EVGA 7950GT overclocks to 650MHz

EVGA always wants to make things faster. A lot of ex-Gainward guys are now onboard at EVGA Europe and that kind of explains the spirit. A CEO of the company realised long time ago that overclocking is the way to go and teh firm made itself a brand knownn for overclocked cards.

Everyone released 7950 GT cards clocked at 550 or 560MHz core and 1400MHz memory and so did EVGA. But the second batch was more interesting as EVGA released a card clocked at 600MHz core and 1450MHz memory. It gets even better, as we managed to overclock the card to 650MHz core and a stonking 1600MHz memory.

EVGA has a nice recognisable box, very clean and black with some Nvidian green. The super-clocked card is HDCP enabled, with 512MB of GDDR3 memory a 256-bit bus and, of course, the card is PCIe. Even the clock speeds are on the box so you know what are you buying. It is cool for retail and even etail stores.

Like any Geforce 7950 GT, the card has two DVI connectors and a S Video out. It uses a standard single-slot Evga cooler and we didn't have any headaches with it, even when we were overclocking. The card has an SLI connector and a six-pin PCIe power connector.

The package includes a card of course, two Molex to six-pin PCIe power cables, S-Video cable, HDTV component cable, a rather plain DVI out, two EVGA stickers, a nice user manual, driver CD and a retail copy of the Hitman - Blood Money game.

Benchmarketing
We used :
Foxconn C51XE M2aa Nforce 590 SLI motherboard
Geforce 7900 GT 450 Core and 1320 MHz memory Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz
Athlon FX 62 2800 MHz 90 nanometre Windsor core
2x1024 MB DDR2 Corsair CM2X1024-6400C3 memory
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB SATA NCQ hard drive
Thermaltake Mini Typhoon Athlon 64/X2/FX cooler and Intel CPU's
Silverstone Strider ST60F, 600W ATX 2.0 SATA

We decided to compare a 600MHz core 1450MHz card to a standard 550/1400 MHz, old Geforce 7900GT at 450/1320MHz and Evga 7950GT 600/1450MHz. Later, we decided to overclock and manage to score 645MHz core and 1600MHz memory. It is just five MHz slower than 7900 GTX, while the memory works at the same speed. It was funny as Evga said that the cards are tested up to 630MHz and we scored 645MHz. Good job, Sanjin!

Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	3DMark 03	Game2	Game3	Game3
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	17743	135.4	115.3	101.2
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	20435	161.9	135.1	117.7
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	21516	171.8	142.9	125.4
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Vertex Shader	Pixel Shader 2.0
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	4295.3	10445.7	46.9	366.9
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	4810.7	12694.9	55.4	259.2
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	4960.7	13704.9	59.2	271.8
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	3DMark 05	Game1	Game2	Game2
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	8117	35.7	24.7	38.8
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	9669	42.1	29.5	46.5
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	10270	44.2	31.7	49.5
EVGA 7950GT 645/1500 MHZ OC	10825	46.5	33.5	52.1
EVGA 7950GT 645/1600 MHZ OC	11098	47.8	34.1	53.7
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Pixel Shader	VS/VS complex
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	5174.8	10644.9	303.1	61.2/47.1
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	5571.2	12833.2	368.7	74.6/55.8
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	5770.6	14106.7	395.3	78.9/59.8
EVGA 7950GT 645/1500 MHZ OC	5984.9	14954.6	418.2	82.7/63.5
EVGA 7950GT 645/1600 MHZ OC	6360.3	15127.5	420.5	85.9/64.5
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 06	3DMark 06	?	?
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	4604	?	?	?
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	5386	?	?	?
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	5748	?	?	?
?	?	?	?	?
SM2.0 Test	Score	GT1	GT2
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	1807	14.518	15.605
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	2181	17.517	18.836	?
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	2359	18.955	20.354	?
?	?	?	?	?
HDR/SM3.0 Test	Score	HDR1	HDR2
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	1798	16.086	19.880
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	2150	19.174	23.822	?
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	2308	20.642	25.518	?
?	?	?	?	?
CPU Test	Score	CPU1	CPU2
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	2098	0.673	1.047
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	2094	0.669	1.048	?
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	2122	0.668	1.078	?
?	?	?	?	?
Doom 3	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	128.4	116.5	97.7	68.1
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	129.0	124.2	110.0	80.8
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	129.2	125.7	114.2	85.8
EVGA 7950GT 645/1500 MHZ OC	129.3	127.0	116.6	90.6
EVGA 7950GT 645/1600 MHZ OC	128.2	127.3	118.6	92.9
?	?	?	?	?
Doom 3 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	106.5	76.7	56.4	34.7
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	115.4	88.1	65.7	42.4
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	117.6	91.8	68.9	44.4
EVGA 7950GT 645/1500 MHZ OC	120.2	95.2	72.1	46.5
EVGA 7950GT 645/1600 MHZ OC	122.0	99.0	75.7	49.0
?	?	?	?	?
FEAR	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	107	79	56	38
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	123	95	68	46
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	128	101	74	49
EVGA 7950GT 645/1500 MHZ OC	131	106	78	52
EVGA 7950GT 645/1600 MHZ OC	132	106	79	53
?	?	?	?	?
FEAR High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 16X	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	71	49	34	22
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	81	59	40	27
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	88	62	43	28
EVGA 7950GT 645/1500 MHZ OC	91	66	45	30
EVGA 7950GT 645/1600 MHZ OC	94	68	46	31
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	168.9	157.3	137.6	98.8
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	171.5	163.6	152.0	117.7
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	169.8	163.0	154.9	125.1
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	152.3	126.0	97.5	65.2
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	145.5	138.8	111.4	76.8
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	159.6	143.4	120.2	81.4
?	?	?	?	?
Far Cry	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	96.16	97.22	95.17	74.08
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	97.62	96.64	97.42	87.95
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz SLI	97.42	96.47	97.06	92.43
?	?	?	?	?
Far Cry High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	97.48	86.28	62.19	38.93
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	97.42	94.46	73.39	47.45
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	96.69	94.56	77.21	50.00
?	?	?	?	?
Half Life 2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	85.61	85.38	80.94	67.56
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	85.14	85.91	82.81	71.86
?	?	?	?	?
Serious Sam 2	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	158.3	133.0	97.9	68.9
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	160.0	152.2	117.8	83.1
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	159.9	155.7	127.1	90.0
?	?	?	?	?
Serious Sam 2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
NVIDIA 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	123.0	91.4	65.8	44.4
NVIDIA 7950GT 550/1400 MHz	142.9	109.4	79.0	56.6
EVGA 7950GT 600/1450 MHz	148.8	117.2	84.4	60.3

