Introduction
Recently, we covered the launch of the new GeForce 7600 GT GPU, NVIDIA's new mid-range graphics card. It officially replaces the very popular GeForce 6600 GT, but will it be able to mimic the 6600 GT's popularity by offering the same great combination of low cost and great performance?
Today, we will find out for ourselves if the new GeForce 7600 GT will offer the same kind of value its predecessor did. To do that, we will examine the performance of the single card as well as two GeForce 7600 GTs in SLI. But first, let's take a look at how the GeForce 7600 GT compares against its predecessors.
GeForce 7600 GT |
GeForce 6600 GT |
Difference |
|
Architecture |
G73 |
NV43 |
- |
Manufacturing Process |
0.09 Micron |
0.11 Micron |
0.02 Micron finer process |
Transistor Count |
177 Million |
146 Million |
31 Million fewer transistors |
DirectX Support |
9.0c |
9.0c |
- |
Interface |
PCIe |
AGP/PCIe |
- |
Vertex Pipelines |
5 |
3 |
2 additional vertex pipelines |
Vertex
Shader Version |
3.0 |
3.0 |
- |
Pixel
/ Texture Pipelines |
12 x 1 |
8 x 1 |
4 additional pixel pipelines |
Pixel
Shader Version |
3.0 |
3.0 |
- |
Core
Speed |
560 MHz |
500 MHz |
60 MHz faster core speed |
Fill
Rate |
6,700 MTexels/s |
4,000 MTexels/s |
2,700 MTexels/s more fill rate |
Memory
Bus Width |
128-bits |
128-bits |
- |
Memory Type |
GDDR3 |
GDDR3 |
- |
Memory
Speed |
700 MHz |
500 MHz |
200 MHz faster memory speed |
Memory Bandwidth |
22.40 GB/s |
16.00 GB/s |
6.40 GB/s more memory bandwidth |
As you can see, the new GeForce 7600 GT already has a large advantage over its predecessor in both fillrate and memory bandwidth (about 67.5% and 40% respectively). But that's not all. It also has two additional vertex pipelines. Coupled with a higher clock speed for the vertex processor, the new GeForce 7600 GT can process about 87% more vertices than the GeForce 6600 GT.
On paper at least, the GeForce 7600 GT seems like a very suitable candidate to take over the GeForce 6600 GT's reins on the mid-range market. We will need to confirm that with benchmarks, of course. But first, let's take a look at its full specifications.
Specification And Features
Here are the GeForce 7600 GT's specifications and features.
Architecture |
G73 |
Process Technology |
90 nm |
Number of Transistors |
177 Million |
Die Size |
NA |
Pixel Pipelines |
12 Pixel Pipelines |
ROPs |
8 ROPs - 8 colour, 8 blend |
Core Clock |
560 MHz |
Fillrate |
6.7 Gigapixels / sec. |
Memory Interface |
2-way 64-bits
memory interface |
Memory Buffer |
256 MB GDDR3 |
Memory Clock |
700 MHz |
Memory Bandwidth |
22.4 GB/s |
Vertex Units |
5 Vertex Units |
Vertex Clock |
560 MHz |
Vertex Output |
700 million vertices / sec. |
Power Consumption |
67 W |
Graphics Bus |
PCI Express |
Shader Model Version |
SM 3.0 |
NVIDIA IntelliSample Technology |
4.0 |
NVIDIA SLI Technology |
Yes |
NVIDIA Quad SLI Technology |
No |
NVIDIA TurboCache Technology |
No |
64-bit Texture Filtering and Blending |
Yes |
DVI Support |
Single dual-linked DVI, integrated into the GPU |
Features |
Microsoft®
DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 Support |
For more information on the GeForce 7600 GT, please take a look at our GeForce 7600 GT Technology Report.
Now, let's take a look at the card!