Asus EN7900GT TOP defeats X1900GT, 7900 GT reference designs

ASUS is known for the rather fast TOP versions of its graphics cards. It clocks those cards to the sky and packs them in incredible big boxes, all in order to nicely sell them. This is the Asus way of offering the fast cards for a little bit more money. It offers a nice bundle as well. Value-added may be applicable marketingspeak.

We had a chance to test a Geforce 7900 GT and this is very fast card for around $300. Asus' EN7900 GT TOP marketing thrust is wrapped around King Kong the movie and the game is included in the box. The card is clocked to 520MHz core and 1440MHz memory which gives it an advantage over Nvidia's reference clock. Nvidia clocks the Geforce 7900 GT at 450MHz core and 1320MHz memory. Asus' card uses a single-slot cooler that has rather funny picture of King Kong on it.

The retail box includes Power Director 3De, Media Show SE 2.0, Asus' driver manual on CD, Asus Virtual Drive 9, Xpand Rally driving game and King Kong, the game. The box includes a manual, quick manual, drivers, utilities and an installation guide - a massive manual in six languages and with lot of nice colours.

The box includes two DVI dongles, single HDTV cable and power connector.

Benchmarketing
We used :
Sapphire Pure Crossfire PC-A9RD580
Athlon FX 57 2800 MHz 90 nanometre San Diego core
2x1024 MB Corsair XMS-3500LL PRO memory
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB SATA NCQ hard drive
Akasa AK128 EVO Athlon 64 cooler
Silverstone Strider ST60F, 600W ATX 2.0 SATA

Doom 3	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	100.3	85.5	66.4	42.2
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	103.5	100.6	90.9	68.8
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	104.9	103.6	97.0	76.7
?	?	?	?	?
Doom 3 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	79.0	58.2	42.9	27.6
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	95.2	74.1	55.7	35.6
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	99.5	80.5	61.9	39.8
?	?	?	?	?
Far Cry	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	82.58	81.56	82.63	65.56
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	82.25	80.95	82.61	73.45
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	82.29	82.27	83.05	79.84
?	?	?	?	?
Far Cry High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	82.20	77.35	61.63	21.53
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	81.59	78.23	59.55	36.70
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	82.63	80.66	66.82	40.88
?	?	?	?	?
Half Life 2	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	74.79	73.47	72.91	70.75
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	71.52	70.41	69.96	68.80
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	71.11	72.19	70.97	70.73
?	?	?	?	?
Half Life2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	72.57	68.30	62.33	46.88
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	70.93	70.37	67.44	52.48
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	71.23	70.95	70.18	59.31
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	137.0	129.2	112.2	76.7
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	143.1	138.5	128.6	100.1
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	145.6	142.3	134.7	112.0
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	125.3	107.2	85.6	57.0
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	133.7	116.9	95.0	64.6
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	137.3	123.9	104.8	72.2
?	?	?	?	?
FEAR	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	89	71	51	33
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	104	79	57	38
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	116	91	64	44
?	?	?	?	?
FEAR High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 16X	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	63	47	31	18
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	66	47	32	20
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	74	52	37	23
?	?	?	?	?
Battlefield 2	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	92.21	88.25	74.88	52.04
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	95.47	94.71	87.55	65.31
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	95.69	95.56	93.23	73.84
?	?	?	?	?
Battlefield 2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 16X	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	91.77	80.19	67.20	45.64
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	92.41	73.19	55.01	35.24
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	92.71	82.22	61.79	38.74
?	?	?	?	?
Serious Sam 2	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	117.2	107.0	83.9	56.6
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	119.4	115.4	93.6	65.6
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	120.2	118.2	104.4	74.9
?	?	?	?	?
Serious Sam 2 + HDR	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	100.0	74.6	53.1	36.9
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	107.8	81.7	56.9	38.8
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	113.5	92.0	64.3	44.1
?	?	?	?	?
Serious Sam 2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	86.2	65.0	49.5	26.3
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	109.3	87.3	61.6	41.5
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	115.1	98.4	68.4	46.2
?	?	?	?	?
Serious Sam 2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X + HDR	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	54.0	30.1	16.3	NO Play
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	3DMark 03	Game2	Game3	Nature
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	14680	115.3	87.2	96.1
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	16975	135.2	113.2	97.4
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	18648	151.5	126.4	108.4
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Vertex Shader	Pixel Shader 2.0
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	3020.1	6610.3	57.5	138.8
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	4295.3	10444.7	45.7	360.2
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	4840.5	12035.7	51.6	407.2
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	3DMark 05	Game1	Game2	Game3
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	9454	43.0	26.8	47.0
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	7869	33.8	24.1	38.3
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	8807	37.2	27.2	43.2
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Pixel Shader	VS /VS complex
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	3246.2	6833.9	285.4	110.3/54.7
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	5175.9	10675.0	303.3	61.2/47.0
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	5697.9	12315.0	338.9	68.3/53.5
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 06	3DMark 06	?	?
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	4079	?	?
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	4089	?	?
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	4530	?	?
?	?	?	?	?
SM2.0 Test	Score	GT1	GT2
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	1693	12.815	15.400
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	1801	14.454	15.560
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	2068	16.623	17.848
?	?	?	?	?
HDR/SM3.0 Test	Score	HDR1	HDR2
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	1874	17.984	19.502
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	1784	15.992	16.694
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	2029	18.213	22.372
?	?	?	?	?
CPU Test	Score	CPU1	CPU2
ATI X1900GT 575/1200 MHz	1100	0.346	0.559
Nvidia 7900GT 450/1320 MHz	1094	0.344	0.556
Asus EN7900GT TOP 520/1440 MHz	1095	0.344	0.557

