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Introduction
Recently, we covered the launch of the new GeForce 7900 GT GPU, which is now the second biggest gun in NVIDIA's arsenal. It displaces even what was previously the fastest NVIDIA card - the GeForce 7800 GTX!
Today, we are going to examine both the single card as well as two GeForce 7900 GTs in SLI and see how well they actually run! But first, let's take a look at how the GeForce 7900 GT compares against its predecessors.
GeForce 7900 GT |
GeForce 7800 GT |
GeForce 6800 GT |
|
| Architecture |
G71 |
G70 |
NV40 |
| Manufacturing Process |
0.09 Micron |
0.11 Micron |
0.13 Micron |
| Transistor Count |
278 Million |
302 Million |
222 Million |
| DirectX Support |
9.0c |
9.0c |
9.0c |
| Interface |
PCIe |
PCIe |
AGP/PCIe |
| Vertex Pipelines |
8 |
7 |
6 |
| Vertex
Shader Version |
3.0 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
| Pixel
/ Texture Pipelines |
24 x 1 |
20 x 1 |
16 x 1 |
| Pixel
Shader Version |
3.0 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
| Core
Speed |
450 MHz |
400 MHz |
350 MHz |
| Fill
Rate |
10,800 MTexels/s |
8,000 MTexels/s |
5,600 MTexels/s |
| Memory
Bus Width |
256-bits |
256-bits |
256-bits |
| Memory Type |
GDDR3 |
GDDR3 |
GDDR3 |
| Memory
Speed |
660 MHz |
500 MHz |
500 MHz |
| Memory Bandwidth |
42.20 GB/s |
32.00 GB/s |
32.00 GB/s |
If you just consider specifications alone, the new GeForce 7900 GT already boasts increases in fillrate and memory bandwidth of about 35% and 32% respectively over the GeForce 7800 GT. But that's not all.
The GeForce 7900 GT actually has fewer transistors than the GeForce 7800 GT. So, it really is more than just a die-shrinked version of the GeForce 7800 GT. Coupled with the smaller process technology, this allowed NVIDIA to create a chip that's not only faster but also smaller and cooler (at equivalent clock speeds) than the GeForce 7800 GT.
Specification And Features
Here are the GeForce 7900 GT's specifications and features.
Architecture |
• G71 |
Process Technology |
• 90 nm |
Number of Transistors |
• 278 Million |
Die Size |
• 196 mm2 |
Pixel Pipelines |
• 24 Pixel Pipelines |
ROPs |
• 16 ROPs - 16 colour, 16 blend |
Core Clock |
• 450 MHz |
Fillrate |
• 10.8 Gigapixels / sec. |
Memory Interface |
• 4-way 64-bits
memory interface |
Memory Buffer |
• 256 MB GDDR3 |
Memory Clock |
• 660 MHz |
Memory Bandwidth |
• 42.2 GB/s |
Vertex Units |
• 8 Vertex Units |
Vertex Clock |
• 470 MHz |
Vertex Output |
• 940 million vertices / sec. |
Power Consumption |
• 82 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 |
• Two dual-linked DVI, both integrated into the GPU |
Features |
• Microsoft®
DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 Support |
Practically all of the GeForce 7900 GT's features are nothing new. It sports the same features as the older GeForce 7800 GT. For more information on the GeForce 7900 GT, please take a look at our GeForce 7900 GT Technology Report.
Now, let's take a look at the card!
