Question about 7900GT

R

ratmeleon

Weaksauce
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Feb 13, 2004
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I've been away from the Video Card world for a while, and it was about time for me to upgrade my system.

I've been running:
AMD Mobile Athlon 2600 @ 2.4ghz
Abit Nf7-s Rev 2.0
512 MB Ram
ATI Radeon 9000 (after my Radeon AIW 9700 pro died)
IDE 160GB WD hard drive
SATA Seagate 160GB hard drive

But I plan to run:
AMD Athlon 64 3500 Socket AM2 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103633)
Still looking for a good AM2 motherboard which overclocks relatively well.
1GB of Ram, not sure whether to get DDR2-667 or to spend the extra buck and get DDR2-800

But anyways, after looking around a bit, I decided upon a 7900GT.
I was looking specifically at the EVGA 256mb 7900GT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130033)

However, I've heard some problems people have been having with overclocking the card. Apparently, if you OC the card, there tend to be some number of deaths, or a few cards with random artifacting after the card has been stable with an OC for a while.

I was wondering if you had any suggestions or warnings about this?

I'm willing to spend up to about $300 or so on a card, so if you have any other viable suggestions, those would also be welcome. Plus any suggestions on a motherboard or what ram to get would be great.
 
Save up just a little bit more and get the 512MB 7900GT, you won't regret it.
 
Im messing around with my 7900GT KO 512MB at the moment. Mines Clocked right now at 650/1640. Im testing it now with the Basic Free 3DMark06 and got a score of 5925. Anyone know if this good scroe?
 
XLeezardx said:
Im messing around with my 7900GT KO 512MB at the moment. Mines Clocked right now at 650/1640. Im testing it now with the Basic Free 3DMark06 and got a score of 5925. Anyone know if this good scroe?
Click to expand...


If you've got 1640 on the memory you've been given some kind of gift from the gods. You should REALLY check closely for artifacting because the Infineon memory they are putting on these cards doesn't like to go past 800mhz at all. I've got the vmem mod done on my new 512MB card and it still won't do past 800 (1600 DDR).

The CORE on the other hand... now that's something special. These cards come 'pre-modded' as it were for 1.45v core in 3D. The guy from eVGA who handled my RMA said I wouldn't be dissapointed in this new card, and he was right. The core on mine will hit 680mhz with no artifacting whatsoever. It will do 700mhz but I get a few yellow dots in the ATITool artifact checker. I'm still trying to pick my jaw up off the floor. :D

And I'm still considering doing the 1.5v mod just to see how far the core will go. :D



One thing is for sure: Right out of the box at stock speeds this card will impress you. Stock overclocking will impress you more. Slap a VF900 on there and you will be downright floored. :)
 
Blue Falcon said:
If you've got 1640 on the memory you've been given some kind of gift from the gods. You should REALLY check closely for artifacting because the Infineon memory they are putting on these cards doesn't like to go past 800mhz at all. I've got the vmem mod done on my new 512MB card and it still won't do past 800 (1600 DDR).

The CORE on the other hand... now that's something special. These cards come 'pre-modded' as it were for 1.45v core in 3D. The guy from eVGA who handled my RMA said I wouldn't be dissapointed in this new card, and he was right. The core on mine will hit 680mhz with no artifacting whatsoever. It will do 700mhz but I get a few yellow dots in the ATITool artifact checker. I'm still trying to pick my jaw up off the floor. :D

And I'm still considering doing the 1.5v mod just to see how far the core will go. :D



One thing is for sure: Right out of the box at stock speeds this card will impress you. Stock overclocking will impress you more. Slap a VF900 on there and you will be downright floored. :)
Click to expand...

820 on the memory so far, and no artifacts. I set it to 850 and it failed the test. This card's ram is stable for me @ 820 so far. 650 core clock is the max ive set it to but will push harder in a minute. I guess this is a pretty good card after all. :D

Got a question though, how do you overclock in SLI mode with 2 of these cards?
 
heres a screen shot of mine without a volt mod or anything ... this card rocks
pulls a 6400'ish 3dmark 06

with a x2 4800 @ 2.7
1gb memory
evga 7900gt 512mb
click for big image

 
I wonder if this card is a step up candidate assuming I buy the 256 flavor of the GT. if it is I could buy it for essentially $244 (rebate price) of the 256mb RoHS 7900GT at newegg
 
It's not showing up as a step-up for me. I've got the 256mb version. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
 
brahmzy you have the 256 KO version or just a 256 evga? or does that matter in the way the step up program works?
 
Doesn't matter. Any (edit: NEW not a recert card or something) eVGA card purchase is valid for stepup, as long as you buy from an approved retailer (ie: Newegg, Monarch etc). Only caveat really is you can't stepup from a 'regular' line card (any really - EGS, KO, SC whatever) to a Signature Series. SS can upgrade to ANY line, and supposedly get front-of-line access in the stepup queue. And of course you have to do it within 90 days of purchase...
 
I've got only 45 days left to step up my 7900GT KO "AR" - I was really hopin' G80 would be out - something tells me it's not gonna be. :(
 
i got the xfx 7900GT 256mb's volt modded @ 1.4v and the card is amazing, MAYBE the 512mb might help it. i was told way back when that memory was more of a gimmick because card manufacturers know you will buy it just because it looks more. i personally wanted a small solution i dont think card manufacturers should steal our precious pci slots away to cool down a damn card if i can overclock a smaller one and get similar results. i overclocked mine from 520/720 to 665/900 im not sure how much i get running a single card in 3dmark06 but in sli i got 9620 and i think i still have alot more room for potential, with water cooling ill do the 1.5v mod along with the vmem mod and should be able to crush many stock GTX's
 
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