ASUS Extreme EN7900GS TOP Graphics Card |
Everyone knows that the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS is a slightly slower version of the GeForce 7900 GT but ASUS changed that perception with their EN7900GS TOP graphics card. ASUS took the standard GeForce 7900 GS card and overclocked the core by 31% and the memory by 9%. That made it much faster than the GeForce 7900 GT. That performance advantage was confirmed in the tests we ran in Windows Vista. The ASUS EN7900GS TOP was significantly faster than the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT reference card. In two of the three games we tested, it was more than twice as fast as the new ATI Radeon X1950 GT. Of course, the Radeon X1950 GT had a really bad Vista driver. Although the NVIDIA driver for Windows Vista (rev. 101.41 at press time) was basic and lacked quite a few features, it was stable and ran the three games properly. The ATI Radeon X1950 GT, in contrast, failed to run Far Cry in Direct3D mode. So, when it comes to Windows Vista compatibility, NVIDIA wins hands down for now. Physically, the ASUS EN7900GS TOP is no different from any other GeForce 7900 GS card. It even uses the same compact copper cooler found in the GeForce 7600 GT and GeForce 7900 GT reference cards. ASUS did pack it in a nice box with a great manual and even a free faux leather CD case. But the fact still remains that this is merely a factory-overclocked card without additional provisions for overclocking. For those who love overclocking their graphics cards, it may be cheaper and more exciting to buy a standard GeForce 7900 GS card to test their skills (and luck). In fact, the original purpose of overclocking is to obtain better performance without paying for it! But if you are one of those who are not comfortable overclocking your graphics card, then the ASUS EN7900GS TOP is actually a pretty good deal. The EN7900GS TOP is much faster than the GeForce 7900 GT. Yet, all you need to pay is a small premium to ASUS for certifying the card at those higher clock speeds. It still works out cheaper than buying a real GeForce 7900 GT or 7950 GT. For more details, read our Comprehensive Review! |
MSRP |
NA |
Lowest PriceGrabber Price |
NA |
Review |
|
Manufacturing Process |
0.09 Micron |
Transistor Count |
278 Million |
DirectX Support |
9.0c |
Interface |
PCI Express |
Vertex Shaders |
7 |
Vertex Shader Version |
3.0 |
Pixel Shaders |
20 |
Pixel Shader Version |
3.0 |
Textures Per Clock |
20 |
ROPs |
16 |
Core Speed |
590 MHz |
Fill Rate |
11800 MTexels/s |
Memory Bus Width |
256 -bits |
Memory Size |
256 MB |
Memory Type |
GDDR3 |
Memory Speed |
720 MHz (1.44 GHz DDR) |
Memory Bandwidth |
46.08 GB/s |
DVI Support |
Two dual-linked DVI, both integrated into the GPU |
Features |
Microsoft®
DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 Support |
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