The card we tested is a WinFast PX7900
GT (256MB) manufactured by Taiwan-based Leadtek. We found
this card to be very well priced as it can be easily had for
less than $300, making it an extremely good buy. Having that
said, the WinFast PX7900 GT could effortlessly pass as a
NVIDIA reference card. This is because other than the
“WinFast” label on the heatsink there is very little
distinguishing the two.
The smaller 90nm design of the GeForce
7900 GT allows it to use less power and therefore it pumps
out less heat. All these factors have helped Leadtek produce
a very overclockable product. Leadtek are shipping their
cards with the default NVIDIA clock specifications. As
mentioned before this means the memory is clocked at 650MHz
(GDDR3-1320) and the core at 450MHz.
Leadtek are shipping their GeForce 7900
GT with Samsung IC’s onboard; they have used the
K4J55323QG-BC14 parts. These GDDR3 memory modules are rated
at 1.4GHz; given that they are only clocked at 1.3GHz it
stands to reason they have at least another 100MHz in them.
The card features 256MB of this memory onboard, utilizing a
256-bit memory bus and producing 42.2GB/s of bandwidth.
As mentioned earlier the GeForce 7900 GT
features 24 pixel shaders, 8 vertex shaders, and 16 ROPs
using the same 256-bit memory interface. The G71
architecture uses a 90nm process design comprised of 278
million transistors. The GeForce 7800 series in the other
hand used an 110nm process design featuring 302 million
transistors.
Although the layout and design of the
WinFast PX7900 GT is incredibly boring, it has allowed
Leadtek (and most other manufacturers) to release a cards
almost immediately to the market, and perhaps most
importantly at very competitive prices. Recently Leadtek
started selling a factory overclocked version of the card
which bumps core and memory clocks to 520 MHz and 1430 MHz
respectively. While this is a welcome addition, most other
manufacturers are already doing the same. Furthermore,
Leadtek’s overclocked offering does not go beyond the
standard in terms of more effective cooling, the cards’
design and HSF units remain basically the same.
At the rear of the Leadtek WinFast
PX7900 GT there is the standard S-Video output along with
dual DVI outputs. The DVI output supports a dual-link or
single link interface for resolutions up to 2560X1600. There
are also a number of cables supplied with the card which
will help the user utilize some of these features.
