GIGABYTE 7900GS TurboForce GV-NX79G256DP-RH Review :: GIGABYTE 7900GS TurboForce Card

GIGABYTE GV-NX79G256DP-RH
Brand	GIGABYTE
Model	GV-NX79G256DP-RH
Graphics Chip	G73
Graphics Memory Type	GDDR3
Memory (MB)	256
Graphics Core Clock (MHz)	525
Memory Clock (MHz)	1440
Memory Speed (ns)	1.4
RAMDAC Frequency (MHz)	Dual 400
Active Cooling on Graphics Chip	Yes
Heatsink on Memory	No
Video Capture	Yes
Ports
Dual Monitor Support	Yes
VGA Out	DVI-Ix2
Video In and Out	S-Video Out
Package and Support
Printed Manual	Yes
Driver CD	Yes
Performance Tool Software	nTune
Major Games	Xpand Rally
Major Software	None
VR Glasses	No
DVD Player Software	PowerDVD
Video Recording Software	N/A

The first thing that hit me as I took the card out of the box was when did GIGABYTE start using a Pentium 4 cooling fan? GIGABYTE decided to outfit their 7900GS TurboForce card with an 11-fin fan to cool the graphics card. GIGABYTE decided to put a huge half-moon copper heatsink to cool the card as well as a guard heatsink on the bottom. The chip itself is bare with the cooling held by pins to the PCB.

Cooling fan

Memory

Fin

Front view

Rear view

There are 8 32MB 1.4ns memory chips on the PCB. The board has 256MB of Ingenix DDR3 memory clocked at 725MHz. The standard 7900GS has a memory clock of 660MHz, so it's about a 65MHz overclock. The 7900GS has a 256-bit memory bus, offering up to 46.4GB/second of memory bandwidth. The 7900GTX of last year had a maximum memory bandwidth of 51.2GB/second, meaning the 7900GS from GIGABYTE has nearly the same bandwidth as the older card.

PCI Express bus

Virtually every video card on the market sold today is on the PCI Express bus introduced by Intel in 2004 with their 925X motherboard chipset. The 7900GS is on the PCI Express bus, so any motherboard bought with a PCI Express x16 slot should work with this card. The card has a 4-pin Molex connector on the rear to provide extra power. Most systems have extra Molex connectors, more than a PCI Express connector, so this is an excellent choice.

Rear IO

2 slot

Molex power

CRT monitors are fast becoming extinct in the computer market, as digital LCD monitors offer so much more in the form of excellent clarity and the cost of the LCD monitor is now the same as a traditional CRT monitor. GIGABYTE decided to offer their TurboForce card with dual dual-link DVI connectors, allowing the user to attach two LCD monitors to the card.