I have been using a reference 7900GT in my main computer for the last few weeks. For the most part, the 7900GT is a perfect example of a card that outperforms the last generation card while having a lower price at the same time. The 7800GTX retailed for $549 when it was released in July of 2005. The 7900GT brings to the table the same feature set and more clock speed. Games played clear and excellent with no artifacts or screen tears even at high resolutions. HDR really brings the graphics and lighting in games to a new level.

NVIDIA’s 7900GT runs cooler than the 7800GTX. I measured temperatures of 70C under maximum load. The card also overclocks really well. An overclock of 100MHz/124MHz for core/memory is typical of NVIDIA 7900GTs. I overclocked an EVGA 7900GT OC SC almost to the same clock speed, and a XFX 7900GT overclocked within statistical probability.

For the price of $339 online, the 7900GT has no peer at this price point. As the 7900GT generally outperforms the competition at its default clock speed, this makes the GIGABYTE card a decent choice to buy a new card. Later, if you want to buy a second 7900GT, you get more performance than any currently available single video card in SLI mode. The only reasons this card didn’t get a Gold award was it was hard to find online due to limited stock of NVIDIA chips and its popularity, not to any fault of GIGABYTE per se, and the fact that other manufacturers have Lifetime Warranties with their cards. Other than that the card is a fine specimen of a 7900GT and will please any user looking for an NVIDIA based gaming card hands down.

Performance- 8 Features- 10 Compatibility- 10 Price- 9 Availability- 7 Setup- 10 Overall Value- 9 Ease of Use- 10 Support- 6 Software- 9 Total- 88