DH Review: EVGA 7600GT and ATI X1800GTO

***Zardon*** · May 1, 2006, 08:19 PM

Read the review here
____________________________

Undoubtedly many sales are generated by having the fastest card on the planet, that’s one of the reasons ATI and Nvidia put so much money into R&D. Where they make the most money isn’t in this market segment however, it’s mainstream and budget cards that generate the big sales figures for both companies and having a killer product in each area at a great price can make or break your whole product range. The current mainstream attempts at killer products come in the shape of the X1800GTO and the 7600GT. We’re taking a look at both today to ascertain which gives you the best value and performance.

pr0digal jenius · May 1, 2006, 11:31 PM

slick design Allan

and as always, well done Stu.

In that blurb there, as in the 1st paragraph of the review where it's excerpted from, however, it says "7900GT" instead of 7600GT.

tech.Me · May 2, 2006, 06:36 AM

Very good review. Just missing the overclocking tests though. I believe the majority of the people would be interested in how well will a overclocked X1800GTO compete with the out-of-the-box overclocked 7600GT.

Otherwise, it's very nice. Interesting note though is that according to Inquirer (which seems to be quite accurate in "predicting" and creating gossips), ATI will release a X1900GT (shown already in HKPEC) and a X1900GTO later this year.

***Veridian3*** · May 2, 2006, 06:56 AM

Overclocking head to head: http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/...erclocking.htm (FEAR Only)

Brutality · May 2, 2006, 07:21 AM

Wow! Great review! It made me think about buying a new mobo and 7600GT as a jumpboard when some new DX10 cards come out

Really great view.

Now i curse you because you made me wanna spend all my money on 1 lowsy card + mobo.!!!!

Falstaff · May 2, 2006, 09:35 AM

Excellent, makes me wonder if buying all three 7800s was worth it, I could have just purchased the cheaper card and it would have delivered good performance as well...but then, buying for family isnt easy is it.
Excellent review..
as usual..

Gnerma · May 2, 2006, 04:08 PM

Stew, good review. But I have a few points in favor of the X1800GTO you do not mention. If you ask me, for the performance enthusiast its an easy choice.

Why? Well first of all, the X1800GTO is an X1800 so it has some of the special options available only to X1800/X1900 cards. I'm speaking of course of voltage control. You can use ATITool to overvolt these cards just like you can overvolt its big brothers. The results are usually around twice the core overclocks you show in your review. My card maxed at 570 GPU at stock voltage but after volting up to 1.270 have it running at a rock solid 685.

Also, you have a chance of unlocking the X1800GTO if you buy the right card. Mine does not unlock but many do. It's for these reasons I don't see the 7600GT being a good buy for most performance enthusiasts. I think the 7600GT is a solid card though especially if you prefer the smaller size, better power consumption, *nix performance and superior openGL performance (mostly not typical enthusiast concerns).

Sandok · May 2, 2006, 04:15 PM

I completely disagree....

The 7600 GT runs cooler, is faster stock (which is important for 99.9% of people), is faster overall (including OpenGL which has many great games) and all in all, OCs well enough very easily.

Sure the Xk1 series has a few nifty features but many games don't use em (3Dc was never used and HDR + AA is only in Oblivion and all so far... Ghost Recon doesn't have that for example) and you can overvolt a 7600GT series if you know what you are doing....

brutusmaximus · May 2, 2006, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gnerma

Stew, good review. But I have a few points in favor of the X1800GTO you do not mention. If you ask me, for the performance enthusiast its an easy choice.

Why? Well first of all, the X1800GTO is an X1800 so it has some of the special options available only to X1800/X1900 cards. I'm speaking of course of voltage control. You can use ATITool to overvolt these cards just like you can overvolt its big brothers. The results are usually around twice the core overclocks you show in your review. My card maxed at 570 GPU at stock voltage but after volting up to 1.270 have it running at a rock solid 685.

