NVIDIA 7900 GT VGA Card Roundup

Videocards/VGA Reviews by jmke @ 2006-07-23

We compare four 7900 GT video cards ranging from the price competitive Club 3D to the outrageously overclocked EVGA version; between those two extremes there are interesting products from Sparkle and MSI which also sport factory overclocked speeds. Read on to find out how they perform in games, how high they overclock and if their cooling is effective and quiet.

  • prev
  • next

Sparkle and eVGA

Sparkle Calibre 7900GT - fancy cooler, overclocked and more memory
  • Product page at CalibreStyle.com.tw (flash required)

    While Sparkle has one reference clock 7900 GT in their product line-up, they decided to give their enthusiasts product a different name, the Calibre Style product covers nVIDIA GPUs from top to bottom, each one featuring higher than default specifications with custom designed coolers. The box for the Calibre 7900 GT is one of the biggest we?ve yet seen

    Madshrimps (c)


    Inside there?s a lot of cardboard, but amongst it you?ll find the following:

    Madshrimps (c)


  • collection of multi-lingual user guides
  • one DVI->VGA converters
  • two molex to one PCIe power converter cable
  • A long s-video out cable and VIVO HD ready Composite/Component cable
  • SCART connector for Composite/S-Video
  • Drivers CDs and the game Painkiller

    Madshrimps (c)


    The Calibre uses a custom PCB color and a larger 1 slot cooler which covers most of the card. The heatsink is has a copper core and aluminum fins as can we seen here

    Madshrimps (c)


    The Calibre has 512Mb instead of the expected 256Mb onboard memory, it?s clocked at 1400Mhz (2*700Mhz) which is slightly higher than stock speeds, the GPU has received 50Mhz boost and runs at 500Mhz.

    The Calibre 7900 GT from Sparkle is noticeably more expensive than a ?run of the mill? 7900 GT, costing ~?100 more than Sparkle?s own reference 7900 GT at ?359.

    eVGA 7900GT - overclock to extreme speeds
  • Product page at eVGA.com

    eVGA has made their name by providing out of the box overclocked products and this 7900 GT KO Superclocked doesn?t disappoint specification wise, just look at those speeds on the box:

    Madshrimps (c)


    Inside it?s down to the bare essentials:

    Madshrimps (c)


  • A manual and quick reference guides with explanation on their Step-Up program which allows you to upgrade your product at an interesting price. You can also win a full refund on your purchase through their give-away.
  • two DVI->VGA converters
  • two molex to one PCIe power converter cable
  • A long s-video out cable and VIVO HD ready Composite/Component cable
  • Drivers CD

    Madshrimps (c)
    (Don?t forget to remove the plastic tape cover from the heatsink)


    While eVGA follows nVIDIA?s reference design they have gone overboard on the specifications, GPU at 580Mhz and Memory at 1580Mhz (2*790Mhz). To keep it all cool they are using a larger copper heatsink, the design is quite similar to the one of the MSI, but one memory chip on the eVGA is not covered by the cooler, on the MSI all memory chips are cooled.

    Madshrimps (c)


    The high specifications mean that eVGA has to invest time to sift through the nVIDIA cores and pick out those which can run their desired speeds, this extra cost is partly carried over to the customer, this explains why the eVGA 7900 GT KO SC (SuperClocked) is the most expensive unit of this roundup at ?389.

    Do note that the cheapest 7900 GTX we could find at Alternate.de is still at ?449.
    • prev
    • next