Pictured in the following photograph, the XFX GeForce 7950 GT XT Edition is sandwiched between ATI's Radeon X1900 XT on the left and their GeForce 7900 GTX on the right. The price of the Radeon X1900 XT, based on an average of the five cheapest PriceGrabber vendors, is approximately $336.
The Contenders
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BENCHMARK RESULTS
Benchmarks (game and resolution is listed above each bar chart) reveal that the XFX GeForce 7900 GTX on average outperforms the XFX GeForce 7950 GT XT Edition by 12%. Look for possible adjustments in the price of the 512MB GeForce 7900 GTX, which currently has an average selling price near $445, approximately 35% higher than the XFX GeForce 7950 GT XT Edition.
Benchmark Results
GAMEPLAY QUALITY
Gameplay quality is primarily dictated by the frame rate per second and a consistent frame rate provides a more satisfying experience. In the following Quake 4 gameplay results, the XFX GeForce 7900 GTX achieved an average of 56 frames per second (fps), while the XFX GeForce 7950 GT XT and ATI Radeon X1900 XT averaged 53 fps.
Frame Rate Per Second
Greater fluctuations in the frame rate occurred with the ATI Radeon X1900 XT, which also produced a repeatable "micro-stutter" in Doom 3 and Quake 4. However, Fraps was unable to capture the frame rate at that time since it reports on a per second basis.
CONCLUSION
The GeForce 7 Series of GPUs that NVIDIA has recently launched confirms that the best time to buy a graphics card is towards the end of a product line. And in many cases, the mainstream gamer does just that.
XFX must be commended for taking such a bold move to introduce passive cooling on a high-end GPU. Barring any ramifications that could be associated with the higher than "normal" GPU temperatures we are accustomed to seeing, they will have delivered a kick-ass product to the masses.
