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Hardware NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT Pics, Specs
Kristopher Kubicki (Blog) - February 21, 2006 10:06 AM

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20 comment(s) - last by Visual.. on Mar 7 at 5:51 AM

NVIDIA's 7600GT reference design

SPDIF In Jack

NVIDIA's new 6600GT pin compatible component shows its face

Earlier today we reported about NVIDIA's new GeForce 7900GT -- the 90nm die shrink from GeForce 7800GT. As great as high end components are, the largest battles between ATI and NVIDIA will be fought on the mid-range. GeForce 6600GT, NVIDIA's best selling GPU of all time, is getting a little long in the tooth. NVIDIA deserves some well deserved credit for the foresight to keep GeForce 6600GT and 7600GT pin compatible.

Due to the maturity of GeForce 6600GT, many manufacturers have added several features to the PCBs. These features will also appear on GeForce 7600GT. Some manufacturers have told us that boards and final products have been ready to ship for several months but NVIDIA has held off on launch. No details were given as to why. Compared to the new GeForce 7900GT, the reference design for the GeForce 7600GT doesn't seem to support the same audio 4-pin lead but rather has a 2-pin SPDIF connector near the bottom of the card.

Quick specifications for GeForce 7600GT from NVIDIA documents:

PCIe native
560MHz core frequency
128-bit memory interface
20.2GB/sec. memory bandwidth
7B pixels/sec. fill rate
730M vertices/sec.
12 pixels per cycle
Built in dual-link DVI support for 2560x1600 resolution

More to come.

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6800GS vs 7600GT/GS

By Shreker on 2/22/2006 10:30:09 AM , Rating: 2

How you think, 6800GS will be powerfull than 7600xx?

RE: 6800GS vs 7600GT/GS

By sircuit on 2/22/2006 2:20:03 PM , Rating: 2

I'd say yes because the extra quad and vertex can be unlocked on the 6800. Add in the fact the 6800 uses a 256-bit interface and it really beats out this chip.

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RE: 6800GS vs 7600GT/GS

By coldpower27 on 2/23/2006 4:21:13 PM , Rating: 2

That is only on AGP, and also you got to account for the clockspeed differential on the core 560MHZ with 12 Pipelines won't be a slouch at all should be able to defeat the 6800 GS, as the memory bandwidth shouldn't be too too bad.

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RE: 6800GS vs 7600GT/GS

By hwhacker on 2/24/2006 10:49:13 AM , Rating: 2

I think it'll perform similarly, probably with headroom to exceed the power of the GS. This follows the "upper mid-range replaces last gen price/performance high-end" thing that ATi and Nvidia usually do.

I was waiting to see how this would fair...But one has to ask, with ATi releasing not only the X1800GTO, but the 80nm parts shortly after this release, who would buy it? Most likely this will be around ~<$200, as the x1800gto will be...and in May the x1700 probably will be, with the x1800xl and x1900gto probably only slightly more.

Can't blame nvidia since the part looks like it'll be nice for the price, but ATi seems to have or will have a decent part for every price range from ~$200-<$300 in increments of $20-30 (x1700,x1800gto,x1800xl,x1900gto,). How they are going to compete with that sheer number of products in that similar price range while only having the 7600gt and 7800gt in the ~$200-<$300 market seems beyond me.

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RE: 6800GS vs 7600GT/GS

By Visual on 3/7/2006 5:51:56 AM , Rating: 2

you ain't unlocking anything on the GS, simply as it doesnt have a locked quad. you might have been confused with the normal 6800

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Looks interesting

By dodgybob on 2/21/2006 10:25:55 AM , Rating: 2

As much as the 6800gs has been touted as a price/performance champion it's still too expensive for most people. I'm very curious to see how this compares to the 6600gt and x800gt/o series. Wonder if they'll be an agp variant.

RE: Looks interesting

By Stele on 2/21/2006 10:31:16 AM , Rating: 2

Wonder if they'll be an agp variant.

Perhaps! But a little unlikely, seeing as how nVidia (and ATi) hope to bury AGP soon once and for all and get on with PCIe. The 7800GS was probably to placate owners of high-end AGP motherboards bought just before the advent of PCIe; but after one or two GPU cycles (and CPU/platform ones too!), nVidia might probably figure that there was enough time to enjoy all you want from your AGP board and it's now time for you to upgrade :P

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RE: Looks interesting

By mindless1 on 2/27/2006 12:49:58 PM , Rating: 2

Don't be ridiculous. ATI and nVidia do not "hope to bury AGP". STOP MAKING UP NONSENSE!

