kalos!! come my child!

[rottentomato]

so i just ordered a 7600gs for my computer to replace the 7600gt that burned out...i currently have a 5500fx...

care to tell me how the performance difference between the 7600gt and the gs will compare? i dont know enough about the two little letter difference to find anything substantial...

just the gs is a 512mb and the gt is a 256...other than that...whats up! i know the 6800 and the 7600gs have some major and minor differences especially in the 3d mark category...

care to enlighten further?

[undeadgnome]

I am sorry but what does nerf mean? Just curious, sorry if i'm intruding

[rottentomato]

to make something less powerful

[Kalos]

The GS uses lower clock speeds on the core and cheaper memory. GDDR2 instead of GDDR3. Loses about 30% of it's brute force, but on complex optimised tasks the loss is less noticable.

Due to the nature of the 7600 series, both of them, it's pointless sticking 512mb on them other than a sales gimmick to attract people from buying the 256mb versions. It doesn't work simply. The card was never designed with a bus designed to address that much memory. Ideally, the bus should be the same bittage (Not a real word, but I'll invent it anyhow) or half the memory total. The 7600 processors have 128 bit bus. They don't even full take advantage of 256mb due to this weakness in thier design. The 512mb sees no speed boost because the spare capacity to address the extra ram does not exist. The bus is slightly overstretched with the 256mb version of course, but it's able to cope. It's able to do it, but it's one of the primary weaknesses in the design class, perhaps intentional to stop them from beat thier bigger brothers (even with a worse bus, the higher clocks of a GT can beat a 7800 in some tests).

In practical terms, it'll be far stronger than the 5500. However, you may notice some slowness due to the vast inferiority of the memory chips used in comparison to the GDDR3. Size of the memory in no way makes up for clock speeds.

[Neshie]

memory over 256 is only really usefull if you use the higher resolutions isnt it.. like 1280x1024 and higher..

[Kalos]

memory over 256 is only really usefull if you use the higher resolutions isnt it.. like 1280x1024 and higher..
Agreed on that. It's only useful on the higher resolutions, and the only cards that can go with the really high resolutions cost more than a 7600 GT does. It's a good little performer, but it's not going to be knocking heads with the 7900's or the 8800's at all. It simply doesn't work well enough for that. With a 128 bit memory interface, it can't physically address that much memory either, even if it was pushed beyond the realms of playability at those zones either. It's unsustainable, four times the memory being available to the interface, it can't address things fast enough. In all respects, having a bus speed equal the amount of memory the card has onboard itself is the perfect situation; but redesigning the interface is much more expensive and just not worth it to the graphics cards companies. They're in no hurry to see 512mb cards become mainstream just yet, and don't feel the need to add the room for it to really work effectively. the manufacturers can place 512mb on a graphics card, but it just won't utilise it quickly or effectively.

[rottentomato]

interesting stuff on the ram portion....i recently saw some benchmark tests comparing the two side by side, and it seems to be in certain games there is a huge difference between them, but games like quake 4 or WoW they are really really similar in every aspect, often times only varying by 3 or 4 fps

[Kalos]

Yes, sadly the high clocks are not benifitial for everything, the only improvement the GT has over the GS is more brute force, no technical advancement or increased sophistication, just higher grade components at higher clock speeds.

The only reason to go for the GT is if WoW is not your only game for a forseeably long time. The GS will suffice for WoW alone but appears to sag with other noticable games like Half Life 2 and Doom 3, the classic graphics card benchmark games. It's got the power there if it needs to be engaged.

[rottentomato]

i noticed FEAR seems to be one of the biggest lacking games for the GS it was the only one that had substantial differences...i dont know why i didnt get another GT, but im hoping the GS gets the job done for photoshop and WoW which are the two primary things i use...im getting kinda tired of only 7fps in org when i pass the AH

[rottentomato]

well just put the 7600gs in yesterday, and at first, was VERY disappointed....only getting 10fps everywhere i went...went to nvidias site, downloaded drivers, cleared off the old ones, and reloaded...still horrible... only 12fps... hmmmmm....

looked at the card again, and relized...oh!!! i forgot to plug in the power cable!! lol

now im getting 60-70fps everywhere most of the time with full settings :) much better....still need to get a 400w power supply...the 300 just isnt cutting it with that card.


kalos any other tips you can think of on how to tweak the card for better performance?

[Kalos]

Not really. I wouldn't try overclocking the memory, GDDR2 just can't take it very well, in that it'll hit higher frequencies without complaint, but will have random crashes at some undeterminable point. The better PSU would help, it likes to underclock itself when it can't get enough power to go all out without draining the other components of thier needs. Unplugging any unnecessary devices, like a second CD drive or several USB peripherals, might free up more power and allow the graphics card more capacity and thus it may increase in speed.

[rottentomato]

ill have to try that...looks like im headed to the store soon :)