XFX 7600GS XT SLI Video Card Review :: The XFX 7600GS XT Layout

GeForce 7600GS 256MB DDR2 Dual DVI TV
Brand	XFX
Model	GeForce 7600GS 256MB DDR2 Dual DVI TV
Graphics Chip	G73
Graphics Memory Type	DDR2
Memory (MB)	256
Graphics Core Clock (MHz)	500
Memory Clock (MHz)	900
Memory Speed (ns)	2.2
RAMDAC Frequency (MHz)	Dual 400
Active Cooling on Graphics Chip	Yes
Heatsink on Memory	Yes
Video Capture	Yes
Ports
Dual Monitor Support	Yes
VGA Out	2x DVI-I
Video In and Out	S-Video Out
Package and Support
Printed Manual	Yes
Driver CD	Yes
Performance Tool Software	Coolbits
Major Games	Demos
Major Software	Tounmichi 3D Edit
VR Glasses	No
DVD Player Software	None
Video Recording Software	N/A

The first thing you'll notice about the XFX card is the lack of an active cooling system on the card. NVIDIA used a passive heat sink. One of the advantages of the 90 nanometer process NVIDIA used for this chip is the lower cooling and power requirements for the same or better performance. XFX cooled the 7600GS with a heat sink that covered almost 60% of the front of the card. This means the 7600GS is quiet, with no active fan.

The rear of the card is devoid of a 6-pin power connection found on the higher-end 7900 series of cards. The PCI Express x16 slot provides up to 75W of power to the video card and modern high-end cards require quite a bit of more power than that. SLI uses two cards, so a system with a high-quality PSU should run two 7600GS cards without difficulty, as the PCI Express x16 slots provide the power the cards need.

Capacitors

The second thing you'll notice is the small size of the card. The 7600GS is about an inch longer than a regular PCI Express x16 slot. This compares favorably with the 7800GTX of last year and the 7800GT which reached the end of some cases. It's also a single slot solution. I really like the performance found on solutions like the 7900GTX and X1900XTX, I don't, however enjoy the card taking two slots.

The 7600GS is a native PCI Express X16 card. Early NVIDIA based cards required the use of a HSI (High Speed Interconnect) bridge chip to operate on a PCI Express board. PCI Express nearly doubles the bandwidth provided to the video card from the old AGP 8x standard up to 4GB/second of memory bandwidth a second.

XFX decided to equip their 7600GS with dual DVI-I ports on the back plate. This marks a change for the better in my opinion in the upper value segment and lower performance mainstream segment. XFX outfitted the card with an S-Video Out port, to allow users to play games on their TVs. NVIDIA designed the chip with a Single Dual-Link TDMS transmitter allowing the user to game on a 30" Dell or Apple Cinema display at high resolution (2560X1600).

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