Benchmarks: 3Dmark2003, X3: Reunion
Test System Specifications
- AMD Athlon64 3800+ Socket AM2
- Corsair PC5400 Pro 2GB DDR2
- ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe (nForce5 590 SLI)
- Seagate 250GB 7200RPM (Serial ATA II)
- Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT (256MB)
- Gigabyte GeForce 7600GS (256MB)
Software
- Microsoft Windows XP Pro (SP2)
- NVIDIA Forceware 91.31
- NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI 9.35
According to 3Dmark2006 the GeForce 7600GS is around 30% slower than a standard 7600GT despite the factory overclocking. Maximizing the 7600GS overclock reduced this margin to just 12% at 1280x1024. The good news for the 7600GS was that the maximum overclocked 7600GT was only 14% faster at this resolution. This means while the greater tuning performance of the 7600GS might not allow it to reach 7600GT performance, it does offer a very good performance vs. price ratio.
The standard Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT was 19% faster than the cheaper 7600GS alternative at 1280x1024 in X3: Reunion. Using maximum in game quality settings with FSAA 2x + Aniso 8x enabled, the 7600GT produced a respectable 43fps on average. The maximum overclocked 7600GS managed 41fps which was also quite impressive. However pushing the 7600GT to the limits did allow for an average frame rate of 44fps, gaining just a single frame per second.