XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme

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FrgMstr

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XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme - How does a factory overclocked passively cooled XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme compares to an ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256MB video card? How about comparing it to a less expensive ATI Radeon X1900 GT? 24” LCD experiences at 1920x1200 included.

This is not to downplay the XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme technology however. XFX has produced a very solid video card around the GeForce 7950 GT GPU. They have innovated and aimed outside the box by providing a completely silent and passive solution that will still only take up the room of a single-slot inside your computer. With HDCP support and a very high level of gameplay performance this video card is very capable for a lot of uses beyond gaming, but if you are just going to be gaming, you might look elsewhere.
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Please Digg if you see fit
 
passively cooled was what sold me on this card. If not for that I think I would have went with an ATI solution.

The passive cooled card should serve me well in my gaming machine untill a decent dx10 card comes out and I can replace it and move it to a very silent office/htpc.
 
Pretty impressive performance and overclocking for passively cooled card. And the price is decent, around $330 + shipping at mwave and TD.

I'm waiting for DX10, but that card is tempting.
 
If ATI would put the X1950XTX's new cooler on the X1900XT 256 card and offer a crossfire version they would have a winner.
 
Needs to come down in price $60 to compete with ATI's 256MB x1900xt. Only thing it has going for it is silence..which can be golden to some.:) Smart move by XFX to separate themselves from the pack.... I may SLI these puppies if I can get $450 for my gx2 which is sooo loud compared to my typhoon on CPU which I can't even hear.
 
why don't we see what the overclocking did for the results?
also, why didn't you include an x1900xtx in the test because it's at $300 now?

nice article tho! I don't mean to be negative! i think this is one helluva silent card
 
passively cooled was what sold me on this card.
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Completly agree. With a couple of these, typhoon/sythe and a 120mm fanned PSU one could have a high performing setup almost silent.. this might be unheard of without water cooling?

You think the prices will come down like in near future? so tempted right now but with ATI competition makes me think prices may drop in a hurry...
 
zeekle said:
passively cooled was what sold me on this card. If not for that I think I would have went with an ATI solution.

The passive cooled card should serve me well in my gaming machine untill a decent dx10 card comes out and I can replace it and move it to a very silent office/htpc.
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Unfortunately my current motherboard (Chaintech VNF4 Ultra) is incompatable with the XFX 7950GT due to the chipset HSF being in the way of the heatpipes. My Zalman CPU HSF is the 120mm model so that also would be in the way. Anyone else heard of any compatability problems?

Oh, a little request in regards to the Oblivion benches. Could you guys please use the landscape texture replacement mods (here and here are two examples)? Looking at the default vasaline-smeared textures makes me cringe.

I recently purchased a 512MB X1900XT (for $270 USD, Newegg rocks!) due to it being pretty even with the 7950 GT. The higher quality AF is what really sold me. You really can tell the difference in the screens versus the AA which you have to squint a little to see.

Diseaseboy said:
If ATI would put the X1950XTX's new cooler on the X1900XT 256 card and offer a crossfire version they would have a winner.
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Isn't that the X1950XT I have heard about? Oh come on, you know ATI will do it :p
 
tightline said:
You think the prices will come down like in near future? so tempted right now but with ATI competition makes me think prices may drop in a hurry...
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If not for the XFX version of the 7950gt I don't see why anyone would buy one given the benchmarks VS the ATI cards and their current price points. Prices will come down I am sure. The question will be how fast they come down. Nvidia might be too full of themselves and let these things sit on the market at a price premium over the ATI cards.

Thats not even factoring they have a narrow window to sell cards. Its not going to be long and people will start the "Ill just wait for DX10 cards"
 
Just to be clear...the X1900XT 512's are going for just under $300 now, right? That would make it THE card IMO right now.

Also, love the format of the new reviews. Nice and easy to read/see differences. The only reason's I could see going NV for gaming would be the heat output. The amount of warmth my little 19XT puts out always freaks me out. And we still don't have a good exhaust air heatsink for it...
 
Dude the x1900xtx is $302 now. That's what it's competing against. Nvidia needs to drop prices really fast or they will flat-out lose this product cycle.
 
MH Knights said:
Oh, a little request in regards to the Oblivion benches. Could you guys please use the landscape texture replacement mods (here and here are two examples)? Looking at the default vasaline-smeared textures makes me cringe.
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We test with default game settings, no tweaks or mods to be fair. The only config tweaks we make are to sometimes force a higher resolution in some games, that is all.
 
Brent_Justice said:
We test with default game settings, no tweaks or mods to be fair. The only config tweaks we make are to sometimes force a higher resolution in some games, that is all.
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Excellent review. Great card, but the price does really need to go down. I expect it to be. This is too close to its launch and they usually go down a bit later.

Brent,

Fixed - Thanks for the corrections - Kyle
 
Excellent review. The IQ comparisons were fantastic.