As we expected, the default faster-clocked Asus EN7900GT is the fastest card in Doom 3. It can get up to eight frames faster than the Nvidia's default clocked card. It smashes ATI's X1900 GT in all resolutions. It can get up to seven frames faster in Doom 3 4X FSAA and 8X Aniso. It can gain six frames in Far Cry but only at 20x15 and up to seven frames when you turn the FSAA and Aniso on.

Half life 2 only shows the difference when you turn the FSAA and Aniso on and can get up to seven frames faster but just at the top, 20x15, resolution.

Quake 4 runs up to six frames faster from the reference design and with the FSAA and Aniso on can get up to thirteen frames faster. FEAR really likes the increased clock speed. At 10x7 it runs a smashing eleven frames faster, at 12x10 it runs thirteen frames faster and at 20x15 it's six frames faster. In FEAR, the Asus EN7900 GT TOP card is eleven percent faster than the reference design. With 4X and 16 X aniso on it can be up to eight frames faster, again around the magical ten percent mark.

It will run Battlefield up to eight frames faster but a Radeon X1900 GT will win in the game with 4X FSAA and 8X Aniso.

Serious Sam 2 likes the faster clock and runs up to nine frames faster than Nvidia's reference-clocked 7900 GT. The same performance difference remains when you turn on the HDR or when you turn on FSAA 4X and 8 Aniso. Asus EN7900 GT TOP is the fastest in all 3Dmarks but it loses to the X1900 GT by 600 marks in 3Dmark05 tests. It is 1600 marks faster in 3Dmark03 than the Geforce 7900 GT at default clock and a smashing four thousand marks faster than ATI's X1900 GT. It is about 450 marks faster than a reference 7900 GT and X1900 GT and the fastest in both Shader model 2 and Shader model 3/HDR test.

In Short
Asus EN7900GT TOP is definitely faster than the Geforce 7900 GT reference card and it can surely beat Radeon X1900 GT. It should cost you around £220 incl. VAT in the UK or around €300 in Euroland - a decent price for this card. It will be very fast and I think it's worth an extra buck as it clearly outperforms the reference design 7900 GT.

It will gain you up to ten percent performance increase in games such as FEAR and it won't cost much more than the Nvidia reference clocked 7900 GT cards.

We are not into monkeys but someone might just like King Kong - the most famous monkey game next to Monkey Island. Asus' EN7900 GT TOP is a good choice If you want to spend around £220 or €/$300 for a card. The cheapest 7900 GT that we could find costs €280 and I suggest that it is worth spending the extra €20 to get faster card from Asus. ?

Reviewed and tested by Sanjin Rados and Fuad Abazovic