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The GeForce 7900 GTX
NVIDIA's new flagship performs roughly the same as the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB. It however is slightly faster. Why then would NVIDIA release a new 7900 GTX 512 MB you ask ? Well quite honestly, I don't care. I do know it's 150 bucks cheaper and that's just awesome as that is where the value needs to be found. Above we can see the cooling a bit better. This is the semi passive/active heatpipe cooling block that covers the graphics core within the middle the fan, it works fantasticly.
You'll notice that all the three new model cards today have three output connectors. There are two DVI (one dual-link) and the traditional S-video in/output connector. The digital output formats available on the GeForce 7800/7900 are in DVI-D Single-Link and Dual-Link as well as DVI-I Single-Link and Dual-Link format connectors. These DVI cables send information using a digital information format called TMDS (transition minimized differential signaling). Single link cables use one TMDS 165Mhz transmitter, while dual links use two. The dual link DVI pins effectively double the power of transmission and provide an increase of speed and signal quality; i.e. a DVI single link 60-Hz LCD can display a resolution of 1920 x 1080.
A DVI dual link can display a resolution of even 2560x1600. The G71 GPU's provide double dual link themselves, external transmitters are not required. Many of us have been waiting for this as these HR screens are getting more popular by the day.
The little black block on the middle right then. At 100% load this card can peak at a power consumption of 125 Watts and the PCI-Express bus just can't deliver the necessary power. PCI-Express is limited to 75 Watts so we need to hook the card up to our PSU directly with a (supplied) 6-pin cable. Mind you that we need a very high-performance PSU if you are opting to go for SLI.
Goodness that's a nice photo isn't it? Once hooked up in our beautiful passively water cooled gaming test rig we can fire it up. Live in action from Groningen - The Netherlands, now is that a pretty sight or what?
And yes today's review will cover SLI also for the 7900 GTX 512MB. With a setup like this we are bound to run into CPU limitation though but man, what a performance.