Having a silent card that performs (and overclocks!) this well is incredibly impressive, though TBH I don't hear *well cooled* video cards these days anyway (like, after replacing stock coolers with something from AC or Zalman).

The 7950GT GPU just doesn't make sense at this point, since the 256mb 1900xt beats it, at a lower price, and the 512mb x1900xt beats it like a stepchild at a similar price.

Edit: I liked this review so much I submitted it to digg :)
 
I enjoy the video card reviews here because it makes my purchasing decision much easier since they have already done the this is the best resolution and settings to play on....great review, though i was disappointed to see that the extra 256 didnt seem to help much

Any one know why ? - i mean why would they make the card with 512 and have it not really add a benefit?
 
Lamont Cranston said:
i mean why would they make the card with 512 and have it not really add a benefit?
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90% of the reason is marketing. The same reason we have 512MB FX5200s, x800XLs, and 6600s.

The other 10% of the reason is because in certain scenarios the extra RAM probably does help, but you would probably have to look pretty hard to find it.
 
I think this product's one potential salvation is its overclocking potential. All the other sites got next to nothing in OC on the XFX passively cooled version, but [H] got it up almost as high as the active-cooled reference card over at Rage3D. Guess this shows that, more than ever, OC results with this card are going to vary widely from one sample to another. But when they're good, they're VERY good... GTX performance out of a silent, single slot card makes it somewhat tempting to me.
 
jebo_4jc said:
90% of the reason is marketing. The same reason we have 512MB FX5200s, x800XLs, and 6600s.

The other 10% of the reason is because in certain scenarios the extra RAM probably does help, but you would probably have to look pretty hard to find it.
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SLI is where the 512 could be advantageous.
 
Lamont Cranston said:
Any chance we will see that added on to this review?
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FTA:

They will be exploring SLI in a later article
 
The one thing I really care about and can't seem to find out about the 7950GT are the stock vGPU and vMem. Essentially, the 7900GT was a 7900GTX with half the memory and without the factory voltage increase and upclock. When people voltmodded 7900GT's, roughly GTX-level speeds generally followed, particularly with regard to GPU clocks.

The 7950GT is even more desirable than the 7900GT because it restores the lost 256MB and likely cures the problems that many users reported regarding the stability of the 7900GT, especially factory-overclocked editions. If Nvidia increased the voltages on the 7950GT to get the higher clocks, much of the benefit may have been lost. However, if Nvidia left the voltages at or about 7900GT levels and still managed to get the increase speeds, it would suggest a more mature product and a mod to GTX voltages may allow even better overclocks.
 
Lamont Cranston said:
...I mean why would they make the card with 512 and have it not really add a benefit?
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We may not be using all the RAM right now, but we will in the coming months. As time goes on games will use higher resolution textures and the 512MB will be needed.
 
Why does the [H] no longer provide any screenshots whatsoever for any of these games? I frequently see screenshots of the menus to show that everything is maxed but that is all. With the ATI X1950XTX review and now this one the reviews frequently tell us how immersive these games are at these high resolutions, how nice everything looks at 1920 X 1200 yet not a single screenshot. :(
 
Nice review, wished you could have included Ghost Recon aw since it came with the card. :( Still I am not going to pci exspress mb untill dx10 or prices and processors show me big improvement over what works for me now.
 
Puterguru said:
Why does the [H] no longer provide any screenshots whatsoever for any of these games? I frequently see screenshots of the menus to show that everything is maxed but that is all. With the ATI X1950XTX review and now this one the reviews frequently tell us how immersive these games are at these high resolutions, how nice everything looks at 1920 X 1200 yet not a single screenshot. :(
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I see screenshots.
 
I would be completely sold on the XFX 7950 GT if it would drop the price just a bit. Totally silent, runs cool, great performance, overclocks to GTX levels (and beyond in RAM), what more can you ask for? Oh yeah, the price. If you were to mount a fan, and have good airflow, I'm sure it would overclock much further than a GTX. And for what, like $100 less? But I guess that mounting a fan kinda defeats the whole silent idea. But with a low rpm 120mm mounted next to the VGA cards, you'd get excellent airflow and still maintain near-silence. Personally, with all the complaints about the price point, I think the prices will come down shortly. I know they will drop a bunch whenever the new G80 launches (whenever that will be). And I will try to hold out till then, but it will be tough. Can't wait to see a pair of these in SLI!
 
Puterguru said:
Ok, maybe I'm missing them. Could you point me to the 1920x1200 screenshots of Prey or HL2?
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It was a video card review, not a game review. The minimalist approach helps with bandwidth when you're trying to serve folks who may be on dial up, not to mention what it costs to host. I'm guessing the screens at 4:3 were looking pretty similar in wide screen if they were omitted.

I really like that ATI has the performance it does on these games, and am seriously dissapointed that the image quality of a $300+ card doesn't meet and/or exceed that of a card a full $100 less in all situations. Maybe a driver update will fix this? I sure as hell hope so.