Also, you have a chance of unlocking the X1800GTO if you buy the right card. Mine does not unlock but many do. It's for these reasons I don't see the 7600GT being a good buy for most performance enthusiasts. I think the 7600GT is a solid card though especially if you prefer the smaller size, better power consumption, *nix performance and superior openGL performance (mostly not typical enthusiast concerns).

yes but by overvolting the card you are in fact invalidating your warranty and risking killing the card. No one can tell me that overvolting a card is "safe" under any circumstances and you are pushing the card WAY beyond its design limitations. I think it would be rather silly for any tech site to cover this in a mass market review.

Gnerma · May 2, 2006, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandok

The 7600 GT runs cooler, is faster stock (which is important for 99.9% of people), is faster overall (including OpenGL which has many great games) and all in all, OCs well enough very easily.

Sure the Xk1 series has a few nifty features but many games don't use em (3Dc was never used and HDR + AA is only in Oblivion and all so far... Ghost Recon doesn't have that for example) and you can overvolt a 7600GT series if you know what you are doing....

I consider this post a text book example of a reply that ignores the safeguards in a post. I addressed most of the things you mentioned already. First off, I am speaking to performance enthusiasts, the people who don't care so much about heat and and power consumption but more about bang for buck performance (within reason). I also gave the 7600 a nod for the OpenGL performance. If you honestly believe 99.9% of the people reading this review run stock, I think you'd be surprised. We can do a poll if you'd like though.

3dc is irrelevant which is why neither stew nor mentioned it. HDR+AA is also possible in Serious Sam 2 but I don't consider it a big selling point unless you have one of the beefier X1000 series cards. Yes you can volt mod a 7600GT but you can do that to any card so it goes without mentioning. Only the X1800/X1900 can be easily & safely overvolted in software with a few clicks. Considering the stock voltage for an XT is 1.35V 1.2x isn't much for the same GPU.

Sandok · May 2, 2006, 04:37 PM

Overvolting safe? I don't think so.... Sure if you know it and all but I've heard of many stories where a card got cooked way sooner than it should have. And pushing every ounce of power out of your PC is only on tech sites. Honestly, I really don't think many people even know what overclockign is.

But anyways, if you don't care about heat and power consumption, you don't really have to care for money either

Thus buy a better card (imho)

***Zardon*** · May 2, 2006, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandok

Overvolting safe? I don't think so.... Sure if you know it and all but I've heard of many stories where a card got cooked way sooner than it should have. And pushing every ounce of power out of your PC is only on tech sites. Honestly, I really don't think many people even know what overclockign is.

The average punter doesnt know overclocking I agree, however our audience is a little more educated than that.

However as for Gnerma's comments " the people who don't care so much about heat and and power consumption but more about bang for buck performance (within reason)." I will state that I not so sure even those who use standard software overclocking would feel comfortable with voltage modifications to hardware (is this "within reason"?). Obviously as with everything there are those who would do this, and certainly its an interesting subject matter.

We could tackle it in a dedicated review, however to publish a "x card v x card" with one card receiving voltage modifications which will in fact invalid warranties and possibly shorten the life of a card is not really something I feel is a good idea. I had a talk with an ATi engineer recently and without going into specifics, we discussed failed hardware, and in the majority of cases the failed hardware was due to overclocking outside ATI's simple software recommendations. Take from that what you will.......

mike83wvu · May 2, 2006, 05:49 PM

Good review & good value card! I picked a 7600GT from EVGA about 6 weeks ago & could not be happier. I have a BENQ LCD Monitor that maxes out at 1280x1064 & this card is really all I need. Had a rebate going on at Newegg & my final cost was only around $160. Not bad.

Gnerma · May 2, 2006, 06:03 PM

Thanks for the replies everybody.

Zardon, certainly overvolting is not without its risks whether assumed or proven. But the sweet spot before the point of severely diminishing returns on your typical GTO is between 1.150 and 1.200. This is a modest overvolt from the stock 1.1 and it should get you to a solid 630-650 on locked cards. Considering we're working with the same GPU that is fed 1.35V at stock in X1800XT iterations, I don't think this is particularly risky. But these are things we have to decide for ourselves. My statement that the performance enthusiast would do well to choose a GTO stands since such people will be happy to take such small risks for a significant clock gain.

