GamePC: Pushing G71 Further - XFX’s GeForce 7900 GTX Extreme Edition

[YeOldeStonecat]

"In the short number of years which they've been on the market producing graphics cards, XFX has quickly risen to become nVidia's premiere partner showcasing their latest GPU's. Not only does XFX push huge numbers of nVidia based cards out the door, they also are one of the most visible board makers on the market, garnering rave reviews due to their excellent performance levels and willingness to push the bar in terms of clock speeds higher than competing brands.

Being a tier one partner with nVidia, XFX also appears to have access to nVidia's best chip yields, which give them more flexibility on how to clock their boards and set their prices. While most board manufacturers are selling a single GeForce 7900 GTX 512 MB card (at one set clock speed), XFX is producing five different 7900 GTX 512 MB cards. Each card is tagged with a unique title and a set clock speed for the GPU and memory. While this seemed somewhat ludicrous to us at first, it certainly does provide end-users with more options, allowing them to purchase a higher-grade GPU which can run at higher clock speeds, if they are willing to pay the price.

The highest grade cards which XFX are selling are tagged as the "Extreme Edition" and "XXX Edition" cards, which run at stock frequencies which are higher than most basic cards can overclock to. For example, the Asus GeForce 7900 GTX card we recently looked at in a lab report could only overclock to GPU clock speeds of 675 MHz at its absolute maximum. XFX's top of the line cards are running at base clock speeds of 690 -700 MHz with the exact same cooling system, a clear-cut indicator that XFX is receiving higher-grade chips directly from nVidia to use for these products. XFX is likely paying a price premium for these chip lots, which is certainly passed along to the consumer, as these XFX's high-end cards typically cost between $50 to $100 more compared to other manufacturer’s stock clocked 7900 GTX products.

Adding to the allure of these cards is that they are only available in limited quantities. Not quite as "limited" as the nearly-impossible-to-get GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB card of nVidia's previous generation, but XFX’s Extreme Edition cards are typically tougher to get compared to other 7900 GTX 512 MB cards. We were able to get our hands on a pair of these ultra-high clocked 7900 GTX cards for a test run."

Full article here:
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_cont...x7900ee&page=1

*edit...artwork on the box remind anyone else of Duke Nukem?

[David]

I thought the BFG was running at 690.

[YARDofSTUF]

They were generous with the 5-6% increase, not much a boost at all.

BFG was the mainstream pioneer of factory OCed cards, but BFG raises the price higher and offers less of an OC than XFX and EVGA.

[Izzo]

I don't get it.... can you just overclock yer card on yer own? I do.

[YARDofSTUF]

I don't get it.... can you just overclock yer card on yer own? I do.

Ya but your not garanteed a good OC, these are hand picked cards, and as they hand pick them, that means there are less lucky peopel able to OC their own card. So now you pay more, BUT still have a warranty, and no guess work.

[Izzo]

Ya but your not garanteed a good OC, these are hand picked cards, and as they hand pick them, that means there are less lucky peopel able to OC their own card. So now you pay more, BUT still have a warranty, and no guess work.

takes the fun out of it doesn't it?

[YARDofSTUF]

takes the fun out of it doesn't it?

I guess, but if I wanted to really OC my card, I'd rather know ahead how the yeild is.

Just like how all the Stepping numbers are so popular on CPUs.

[Brent]

The thing is, it isn't overclocking. NVIDIA just puts a reference suggested clock speed out there, the add-in-board partners can then decide if they want to use the suggested clock speeds or just create their own.

[David]

They were generous with the 5-6% increase, not much a boost at all.

BFG was the mainstream pioneer of factory OCed cards, but BFG raises the price higher and offers less of an OC than XFX and EVGA.

I don't know. I purchased my BFG 7900GTX for 539.00 from ZZF (whom I can no longer recommend, but that is another story). It seemed like that best deal at the time.

[Sava700]

They were generous with the 5-6% increase, not much a boost at all.

BFG was the mainstream pioneer of factory OCed cards, but BFG raises the price higher and offers less of an OC than XFX and EVGA.

BFG is still #1 in my book for reliablitiy and price. From what I hear all over is that XFX and eVGA are letting people down on quality from the 7800's and up.

My dual 7900's are running great with out of the box OC I haven't pushed them any more yet since i'm waiting on putting everything in a new case.

I don't see no issues with pushing my BFG's much higher than the XFX extreme edition and be just as good.

[Sava700]

I don't know. I purchased my BFG 7900GTX for 539.00 from ZZF (whom I can no longer recommend, but that is another story). It seemed like that best deal at the time.

I got mine from ZZF too only thing to me was shipping time was a little slow otherwise good price and service. I recommend em.

[YARDofSTUF]

BFG is still #1 in my book for reliablitiy and price. From what I hear all over is that XFX and eVGA are letting people down on quality from the 7800's and up.

My dual 7900's are running great with out of the box OC I haven't pushed them any more yet since i'm waiting on putting everything in a new case.

I don't see no issues with pushing my BFG's much higher than the XFX extreme edition and be just as good.

Evga is the only company doing stepup. for the price of a bfg 7900GT, my friend was able to get a 7900 gt 40mhz faster core and like 100mhz faster on the ram from XFX.

I don't knock BFG's quality, I've had great luck with gainward, bfg, and evga.

[David]

I got mine from ZZF too only thing to me was shipping time was a little slow otherwise good price and service. I recommend em.

As long as you do not request an RMA, they are fine.

[Sava700]

As long as you do not request an RMA, they are fine.

do the RMA through BFG not zzf... makes it alot less painful.

[David]

do the RMA through BFG not zzf... makes it alot less painful.

It was a different item.