.