Regarding hardware failure. I see that as the same kind of argument that you see in studies such as, "Teens who smoke pot have been proven to have xx% more chance to get into hard drugs." Both are technically true but just as people who try pot in the first place are probably more open to such things so its not necessarily the pot that does it to them, people who will overclock beyond the "safe" levels recommended by ATi are more likely to push their cards beyond the breaking point by overclocking and other means.

With all of that said, I can see what you're saying about overvolting being a bit too arcane to include in a review like this. But, I also take issue with pitting a factory overclocked card versus a card running reference clocks. It makes sense if you're reviewing the overclocked card, but less if you're trying to compare the SKUs. This could easily be remedied by including reference clocked numbers along with the factory overclocked numbers.

In any case, I'm not saying the 7600GT is a bad card. Its a fast SKU that most anybody would be happy with. But if you aren't afraid of tinkering a bit the GTO is the clear choice at this price range in my eyes.

LHC · May 7, 2006, 09:07 AM

Well, I'm happy with my 1800GTO

I think it's all down to a matter of preference really. I tend to favor ATI, though I know some people who favor nVidia. If i had to, I'd buy an nVidia though, it doesn't concern me that much

May 1, 2006, 08:19 PM	#1
*Zardon* enchanted Join Date: May 2002 Location: Driverheaven Posts: 32,290 Rep Power: 3150	DH Review: EVGA 7600GT and ATI X1800GTO Read the review here ____________________________ Undoubtedly many sales are generated by having the fastest card on the planet, that’s one of the reasons ATI and Nvidia put so much money into R&D. Where they make the most money isn’t in this market segment however, it’s mainstream and budget cards that generate the big sales figures for both companies and having a killer product in each area at a great price can make or break your whole product range. The current mainstream attempts at killer products come in the shape of the X1800GTO and the 7600GT. We’re taking a look at both today to ascertain which gives you the best value and performance.

May 2, 2006, 06:36 AM	#3
tech.Me DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 142 Rep Power: 0	Very good review. Just missing the overclocking tests though. I believe the majority of the people would be interested in how well will a overclocked X1800GTO compete with the out-of-the-box overclocked 7600GT. Otherwise, it's very nice. Interesting note though is that according to Inquirer (which seems to be quite accurate in "predicting" and creating gossips), ATI will release a X1900GT (shown already in HKPEC) and a X1900GTO later this year. __________________ AMD Athlon XP 2400+ \| Windows XP Pro \| ATI 9600XT 128MB \| Samsung 120GB 5400RPM \| Saitek Cyborg Evo

May 2, 2006, 09:35 AM	#6
Falstaff Old Codger Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: USAFA Posts: 18,145 Rep Power: 131	Excellent, makes me wonder if buying all three 7800s was worth it, I could have just purchased the cheaper card and it would have delivered good performance as well...but then, buying for family isnt easy is it. Excellent review.. as usual.. __________________ The tallest blade of grass is the first to be cut by the scythe.

May 2, 2006, 04:08 PM	#7
Gnerma Avatar limits = SPAM Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: California Posts: 107 Rep Power: 0	Stew, good review. But I have a few points in favor of the X1800GTO you do not mention. If you ask me, for the performance enthusiast its an easy choice. Why? Well first of all, the X1800GTO is an X1800 so it has some of the special options available only to X1800/X1900 cards. I'm speaking of course of voltage control. You can use ATITool to overvolt these cards just like you can overvolt its big brothers. The results are usually around twice the core overclocks you show in your review. My card maxed at 570 GPU at stock voltage but after volting up to 1.270 have it running at a rock solid 685. Also, you have a chance of unlocking the X1800GTO if you buy the right card. Mine does not unlock but many do. It's for these reasons I don't see the 7600GT being a good buy for most performance enthusiasts. I think the 7600GT is a solid card though especially if you prefer the smaller size, better power consumption, nix performance and superior openGL performance (mostly not typical enthusiast concerns). __________________ I disable sigs at Driver Heaven. Why? Because your* huge ugly sig image irritates me