ATI and nVidia seek to sell cards, period. They will make an AGP part if they perceive a market for it, in sufficient quantity to make such a thing profitable. They don't think "it's time for you to upgrade" or any such ridiculous BS.

They are not pretending to be god as you are, thinking to tell others to move on to PCIe, even though it is the obvious replacement. NO they are looking to sell product in every market they can do so effectively so the remaining question is, outside of a few enthusiasts, would there really be that many who upgrade their AGP card? the answer is no, the majority of system purchasers buy OEM and do not upgrade their video card this late into the game... has nothing to do with ATI or nVidia "hoping to bury" anything.

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RE: Looks interesting

By BenSkywalker on 2/21/2006 10:53:19 AM , Rating: 2

Wonder if they'll be an agp variant.

Almost certainly- it can be plugged into any 6600GT AGP board and it's done- easy 'high end' AGP part for next to no R&D cost to the OEMs.

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RE: Looks interesting

By hemmy on 2/24/2006 7:58:44 AM , Rating: 1

$150, yeah that is just so expensive isn't it...

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Dissapointed

By BassBomb on 2/21/2006 1:22:34 PM , Rating: 2

im very dissapointed that the memory still remains 128bit, it will really hold this card back.. no word on pipes

but i think it will be 12, i want 16 however

the fan also makes me a little uneasy as it looks like it will be pretty noisy, copper ia a good choice however

RE: Dissapointed

By RideFree on 2/21/2006 4:21:34 PM , Rating: 2

Looks like it is 12 pipes (this is a medium target card) and looks like there will be a 256bit version of this as a
7600GTX.
Looked like it may already be available in .au

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RE: Dissapointed

By ElFenix on 2/21/2006 4:42:25 PM , Rating: 2

that would be very expensive for board makers. it probably wouldn't have the same pinout and for certain wouldn't have the same board.

most likely if some 256 bit part comes out with the moniker 7600gtx it is most likely some castrated part from the higher end.

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RE: Dissapointed

By Jep4444 on 2/21/2006 4:40:16 PM , Rating: 3

pretty sure they wouldn't be able to make it pin compatible with the 6600GT if it was 256bit and im sure they were going for similar die size aswell

being pin compatible with the 6600GT is great for the manufacturers as it means they can get the card to the market alot quicker and don't have to develop new PCB which in the end leads to lower prices(on top of the lower development cost for 128bit to 256bit), they're using fairly quick memory chips for 7600GT so memory performance should be pretty decent

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Marketing?!

By Stele on 2/21/2006 10:28:02 AM , Rating: 2

Some manufacturers have told us that boards and final products have been ready to ship for several months but NVIDIA has held off on launch.

Argh... the suspense is killing me. 6-month product cycles may have their advantages, but disadvantages like the need to more precisely time everything according to marketing strategies can be a wee bit annoying~ I'm guessing it's so that 7600GT won't steal the thunder from 7900GT...

RE: Marketing?!

By Marlin1975 on 2/21/2006 11:29:24 AM , Rating: 2

That and they need to move the old stock first. Let alone the money they would lose when the price of the old stuff has to some down to make way for this peice.

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Alot of people are waiting on this card

By KCjoker on 2/21/2006 4:55:02 PM , Rating: 3

This card looks like it'll live up to the hype. Of course alot depends on how much it costs but the specs look great. Since the pin count is the same as the 6600GT it shouldn't cost alot so Nvidia has a winner! Freakin release it already.

Is it just me...

By Crescent13 on 2/21/2006 1:54:26 PM , Rating: 2

...or is the HSF mounted backwards?? Anyway, it looks like a good improvement over the 6600GT which had 8 pipelines and 500MHz. It's actually a little more than what I was expecting.

Dual-DVI and dual-link

By plewis00 on 2/22/2006 4:29:59 AM , Rating: 2

Being a mainstream card with dual-DVI ports and dual-link will surely make it a hit as well. Up until now, it was very hard to find a card which supported this. If only for this feature, it's worthwhile.

I'm curious how this will stack up against a vanilla-6800 and X800GTO (which sadly was slower than the 6800 I used to have). I'm still on AGP though (as mentioned I suspect someone will release an AGP version because it's little additional work with a pin-compatible chip) due to using a Pentium M based machine and as of yet, those promised PCI-e 'Shuttle-box' type machines aren't out.

Problem is the memory

By Egglick on 2/28/2006 2:31:09 AM , Rating: 2

As powerful as 12pipes @ 560mhz is for a midrange card, the memory interface is really preventing this card from shining. It will most likely be able to push lots of pixels at high settings, but it will suffer when AA and AF are enabled.

Unless something changes with regards to the memory interface, the 6800GS is still king of the midrange.