The redeaming quality I find the most impressive is the power efficiency of the 7950GT. Hopefully ATI+AMD will move the ATI GPU's in that direction as well. You'd think the world leader in embedded video solutions would have some nasty power/heat saving tricks even for their high end GPU's.
 
Would be nice with some info on how you measure the temp of the cards, Is the setup mounted in a closed case, if so what case, number of fans, how do you get the temp readings. ambient case temp after full load for x amount of time.
 
Open system sitting on a workbench, no extra fans blowing across any parts except for the CPU fan in action, full load is done by hooking up dual monitor and putting the temp monitor from the driver on one display while we run several applications and choose the highest temp produced whichever one that was from and usually it is from Oblivion after about 1 hour of running
 
Deejay2d said:
I would be completely sold on the XFX 7950 GT if it would drop the price just a bit. Totally silent, runs cool, great performance, overclocks to GTX levels (and beyond in RAM), what more can you ask for? Oh yeah, the price. If you were to mount a fan, and have good airflow, I'm sure it would overclock much further than a GTX. And for what, like $100 less? But I guess that mounting a fan kinda defeats the whole silent idea. But with a low rpm 120mm mounted next to the VGA cards, you'd get excellent airflow and still maintain near-silence. Personally, with all the complaints about the price point, I think the prices will come down shortly. I know they will drop a bunch whenever the new G80 launches (whenever that will be). And I will try to hold out till then, but it will be tough. Can't wait to see a pair of these in SLI!
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Be careful with predicting GTX levels. I think HARDOCP's overclock was exceptional. Most reviewers did'nt even get to 600Mhz..look around.

Also keep in mind most reviewers test on an open air bench, not inside hot and dusty case lowering OC potential more because of heat considerations.

I'm not trying to talk you out of it, it a awesome product but just don't expect GTX off a passive 7950GT out of the box.
 
thedude42 said:
It was a video card review, not a game review. The minimalist approach helps with bandwidth when you're trying to serve folks who may be on dial up, not to mention what it costs to host. I'm guessing the screens at 4:3 were looking pretty similar in wide screen if they were omitted..
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:rolleyes: Thanks Brent :rolleyes:

Anyways a video card renders images. How those images are rendered makes a difference in peoples decision on whether or not to purchase a video card.

In a Previous Thread it was mentioned that there were no screenshots because of a lack of time and that more would be done with other cards. In this review however time was not an issue. I'm not looking for a game review, I don't want 10 different screenshots of each game. But I think when doing a video card review that at least One Screenshot of each game for each two cards being compared is reasonable.
 
thedude42 said:
It was a video card review, not a game review. The minimalist approach helps with bandwidth when you're trying to serve folks who may be on dial up, not to mention what it costs to host. I'm guessing the screens at 4:3 were looking pretty similar in wide screen if they were omitted.
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Personally I'd rather have more pictures of the game experience (in any high 16x12 or greater resolution, widescreen or not) and less of the box and card itself. Especially when the card doesn't differ from reference design (not so in this particular case).

Do we really need a picture of a this stuff? Or driver CDs?
 
zeekle said:
Thats not even factoring they have a narrow window to sell cards. Its not going to be long and people will start the "Ill just wait for DX10 cards"
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I'm already saying that...
 
Brent_Justice said:
Open system sitting on a workbench, no extra fans blowing across any parts except for the CPU fan in action, full load is done by hooking up dual monitor and putting the temp monitor from the driver on one display while we run several applications and choose the highest temp produced whichever one that was from and usually it is from Oblivion after about 1 hour of running
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Thx for the answers. Any plans on doing a "real world" measurment with the cards sitting in a closed box in the future? or does the "real world" testing only apply to the game test's ;)

I know that most sites that measures vc heat uses open systems, since it takes more time to put the system in a box instead of just having it on the desk. So here you guys got a chance to stand out doing some testing where the temp read out actually means somthing to the consumer. Pls give us some ambient case temps with different cards since that is really the only usefull thing to know.
 
Anyone know if this card will fit in the Zalman HD160?
Going to be a VERY tight fit if it does.
 
Am I the only one stunned by the image quality differences between nvida and ATI? Most of you just ran stright to the fps results but holy SHIT it's almost scandelous how much better the ATI cards render the image with some of those games. I mean it's the difference between having texture and not having texture with some of them, wtf. Don't think i'm going to pay $500 for an nvidia card if it can't render the freakin surfaces, mine as well view it in wireframe lol.

Are the G80's going to be more up to par in the area of image quality, do we have this comfirmed? Cuz i dont think i'm going to touch nvidia again until their quality is up to ATI's.
 
As long as I can remember ATI's had the IQ lead. It seems to be getting stronger and stronger to the point where hopefully NV's gonna fight back. The new 8800's specs look devilish and that scares me into thinking they forget about IQ and went for speed...again. Hopefully I'll be wrong. :eek:
 
I was sold on the silence. very happy :D

7950lit1nx2.jpg
 
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