XFX 7900 GTX 512MB GDDR3 RoHS Edition

Since Pratim had already written a very good review on a 7 series card I won't go into further general details but will restrict to some specific areas .
Specs :


Transparency Antialiasing : Objects in the game world typically originate from basic geometric shapes, or primitives, which are antialiased using traditional multisampling algorithms. However, multisampling does not antialias objects that exist inside the geometry, such as an alpha texture.

Transparency antialiasing is configured through the driver by changing the view to advanced settings. After the advanced settings are enabled, the transparency antialiasing setting will appear near the end of the settings list. When checked, transparency antialiasing can be set to off, multisampling, or supersampling. Supersampling transparency antialiasing covers alpha test, alpha blend, and certain pixel shader functions, making it more effective than multisampling.

Now this feature was supposed to be only in 7 series card but it turned out that the nv40 series GPU had this featured too , albeit locked . The 9xx series drivers are able to unlock this feature in any 6xxx card . But the fact remains that a 6800GT sees a huge drop in fps on increasing antialiasing multiplier but the G70 & G71 cores are tailor-made for minimal impact on fps due to antialiasing

Dual DVI Output : The GeForce 7900, GeForce 7800, and GeForce 7600 Series support dual-link DVI, which is powering the next wave of high resolution digital flat panel monitors. As it is obvious , this card supports HDTV using Purevideo decoding .

Power Consumption & Temperatures : The 7900 GTX is a heavy card with a core speed of 650 MHz at stock and 1600 Mhz memory . Though the card can run on a good 400 Watt PSU(SMPS) , it is of paramount importance that the +12Volt railing of that SMPS has a minimum of 22 AMp max. output . At full load this card itself can consume upto 200 Watts of power . Hence this card needs a external 6-pin power connector directly from the SMPS apart from drawing 75 watt from the PCIe slot .
The temperatures are pretty indeed , but from what i gather from the size of the card , you are gonna need more than a local-made cabinet .
IDLE : CPU - 43 C
Motherboard - 35 C
7900 GTX - 41 C
LOAD : CPU - 51 C
Motherboard - 44 C
7900 GTX - 66 C

The threshold temperature of the card is a bit low , only 110 C , so you'd better keep it under 75 C if you want to prevent any artifacts .
BENCHMARKS & FINAL WORDS :

Machine Specs :
*Pentium 4 630 3GHz @ 3.6GHz 2MB L2 EM64T
*MSI 915p/g Combo
*2GB (2x1024) DDR400 Dual Channel (2.5,3,3,8,2T)
*XFX 7900 GTX 512 MB GDDR3 @ 650/1600

3DMark05 : 9436 (Default Settings)
3DMark06 : 5689 (Default Settings , Resolution : 1280x1024)
NFS Carbon : avg 42 fps (1280x1024,4AA,16AF,everything high)
Call Of Duty 2 : avg 50 fps (min 32 fps , max 84fps;1280x1024,8AA,16AF,everything very high)

The 3Dmark scores are very much limited by my current processor which is severely bottlenecking the card . A good dual core like X2 4200+ or a Conroe will do justice to a card like this . Other reviewers have obtained 10000 on '05 at stock frequencies using a X2 4800+ .

Games are smooth enough for me . With a good driver set you can hardly go below 40 fps in any games present today (except maybe Oblivion) . As far as i can say , this card , with a good dual core can give 50+ fps in Crysis .

The only problem is that the first batch of 7900gtx and gts were shipped with some kind of faulty voltage regulator and hence this card can't take any kind of OC . This a huge disappointment since nVidia cards are very popular on the OCing front . However the new revisions are supposed to be okay and can be OCed . But since RMA is a long drawn procedure in India I'd suggest stay away from all "XXX","KO.CO,SO" versions of this card . Get the normal one and enjoy .

This card costs around Rs.30000 , but ofcourse this is a high end card after all . If you have the budget go for it , but if you are planning on a 8800GTX a few months later , or already possess a 79 series card(like 7900GS,7900GT) then buying this one will be useless right now .

All I know is I am very Lucky to have this card running in my machine right now .