Cheapie 7600GS -- SLI for the low end?

[v8envy]

Wow, seems like only yesterday this card was released and... it's settled into the $140 pricepoint w/o rebates already. Exactly where the 6600 used to be.

e.g, the xfx 500/900 mhz variety at

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150146

I can't find any benchies on 7600 in SLI. Anyone else having any better luck? I'm thinking a mass availability card like this (soon to hit the $120 pricepoint?) may be just the ticket for mainstream SLI. Passively cooled for no noise as a bonus. EVGA has an identical model for a few dollars less.

Edit: I was thinking of the 7600GT, which is still $200-ish. Still, 10% less core clock and 50% less memory bandwidth may be worthwhile in SLI for the pricing.

 

[fliguy84]

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/318/3/

although it's directly from nvidia themselves

 

[Munky]

I dont think two 7600gs in SLI would be as fast as a single 7900gt, hence I dont see the appeal of this setup.

 

[kpb]

I think the biggest thing with the 7600 gs's is going to be memory bandwidth since it's so much lower. So the resolution and aa etc are going to be a big factor. It would be interesting to see 7600gs in sli.

 

[fliguy84]

the most important thing is, that it beats 6600gt fair and square, which is priced equally at its price point

 

[v8envy]

Originally posted by: munky
I dont think two 7600gs in SLI would be as fast as a single 7900gt, hence I dont see the appeal of this setup.

Bang for the buck, man. Did some staring at benches linked to by fliguy84 vs. 7900GT benches on vr-zone etc, and at similar settings looks like 7600GS x 2 is about 80% of a 7900GT across the board.

Seeing as this card is likely to be seeing $100 sooner rather than later (turns out 149 is MSRP), you can see how 80% of the performance of a 7900GT *passively cooled with no fan noise* for 70% the price would be a pretty interesting setup. Non-SLI capable motherboards are becoming a rarity, and looks like this thing won't be demanding the biggest PS in the world to run two cards.

It's a way to get into a PCIe card which provides reasonable performance for $150 now, with a $100 upgrade sometime this year to bring performance up to enthusiast card levels without the jet engine sound. I consider that to be quite interesting.

 

[Wreckage]

Silent SLI

 

[LTC8K6]

Didn't we have this argument already?

Did this actually work out all that well with the 6600GT's?

 

[moonboy403]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Silent SLI

*drools*

 

[NoStateofMind]

how many pipes this thing got? couldnt find the specs on the sheet...the spec sheet.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
how many pipes this thing got? couldnt find the specs on the sheet...the spec sheet.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/318/

The 7600 GS features 5 Vertex shading units with a total of 12 pixel shader pipelines. This is the same number of shading units and pipelines found on the GeForce 7600 GT, so the only difference on the card is the clock speeds and the memory type used.

 

[lifeguard1999]

At $144 shipped, two of these would cost $288 for Silent SLI and 80% of the performance of the 7900GT. IMO, this is not worthwhile. At $100 per card, then it becomes a different story.

 

[jiffylube1024]

It's a very intriguing solution, for sure. The 7600GT is a bit pricey to run SLI (pusing 7900GT prices for a pair), but a nice option all the same. NVidia certainly has the most complete dual card roster of the two companies.

 

[imported_miahallen]

I'm very curious whether this points the way to a 7900GS....anyone, anyone?

 

[rei]

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA...uctID=2237&ProductName=GV-NX76G256D-RH

For those that want slightly beefier cooling but w/o lifetime warranty and the slighly higher clock speed of the XFX Xtreme.

I don't think it's possible to passively cool the 7900 on the same slot.

 

[imported_Finny]

Well, as others have said, it's definitely a nice path for those who want the top tier of silent gaming... Slightly cheaper than the 7900GT, almost on-par, completely silent, and has the added E-penis bonus of being SLI!

 

[imported_Seer]

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/hardware/1597_1.html

Here's another one, showing the XFX O/C one as well as an EVGA reference. The XFX appears to have a 1/6 performance boost.