May 2, 2006, 06:03 PM	#14
Gnerma Avatar limits = SPAM Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: California Posts: 107 Rep Power: 0	Thanks for the replies everybody. Zardon, certainly overvolting is not without its risks whether assumed or proven. But the sweet spot before the point of severely diminishing returns on your typical GTO is between 1.150 and 1.200. This is a modest overvolt from the stock 1.1 and it should get you to a solid 630-650 on locked cards. Considering we're working with the same GPU that is fed 1.35V at stock in X1800XT iterations, I don't think this is particularly risky. But these are things we have to decide for ourselves. My statement that the performance enthusiast would do well to choose a GTO stands since such people will be happy to take such small risks for a significant clock gain. Regarding hardware failure. I see that as the same kind of argument that you see in studies such as, "Teens who smoke pot have been proven to have xx% more chance to get into hard drugs." Both are technically true but just as people who try pot in the first place are probably more open to such things so its not necessarily the pot that does it to them, people who will overclock beyond the "safe" levels recommended by ATi are more likely to push their cards beyond the breaking point by overclocking and other means. With all of that said, I can see what you're saying about overvolting being a bit too arcane to include in a review like this. But, I also take issue with pitting a factory overclocked card versus a card running reference clocks. It makes sense if you're reviewing the overclocked card, but less if you're trying to compare the SKUs. This could easily be remedied by including reference clocked numbers along with the factory overclocked numbers. In any case, I'm not saying the 7600GT is a bad card. Its a fast SKU that most anybody would be happy with. But if you aren't afraid of tinkering a bit the GTO is the clear choice at this price range in my eyes. __________________ I disable sigs at Driver Heaven. Why? Because your huge ugly sig image irritates me

May 1, 2006, 11:31 PM	#2
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,672 Rep Power: 0	slick design Allan and as always, well done Stu. In that blurb there, as in the 1st paragraph of the review where it's excerpted from, however, it says "7900GT" instead of 7600GT.

May 2, 2006, 06:56 AM	#4
*Veridian3* Administrator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Cloaked Posts: 2,999 Rep Power: 72	Overclocking head to head: http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/...erclocking.htm (FEAR Only)

May 2, 2006, 07:21 AM	#5
Brutality DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Estonia Posts: 887 Rep Power: 25	Wow! Great review! It made me think about buying a new mobo and 7600GT as a jumpboard when some new DX10 cards come out Really great view. Now i curse you because you made me wanna spend all my money on 1 lowsy card + mobo.!!!!

May 2, 2006, 04:15 PM	#8
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,501 Rep Power: 53	I completely disagree.... The 7600 GT runs cooler, is faster stock (which is important for 99.9% of people), is faster overall (including OpenGL which has many great games) and all in all, OCs well enough very easily. Sure the Xk1 series has a few nifty features but many games don't use em (3Dc was never used and HDR + AA is only in Oblivion and all so far... Ghost Recon doesn't have that for example) and you can overvolt a 7600GT series if you know what you are doing....

May 2, 2006, 04:37 PM	#11
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,501 Rep Power: 53	Overvolting safe? I don't think so.... Sure if you know it and all but I've heard of many stories where a card got cooked way sooner than it should have. And pushing every ounce of power out of your PC is only on tech sites. Honestly, I really don't think many people even know what overclockign is. But anyways, if you don't care about heat and power consumption, you don't really have to care for money either Thus buy a better card (imho)

May 2, 2006, 05:49 PM	#13
mike83wvu DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 66 Rep Power: 0	Good review & good value card! I picked a 7600GT from EVGA about 6 weeks ago & could not be happier. I have a BENQ LCD Monitor that maxes out at 1280x1064 & this card is really all I need. Had a rebate going on at Newegg & my final cost was only around $160. Not bad.

May 7, 2006, 09:07 AM	#15
LHC Stingy and Stubborn Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: New Jersey Posts: 1,324 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Well, I'm happy with my 1800GTO I think it's all down to a matter of preference really. I tend to favor ATI, though I know some people who favor nVidia. If i had to, I'd buy an nVidia though, it doesn't concern me that much __________________