In 3Dmark, the stock 600MHz card runs almost 100 points faster from the default clocked card and more than three thousands faster than the old 7900 GT.

In 3Dmark05, the 600MHz card wins by six hundred marks versus 7950 GT at default clock and is two thousands faster than 7900 GT. More pipelines and a faster clock speed really looks good on this card. When we increased the core to 645MHz and memory to 1500MHz we scored almost 600 more points. Then we tried to overclock the memory to 1600 and scored almost 300 additional points. The overclocked card gets you from 9669 to 11098. That is a huge performance leap. We are talking about a 15 percent increase.

3Dmark06 scores almost 300 points faster than the default clock and 1100 faster than the 7900 GT card. The 600MHz card simply dominates in all tests.

We have a ten frames difference at 16x12 in Doom 3 4X FSAA and 8X Aniso or fifteen percent faster. That is nice for overclocking and 34 percent faster than the old 7900 GT making it a worthy upgrade.

FEAR scores up to eleven frames from the overclocking or some seven percent. The difference climes to sixteen percent in the same game with the effects on. Our card overclocked at 645 MHz core and 1600 MHz memory is thirty two percent faster than the reference 7900 GT card.

Quake needs a high resolution or FSAA to gain from the overclock and at 20x15 no FSAA scores eight frames faster. Quake 4 with FSAA and Aniso shows up to fourteen frames difference or close to ten percent.

Far Cry also shows some noticeable difference at 20x15 where is five frames faster and with effects on it is tight, or slightly faster - up to four frames.

Half life 2 with 4X FSAA and 8X Aniso shows two to four frames difference at the two top resolutions and tight score on smaller resolutions. Serious Sam 2 scores seven to ten frames faster without effects or four to eight frames faster in the same game effects on. It can score up to seven percent faster.

In Short
This card runs faster than the 7900 GT, reference clocked 7950 GT and it can be overclocked to 7900 GTX speeds and runs incredibly fast. It is almost always fifteen percent faster than the default clock or more than thirty percent faster than Geforce 7900 GT.

It will cost 350 to $/€400 and will match the price of a 7900 GTX and it should perform the same. This is without a doubt the fastest 7950 GT card that we tested so far.

It runs much faster than the default clocked one so it is worth the extra money. You can get thirteen frames more or some sixteen percent performance increase in FEAR or up to ten frames more in Quake 4. If you like the speed this is the card for you. ?

Reviewed and tested by Sanjin Rados and Fuad Abazovic