nVidia GeForce 7600 GT

Cards based around nVidia's GeForce 6600 GT have found a place in the systems of many gamers. The balance between price and performance gave astonishing performance for a modest sum. With such a pedigree, the GeForce 7600 GT has a lot to live up to.

With pre-release pricing from nVidia at $179 to $229 (around £104 to £133), the GeForce 7900 GT has a fight on its hands. Not only does it compete against the impressive GeForce 6800 GS, but the new Radeon X1800 GTO is nearly in reach.

While the GeForce 7900 GT matches the five vertex and 12 pixel pipelines as the GeForce 6800 GS, it's actually two architecture revisions more advanced. The pipelines are optimised for a smoother flow of data, while the 90nm transistors let the GPU run at 560MHz rather than 350MHz.

While the GeForce 7600 GT easily beats the GeForce 6800 GS - 52fps in Far Cry at our standard settings to 38fps from the GeForce 6800 GS - the Radeon X1800 GTO provides stiff competition. It's 25 per cent faster than the GeForce 7600 GT in the same test. In our Call of Duty 2 test, the GeForce 7600 GT proved faster, but only by 1fps, and removing the anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing saw both cards run at 32fps. Both cards offer plenty of performance for the asking price, but we'll have to wait until retail cards are released to see exactly what this price is.

However, we implore card manufacturers to invest in cooler design research for their GeForce 7600 GT cards, as the stock heatsink fan screamed like a banshee as soon as we started gaming. The first batch of retail cards probably will use it, though, so you'll want to invest in a Zalman VF700 (£20 from www.quietpc.com) or Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 6 Rev 2 (£12 from www.casetech.co.uk).

If price were equal between the GeForce 7600 GT and Radeon X1800 GTO, we'd go for the latter. It's faster, the stock cooler is quieter and ATi has better image quality. However, the GeForce 7600 GT looks to be a bit cheaper while still offering decent performance. Both are good choices depending on your budget and gaming needs, but for our definitive verdict look out for next month's comprehensive graphics cards Labs.

Author: Clive Webster