Nvidia Tightens Up Midrange Performance With The $300 GeForce 7950GT

pschmid · Oct 4, 2006

There has certainly been a lot of activity in the past two months, as both major graphics makers keep their products fresh while awaiting the arrival of DX10 parts.

Mousemonkey · Oct 4, 2006

I like Nvidia cards (see sig) but $300 is over £600 and they can f***off if they think I'm gonna pay that for a card with a lifespan shorter than that of the latest boy band.

Wobbly_englishman · Oct 4, 2006

$300 = GBP180

Mousemonkey · Oct 4, 2006

:lol:

Oh well spotted dude, I've been on the beer for a couple of hours, well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, although I bet on these sunny shores it's going to be around £200+ :lol:

Amendment: found it here for less than £200 http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=13_66&products_id=1756&osCsid=26911c7fe3f847aed53b7214816418f2

FeareX · Oct 4, 2006

I dont see any benefits from the 7950gt compared to the 7900gt. Atleast, not performance differences that really make a difference.

Mousemonkey · Oct 4, 2006

Me neither seeing as I can pick up another 7900GT for around £150 - £170 and go Sli right now although I'm hoping to do that around december'ish when the price of the GT's may have come down to something even more reasonable until then however I'm just going to sit back and watch the bickering between Nvidia & ATI because until DX10 becomes mainstream the bunfight has'nt started.

Wobbly_englishman · Oct 4, 2006

Beer is always good.

I've spoted a couple 512mb version for around the £210 mark.

I bought myself a 7900GTO (7900GTX with slightly slower memory timings) which hammers the 7950GT for £165 from Dabs.

I think we are about to get a performance leap in GPU technology soon, similar to when we moved from 5xxx to 6xxx. It was a shame my previous card broke but at least I was lucky to find a bargain.

What I think of the 7950GT
Anyway to answer the articled question directly. I think it's pants. nVidia are tryng to sell off cards that will be obsolete and bettered by the upcoming set of midrange cards. For instance compare the 5900GT to the 6600GT. Obviously this is just a prediction but I wouldn't spend £210 on one of these when a 8600GT could be available in 3 months for £150.

shabodah · Oct 4, 2006

I really don't see why the review didn't use one of the 512mb versions. That's the reason I'd consider this card, and if it doesn't make an impact in performance, I don't see a reason to get this over the $240 7900GT 256MB.

Mousemonkey · Oct 4, 2006

An 8600GT for £150 :lol: I can't see them being that nice to us but then I'm a cynical old git so you never know, I think the crux of the biscuit is going to be the new games that will only run on Vista Halo 2 springs to mind as I'm sure I read somewhere that it was going to be Vista only when it finaly comes over to the PC and I for one quite liked Halo 1 and although I've played Halo 2 on the Xbox I just can't get on with those damn joypads, then of course there's the physic's by the graphic's card thing going on and how long that may or may not take to get sorted/become defacto, yeah all in all the future is looking interesting to say the least, roll on tomorrow and let the bunfight commence.

Loc13 · Oct 4, 2006

This review certainly came in late. From all the other techsite reviews on 7950GT, the x1900xt and the x1900xt 256 have better performance than 7950GT, especially the x1900xt. If this card is in the $300-$350 range, wouldn't it make sense to include the x1900xt in the benchmark? 7950GT never leads the x1900xt 512 in other benchmarks I see.

AlcatrazX · Oct 4, 2006

I think compare to 7950gt, the c /p of 7900gto is higher.

theaxemaster · Oct 4, 2006

Shittiest review I've read here to date. Didn't use the 512 meg version (which is on pricewatch right now for 291 US, not some mythical 300-350 figure), and then they have the gaul to recommend a card that doesn't perform as well as its counterpart, the 7900! So what if it can actually run at some ungodly res in oblivion at 8 FPS, anyone who really wants to run a game at that res isn't going to buy this card anyway. And pushing it all off on "driver issues" is lame.

Seriously, did they get paid to write this?

gtr · Oct 4, 2006

What is up with this review. Why not run the 7900GTO? It is faster, cheaper and actually can compete against the X1900XT 256? But then again the $300 mid range is slower than the $250 mid/low cards :?:

shabodah · Oct 4, 2006

There has got to be something up with the performance they've posted. There is simply not a reason for this card to perform worse than the 7900GT, maybe the same, sure, but not worse. I've already seen the 7950GT with GRAW bundled with it for $275.

