NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB (PCIe)

When One Becomes Two

Just like day turning into night, it was all too predictable that NVIDIA has prepared a response to ATI's recent attempt to streamline its product lineup into a leaner and more price competitive bunch. A new ATI flagship, the single-GPU Radeon X1950 XTX, and additions to the mid and lower end graphics segment with the new Radeon X1650 PRO and X1300 XT are just . Of course, many of these measures are simply cosmetic or minor tweaks to clock speeds and product names while retaining the same core. More changes are expected as ATI continues to fine-tune its products and improve its fortunes, which frankly, has not been too rosy in the discrete segment.

Since the enthusiasts have gotten wind of the ATI revamp months before it actually happened late last month, you can bet that NVIDIA knows all about it. With its GeForce 7950 GX2 still mostly on top of the new Radeon X1950 XTX due to its two graphics cores in SLI, NVIDIA probably does not need reinforcements in that elite category. Even the new mid-range Radeon X1650 PRO may find the DDR3 versions of the GeForce 7300 GT a serious competitor. Hence, NVIDIA has chosen to preempt the upcoming changes expected from ATI. Details are still fuzzy about the developments over at ATI (we are hearing rumors of a possible Radeon X1900 PRO and Radeon X1650 XT) but we do know something about NVIDIA's plans and so far they seem to be focused on the high-end.

The crux of this plan seems to be the 'diversification' of the current GeForce 7900 GT, which is just doing what graphics chipmakers do best - recycling and cannibalizing their older products. Springing forth from the loins of the GeForce 7900 GT will be the GeForce 7950 GT and the GeForce 7900 GS. If you have been paying attention to NVIDIA's naming conventions, you would also know that the GeForce 7900 GS is the lesser of the two 'new' cards.

Apparently, the GeForce 7950 GT will be an enhanced version of the original GeForce 7900 GT, with higher clock speeds and a larger frame buffer of 512MB. Meanwhile, the card that we will be concentrating on today, the GeForce 7900 GS will naturally be a slightly 'crippled' version of the GeForce 7900 GT, with one less vertex processor and only 20 instead of 24 pixel processors (one less operating quad). In fact, the GeForce 7900 GS is actually not that new, since OEMs like Dell has already been selling a version of it for a while now with their systems. However, that version came with slightly different clock speeds from the eventual retail edition that's just been released. So how does this new retail edition GeForce 7900 GS stack up against the competition?

The NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB

Looking exactly like the GeForce 7900 GT in terms of board layout and design, one would be hard pressed to distinguish between them with just a casual glance. A similar NVIDIA reference copper-based cooler found on its mid-range cards like the GeForce 7600 GT and 7900 GT adds to the illusion that nothing seems to have changed for the GeForce 7900 GT derivative. Instead, the changes are under the hood, with NVIDIA disabling one vertex and four pixel processors from the GeForce 7900 GT, bringing it down to seven and twenty respectively on the 'new' GeForce 7900 GS.

The clock speeds are also left unchanged, with NVIDIA choosing to enhance the higher tier GeForce 7950 GT by increasing the clock speeds of that model rather than decrease that of the GeForce 7900 GS in order to separate the two. This means that the GeForce 7900 GS inherits the clock speeds of the GeForce 7900 GT, 450MHz for the core and 1320MHz DDR for the DDR3 memory. From the specifications, we can simply infer that the GeForce 7900 GS will be slightly disadvantaged compared to the GeForce 7900 GT but it remains to be seen in our benchmarks later what is the extent of that margin.

Unlike the higher end GeForce 7950 GT, HDCP support won't be standard issue on the GeForce 7900 GS. It will be an optional feature and up to NVIDIA's manufacturing partners to introduce such a version. This is a bit disappointing if expected since extra cost is needed for the HDCP encryption key and NVIDIA obviously hopes to extend their market share by setting a competitive price for the GeForce 7900 GS. HDCP support is sacrificed and to be fair, not every consumer is clamoring for this feature yet. At least, you will still have a pair of dual-link DVI outputs, which have become the norm for decent to high-end graphics cards nowadays.

Test Setup

Our trusty test rig was put to work for the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS. This system was made up of a MSI K8N Diamond Plus motherboard installed with an AMD Athloon 64 FX-55 (2.6GHz) processor. We added two sticks of Kingston low latency DDR400 memory running in dual channel mode for a total of 1GB of RAM. Next, we had a Seagate 7200.7 SATA hard drive installed with Windows XP Professional and Service Pack 2. We also had updated the system with the latest DirectX 9.0c redistributables.

The graphics cards and the respective drivers used in the comparison are as follows:

• NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS (ForceWare 91.47)
• NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT (ForceWare 91.47)
• NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT (ForceWare 91.29)
• ATI Radeon X1900 GT (Catalyst 6.8)
• ATI Radeon X1800 GTO (Catalyst 6.8)

The list of benchmarks tested:

• Futuremark 3DMark05 (ver. 120)
• Futuremark 3DMark06 (ver. 102)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
• F.E.A.R
• Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
• Quake 4

Results - 3DMark05 Pro & 3DMark06

Handicapped by its disabled pixel and vertex processors, the GeForce 7900 GS just about failed to keep up with the GeForce 7900 GT in 3DMark05. The difference ends up around 5 - 8%, which places it closer to the GeForce 7900 GT rather than the GeForce 7600 GT. The GeForce 7900 series is endowed with a wide 256-bit memory bus, and that too ensured that the GeForce 7900 GS is generally well ahead of the next lower rung of cards. With ATI's dominance in this benchmark, the Radeon X1900 GT easily spanks both GeForce 7900 cards for all settings and resolutions.

