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eVGA GeForce 7600 GS |
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Two Birds, one Thrown Video Card |
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by Josh Walrath |
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Conclusion I have very few complaints with the 7600 GS. I like the fact that NVIDIA and its partners are offering a silent option for this budget/mainstream performance video card. eVGA puts together a very affordable package with some much needed connectivity extras, and the performance of this card as compared to its price is quite impressive. From what I have been able to gather, the 7600 GS handily beats the competing X1600 Pro, but often falls behind the faster and more expensive X1600 XT. The one major advantage ATI has at this price point though is the fuller featured Avivo functionality. What we have really yet to see though is how well each solution handles H.264 acceleration. Both products support hardware acceleration, but I have yet to get good numbers between the competitors to see who really does it better and at higher resolutions. Currently the X1600 series are unable to do hardware acceleration of H.264 over 720P, but apparently the GeForce 7600 series can accelerate H.264 up to 1080P. Something to think about is that NVIDIA is constantly upgrading the PureVideo functionality through their drivers. In the coming months we will see more features added.
Taking the cooler off we see that there is a nice copper pad with a copper heatpipe embedded into the aluminum heatsink. This ensures that heat is spread as evenly as possible across the heastink. For the budget enthusiast and the HTPC integrator, going with a 7600 GS passive is a very good idea. For the enthusiast slapping on an external fan to the part will allow higher clock speeds, while the HTPC owner will certainly appreciate not having any extra fan noise coming out of their box. For those looking to keep their work machine quiet, yet still play a few 3D apps, this is another excellent opportunity for the 7600 GS to shine. It has performance that is pretty much class leading for the price, and it continues to fall in price as more product gets pushed out the door. eVGA has another good quality product that it is offering consumers, and the build quality and bundle are certainly good considering the low price. This would be a tremendous upgrade from integrated video, and the extra features like PureVideo make this an attractive product to a wide variety of people. While it is not a perfect card (the memory really does need to be faster, but unfortunately nobody is producing GDDR-2 faster than 800 MHz) I think it holds its own very well in its price range.
Overall Score: 90%
Pros No noise Fairly cool running PureVideo Big upgrade from integrated video Hitting the $109 price range G7x technology Can achieve limited overclocks Solid, yet basic bundle No external power needed
Cons Overclocking range not that great PureVideo not as attractive as Avivo Limited software bundle Memory bandwidth far lower than what GPU needs No Transparency AA when using WinXP 64
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