XFX GeForce 7900 GS 480M Extreme And 7950 GT
Overclocking the 7900 GS
For our next set of performance metrics, we spent a little time overclocking the XFX GeForce 7900 GS using the clock frequency slider available within NVIDIA's Forceware Rel. 90 drivers, after enabling the "Coolbits" registry tweak.
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To find the card's peak core and memory frequencies, we slowly raised their respective sliders until we begun to see visual artifacts on-screen while running a game or benchmark, or until our test system was no longer stable.
XFX GeForce 7900 GS Overclocked Speeds: 528MHz Core / 795MHz (1.59GHz DDR) Memory
XFX GeForce 7900 GS Stock Speeds: 480MHz Core / 700MHz (1.4GHz DDR) Memory
GeForce 7900 GS Stock Speeds: 450MHz Core / 660MHz (1.32GHz DDR) Memory
As is the case with any piece of hardware, results from overclocking will vary greatly from one person to another. With the industry trend moving towards factory overclocked parts, it is always interesting to see how much additional headroom is left in a product as vendors are all striving to squeeze every last bit of performance out of it. With the XFX GeForce 7900 GS GPU already running a healthy 30MHz over the stock reference speed of 450MHz, we were surprised to see the card able to hit a stable 528MHz. The memory was no slouch in terms of overclocking either as the 40MHz advantage the XFX card's memory has over reference speeds was increased to an impressive 135MHz. In terms of actual performance benefits, these increases netted an additional 3FPS when running at the most taxing settings in F.E.A.R. This might not seem like much, though we must remember the cost for this performance increase was non-existent so it is hard to complain.
XFX GeForce 7900 GS Overclocked Speeds: 528MHz Core / 795MHz (1.59GHz DDR) Memory
XFX GeForce 7900 GS Stock Speeds: 480MHz Core / 700MHz (1.4GHz DDR) Memory
GeForce 7900 GS Stock Speeds: 450MHz Core / 660MHz (1.32GHz DDR) Memory
With somewhat negligible performance gains from overclocking in F.E.A.R, we were pleasantly surprised to see a more appreciable 5FPS gain in average framerate when playing Prey. In addition to providing smoother gameplay, the $199 XFX GeForce 7900 GS is now offering faster performance than a GeForce 7900 GT. The card has even come within 5.6FPS of ATI's brand new Radeon X1900 XT (256MB) which is a $280 card which cannot even be purchased yet. The Radeon X1800 GTO isn't even competitive here, as the overclocked XFX card is now providing double the performance of ATI's comparable $199 GPU.