SciFiMan · Oct 4, 2006

As Toms gets more commercialized I think the quality of the technical articles are in decline. I've seen more one sided articles, and some that are pretty light and airy- nice for biscuits, bad for chosing hardware.

bourgeoisdude · Oct 4, 2006

I dont see any benefits from the 7950gt compared to the 7900gt. Atleast, not performance differences that really make a difference.

It is becoming more and more difficult to recommend video cards for the price, as most have noticed. The 7900GT actually bests the 7950GT in every test I saw in resolutions 1600x1200 and lower, but at the "crazy" resolution of 2560x1600,the 7950GT tears the 7900GT apart! So cleeve's article may have to change to "Best video cards for the money at 1600x1200 or lower"

(just kidding cleeve)

bourgeoisdude · Oct 4, 2006

As Toms gets more commercialized I think the quality of the technical articles are in decline. I've seen more one sided articles, and some that are pretty light and airy- nice for biscuits, bad for chosing hardware.

Tom's guys are choosing sides is all. As long as they counterbalance it with ATI video card articles it's fine. In fact, to say that any article would be "perfectly balanced" would be a lie. You can all deny it all day long, but deep inside, we all have a little bias in our conclusions. For me, it used to be consistently for nvidia and against ati, but now, it depends on the article/thread I'm commenting on. I'm biased for nvidia and later against them, and for ATI then against it in the same day. There can be no middle ground, never truly--that's why balancing is key.

Please note there is a difference between bias and what we know of as "fanboyism"--always being for or against a vendor and defending/attacking them to the death is not what we want. This article did not have any overt favoritism towards NVIDIA, but as you point out, it seems the author, at least in this article, may prefer nvidia himself. Of course he will, it's an article about the 7950GT!

Anyway, I've just run with a rabbit trail, so back to our regularly scheduled discussion 8)

Anoobis · Oct 4, 2006

It's not a bad offering though compared to the 256MB X1900XT when looking at the charts. They trade blows with each other. It loses out to the 256MB X1900XT on the Oblivion indoors but comes close on the outdoors which says a lot about the card. A quick search on Newegg shows only one 256MB X1900XT at ~$260 plus a rebate that drops it by another $15.00. The rest can all be had for about the same price the 7950GT is going for on Newegg.

The big loser right now is the 7900GT as it's prices are still too high when compared to the performance you get with either a 7950GT or a 256MB X1900XT. The 7900GT's competition would be the X1900GT which it edges out but the X1900GT is priced around $200.00 and the 7900GT is still floating above $240.00. The performance of the two is so close that the X1900GT is a much better deal for the money.

When the price wars start between the 7950GT and the 256MB X1900XT both of them would be an excellent buy when the right opportunity arrives such as a juicy rebate or price drop on either card. Keep your eyes open.

enforcerfx · Oct 4, 2006

There has certainly been a lot of activity in the past two months, as both major graphics makers keep their products fresh while awaiting the arrival of DX10 parts.

The 7900GTO kicks sand in the 7950GTs face, and is overclockable to GTX speeds. Thus putting it as a faster card, and a better buy over the 7950GT. I have no clue what nvidia was thinking releasing these 2 cards roughly the same time, when the better one is cheaper. Its supply and demand i guess.

minim3 · Oct 4, 2006

um...when did 7950 GT become midrange??????????? :?

shabodah · Oct 4, 2006

Last I looked, the GTO pulls more wattage and takes up more space than the 7950GT. Maybe that's why they're both here?

Anoobis · Oct 4, 2006

I didn't know you could pick up the 7900GTO for $260 at the Egg. Strange times indeed.

Mousemonkey · Oct 4, 2006

At about 11.00 am it would seem :lol: according to the interplanetary webulator anyways.

kaotao · Oct 4, 2006

I really don't see why the review didn't use one of the 512mb versions. That's the reason I'd consider this card, and if it doesn't make an impact in performance, I don't see a reason to get this over the $240 7900GT 256MB.

Or a $240 X1900XT.

gtr · Oct 4, 2006

I didn't know you could pick up the 7900GTO for $260 at the Egg. Strange times indeed.

Strange I paid $252 shipped with the egg a couple of days ago. Now it looks like the price has gone up. Supply and demand perhaps?

Nvidia Tightens Up Midrange Performance With The $300 GeForce 7950GT

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