Things got more competitive in 3DMark06, with the lead of the Radeon X1900 GT reduced till it was neck to neck with the GeForce 7900 GT. However that just meant that the GeForce 7900 GS was slightly slower than the Radeon X1900 GT.

Results - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory & F.E.A.R (DirectX 9 Benchmarks)

In Splinter Cell, the GeForce 7900 GS was between 8 - 10% slower than the GeForce 7900 GT. The only comparable ATI card in its performance bracket, the Radeon X1900 GT also held a similar lead over the GeForce 7900 GS. Since the Radeon X1900 GT was originally meant to compete head-on against the GeForce 7900 GT, these results are not surprising. This was mirrored in the F.E.A.R results, where the GeForce 7900 GS was a few frames slower compared to both the GeForce 7900 GT and the Radeon X1900 GT.

Results - Chronicles of Riddick & Quake 4 (OpenGL SM2.0+ Benchmark)

Chronicles of Riddick was dominated by NVIDIA cards and the GeForce 7900 GT naturally took the lead over the GeForce 7900 GS by a frame or two. Even the GeForce 7600 GT managed to compete against the Radeon X1900GT in this benchmark. However, ATI has improved greatly in Quake 4, for long an NVIDIA stronghold. The latest Catalyst 6.8 drivers lead to even more performance gains hence we found the Radeon X1900 GT clearly faster than both GeForce 7900 cards now. The GeForce 7900 GS again performed quite close to that of the GeForce 7900 GT, losing out only fractionally.

Temperature Testing

We tested the temperatures of the various components on the GeForce 7900 GS as it looped through an intensive benchmark. Compared to the few overclocked GeForce 7900 GT cards with better than stock coolers that we have added as reference, the GeForce 7900 GS fared quite well. It was about as warm as the new MSI GeForce 7900 GT (with HDCP support) that we had seen earlier. It was also much better than ATI's Radeon X1900 GT and even the Radeon X1800 GTO cards. The latter is not reflected in the graph, but you can easily reference the typical temperatures of the Radeon X1800 GTO from our past reviews.

Overclocking

Not surprisingly, the overclocking margin for the GeForce 7900 GS was quite similar to our previous experiences with GeForce 7900 GT stable. The core was stable at 570MHz, a significant increase from its 450MHz default. The memory also managed to hit 1520MHz. Overall, we would say that it had decent tolerance for overclocking though there are more extreme clock speeds that we've squeezed out from the GeForce 7900 GT class. Given that we saw gains of between 10 - 18% in 3DMark06 and the ease at which we attained our overclocks, we would recommend it wholeheartedly, as long as you know what you're doing.

Conclusion

While the general impression that the GeForce 7900 GS falls between a GeForce 7600 GT and the GeForce 7900 GT, it tends towards the latter and this has been validated from our benchmarks. The important thing here is that NVIDIA plans to phase out the GeForce 7900 GT. There won't be any more new GeForce 7900 GT cards besides those already in stores. In its place, we will have its offspring, the GeForce 7900 GS and 7950 GT. Users will therefore find a mostly smooth slope moving up the performance chart from the mid-range GeForce 7600 GT to the 7900 GS and then finally the 7950 GT (the GeForce 7950 GT should perform like some of the overclocked GeForce 7900 GT cards. quickly comes to mind.)

Besides a different name and the crippled core, there is actually little to distinguish between the GeForce 7900 GT and the 7900 GS. HDCP support, one of our hopes for higher end graphics card is merely optional for the GeForce 7900 GS and only the faster GeForce 7950 GT will feature that. Then, we are unsure if it's actually possible to enable the vertex and pixel processors that NVIDIA has removed from the GeForce 7900 GS. While we feel that the physical hardware is probably still present on the chip, NVIDIA probably has ways to prevent consumers from unlocking these missing pipes to avoid further cannibalizing the GeForce 7900 GT. We'll update this once we have anything substantial besides the usual speculation. Still, given the results we've obtained, the GeForce 7900 GS thankfully maintains most of the performance realm of the GeForce 7900 GT, but at a much lower price point. So the 'missing' operating quad wouldn't be much of a bother to most consumers.

NVIDIA probably understands that the performance of a lesser GeForce 7900 GT, which is exactly what the GeForce 7900 GS is, won't be too much of an attraction with consumers. More reasons are needed to swing buyers towards the GeForce 7900 GS over the numerous GeForce 7900 GT cards still available from retailers and that of the competition. Hence NVIDIA has provided a good one - price. With the street price of the retiring GeForce 7900 GT hovering around US$269, the US$199 launch price of the GeForce 7900 GS certainly represents an improved price performance ratio over the GeForce 7900 GT. It will also have a cascading effect on the rest of NVIDIA's mid-range offerings. The price of the GeForce 7600 GT will be the next to face price pressures from the US$199 GeForce 7900 GS. And so this will ripple down the performance ladder. That's what we call the positive effects of competition; no matter their allegiance (if any) to either graphics chipmakers, every consumer stands to gain from this latest skirmish between ATI and NVIDIA.

It's been a while since NVIDIA failed to 'hard' launch a new chipset on its proposed launch date. This is again the happy case for the GeForce 7900 GS. We have already seen retail versions and we suspect some of you may even have gone out and bought one yourself. Of course, it is relatively easy to launch such a product, as these are not radical changes to the architecture. However, it's always nice to find the company delivering on its promise and products punctually.

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