GIGABYTE 7600GS HDMI GV-NX76G256HI-RH Video Card Review :: GV-NX76G256HI-RH Features

GIGABYTE 7600GS HDMI GV-NX76G256HI-RH
Brand	GIGABYTE
Model	GV-NX76G256HI-RH
Graphics Chip	G73
Graphics Memory Type	GDDR2
Memory (MB)	256
Graphics Core Clock (MHz)	475
Memory Clock (MHz)	800
Memory Speed (ns)	2.5
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	HDMI, DVI-I
Video In and Out	S-Video Out
Package and Support
Printed Manual	Yes
Driver CD	Yes
Performance Tool Software	Coolbits
Major Games	Civilization IV
Major Software	None
VR Glasses	No
DVD Player Software	PowerDVD
Video Recording Software	N/A

• 90 nanometer low-k dialelectic process
• 178 million transistors
• 12 Pixel Shader Pipelines
• 5 Vertex Shader Pipelines
• 8 ROPs
• 475MHz core clock
• 800MHz memory clock
• DirectX 9.0c
• Pixel Shader 3.0
• Vertex Shader 3.0
• HDR
• Up to 4x MSAA
• Up to 16x AF
• PureVideo HD
• HDMI

The main features of the 7xxx series from NVIDIA include support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0c, OpenGL2.0, PureVideo, Pixel Shader 3.0, Vertex Shader 3.0, HDR, 4X MSAA, and the other features of the NVIDIA G70 series. I've already covered the features in numerous other reviews, and it would be redundant to cover them again. Suffice it to say that the feature set of the 7600GS is on par with that of the competition's best (X1950XTX) at the moment, with the notable exception of lack of support for FSAA+HDR and lesser quality AF.

The 7600GS is based upon NVIDIA's G73 chipset that is based upon the 90 nanometer low-k dialelectic process from TSMC. The chip has 178 million transistors, which is more than the X850XT had at 160 million from just a couple of years ago. The 7600GS is a 12 Pixel Shader Pipeline design, with 8 ROPs (outputted pixels.) In many respects, the 7600GS is half of a 7900GTX, with the exception that there are five Vertex Shader Pipelines, instead of the 8 on the 7900GTX. The 7600GS has a pixel fillrate of around 3.2 Gigapixels a second.

So what is the HDMI standard anyway? HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface. HDMI is an all-digital audio/video interface capable of transmitting audio and video data to a computer monitor or PC, much like the earlier DVI-I DVI-D and DVI-A interfaces. HDMI is compatible with the new HDCP standard, while most DVI or VGA interfaces cannot support the new standard. If HDCP is not supported, and HDCP content is sent to the video card or tuner, the content is not displayed at all.

One of the issues with CDs and DVDs has been piracy. Virtually every DVD movie is out on file-sharing networks the day it is released to stores or even before it is released to stores. Various measures have been taken to protect the manufacturer of games and movies, but the facts show that virtually every measure taken by DVD makers has been compromised at one point or another. With the advent of High Definition content like Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, H.264 the manufacturers decided upon a High-Bandwidth Definition Content Protection standard to prevent piracy.

The GIGABYTE 7600GS card is the first card on the review bench to support HDMI that I have seen. With the proliferation of High Definition content appearing now, that means that HDCP support is important for the end-user and HDMI will also be implemented more as time goes on, as DVI-I and DVI-D interfaces are supported by the new HDMI monitors with an adapter. Unfortunately, I don't have a TV or monitor with the new HDMI interface so wasn't able to test that out.

The 7600GS HDMI can operate in SLI mode if necessary. SLI allows two video cards to run together to improve performance in games or other applications. Due to the differing clock speeds, if you wish to run this card in SLI I would suggest a second card of the same model as a different card will have different clock speeds and the driver will match the two cards to the lower of the two if a different card is utilized.