Review by Kyle Kerley - September 28, 2006

INTRODUCTION

The latest addition to the extremely popular GeForce 7900 Series of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) by NVIDIA is the GeForce 7900 GS. With a price point of around $200, the GeForce 7900 GS is set to bring the power of the GeForce 7900 lineup to the masses.

Although the GS branded model may make some cringe with thoughts of lesser features and slower clock speeds, I can safely say that this graphics card should perhaps be the first consideration when contemplating an upgrade to the GeForce 7900 series.

I was looking forward to this review after my previous experience with Inno3D's GeForce 7600 GST. The GeForce 7600 GST was a powerhouse waiting to be unlocked and I had the same high-hopes for their GeForce 7900 GS. The GeForce 7900 GS is based on the same G71 architecture as the GeForce 7900 GT, GeForce 7900 GTX and GeForce 7950 GX2 and features Dual-Link DVI and HDTV connections and is SLI and Windows Vista ready.

Package Contents

Inno3D's GeForce 7900 GS sticks to NVIDIA's reference design and I like that they kept things simple. Stability and performance is what I care about. Looks are secondary.

Included in the packaging is a driver CD with WinDVD Creator2, WinDVD 5, an instruction manual, S-Video cable, a molex-to-PCI Express power connector, DVI-to-VGA converters and an S-Video to component cable.

TEST SYSTEM

There were absolutely no problems getting the graphics card installed. Within 10 minutes of uninstalling the display drivers, powering off the machine and tearing it down, I was back up and ready to go.

Graphics Card Installed

The test system consists of the following components:

• AMD Athlon 64 4600+ AM2 @ 2.412GHz (2.4GHz Stock)
• 2GB (2x1GB) Super Talent T800UX2GC4 DDR2/800 PC2 6400 RAM
• MSI K9N Platinum nForce 570 SLI Motherboard
• Inno3D GeForce 7900 GS
• Enermax 535W SLI-ready PSU
• Creative X-Fi Elite Pro Soundcard
• Logitech Z-5300 THX 5.1 Surround Speakers
• Western Digital WD740GD 74GB Raptor HDD
• ForceWare 91.33 Beta Drivers
• nForce 570 9.16 WHQL Drivers

Here's a quick-glance chart to see how the GeForce 7900 GS stacks up to the rest of the GeForce 7900 lineup (these are all the stock speeds). As the chart shows, for all intents and purposes, the GeForce 7900 GS is the exact same GPU as the GeForce 7900 GT, with the exception of 4 fewer pipelines.

Since the GeForce 7900 GS has the same core and memory speed as a reference GeForce 7900 GT, I was expecting performance similar to the MSI NX7900GT, although slightly slower as the pixel fill-rate will be impacted with 4 fewer pipes.

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