Gainward 7600 GT takes on X1800 GTO, reference 7600 GT

GAINWARD really likes to overclock Nvidia reference designs. We tested Nvidia's default clocked Albatron card and you can see what this card can do against a X1800 GTO. The review is here.

Gainward brands this card as Gainward BLISS Geforce 7600 GT Golden Sample and the card has 256MB of memory. It is clocked at 575MHz core and 1500MHz memory. The core is just slightly overclocked but the memory runs 100MHz faster. That is not the end of it as it can run even faster than that. Of course we did try to overclock it, that is what we do.

We were surprised to learn that this card cost just about €200 and it is available today. It doesn't have the power connector either, as PCIe can give it enough power. It does have an SLI connector and works well in SLI and, just like any 7600 GT, it has a DVI, VGA and S-video out cables. Gainward is using a rather attractive white cooler and cools the memory with a red heatsink. Both of them do the job and the fan is quiet. The white cooler really looks good on Sapphire's Pure Crossfire board with RD580 chipset

The box includes Gainward's CD with an overclocking tool, Power DVD 5, quick start manual, DVI dongle and HDTV cable + S video out. We overclocked the card to 600MHz core and 1560MHz memory and got the card stable at all of the resolutions. We could not get it stable at more than that.

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

I have to say that Silverstone Strider ST60F 600 W is the first PSU that can run two 7900 GTX in SLI and even two passive power hungry X1900 XTX in Crossfire. Congratulations guys for making such a great PSU. We will talk about them more.

Doom 3	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	95.1	72.1	55.1	33.5
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	105.8	91.9	73.6	49.3
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	106.1	93.2	75.5	50.8
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	107.1	94.9	77.5	52.3
?	?	?	?	?
Doom 3 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	69.3	47.8	35.8	18.7
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	72.6	48.6	35.6	18.1
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	74.8	50.2	37.0	18.7
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	77.7	52.6	38.7	19.8
?	?	?	?	?
Far Cry	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	85.25	82.01	75.27	43.31
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	86.11	84.27	75.47	49.74
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	85.19	84.88	75.85	51.37
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	85.48	84.94	79.40	52.73
?	?	?	?	?
Far Cry High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	81.16	65.58	50.06	14.76
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	80.27	55.23	39.11	22.79
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	81.18	57.05	40.51	23.56
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	82.10	59.70	42.43	24.72
?	?	?	?	?
Half Life 2	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	74.01	68.80	63.58	51.82
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	73.53	70.90	65.26	52.78
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	73.56	71.78	66.37	54.26
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	73.62	72.16	67.33	55.52
?	?	?	?	?
Half Life2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	70.65	55.68	47.93	34.77
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	72.94	59.19	48.62	29.26
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	73.17	60.76	50.11	30.98
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	73.54	63.03	52.30	32.42
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	138.8	115.5	91.5	58.0
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	142.1	127.8	103.2	70.9
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	141.6	128.6	105.4	72.6
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	143.9	129.8	107.5	74.3
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	118.8	88.0	68.5	42.1
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	116.0	83.8	63.4	32.2
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	117.1	86.5	65.2	33.2
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	120.6	89.9	68.1	35.1
?	?	?	?	?
FEAR	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	69	51	35	19
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	79	56	40	26
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	79	58	40	26
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	84	60	43	28
?	?	?	?	?
FEAR High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 16X	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	51	37	24	12
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	43	30	20	12
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	45	31	21	13
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	47	32	22	13
?	?	?	?	?
Battlefield 2	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	95.35	75.69	60.68	40.89
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	96.77	78.24	61.93	44.41
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	95.16	80.36	63.64	45.57
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	100.22	83.34	66.26	47.43
?	?	?	?	?
Battlefield 2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	86.85	67.74	54.57	36.29
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	67.83	50.75	37.38	23.28
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	69.87	51.70	38.47	23.47
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	71.83	53.96	40.13	24.45
?	?	?	?	?
Oblivion	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	31.20	23.45	17.75	11.18
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	37.40	27.80	21.57	14.88
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	36.80	28.34	21.65	14.95
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	37.72	29.54	22.62	15.37
?	?	?	?	?
Oblivion High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	27.37	21.56	16.35	10.33
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	29.55	22.45	16.55	10.32
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	28.82	22.94	15.48	10.41
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	34.34	26.87	19.68	11.10
?	?	?	?	?
Oblivion High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X + HDR	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	19.80	15.42	10.51	not playable
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	3DMark 03	Game2	Game3	Nature
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	13083	99.9	76.8	83.1
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	13409	96.9	83.8	83.1
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	13624	98.6	85.4	84.9
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	14128	103.4	88.9	88.0
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Vertex Shader	Pixel Shader 2.0
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	2740.6	5758.4	49.1	135.6
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	2392.4	6397.2	37.8	284.4
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	2491.5	6648.8	38.7	290.0
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	2616.7	6911.4	40.0	300.6
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	3DMark 05	Game1	Game2	Game3
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	6835	29.4	20.7	33.7
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	5984	26.0	18.3	28.9
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	6120	26.6	18.7	29.5
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	6365	27.2	19.4	30.8
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Pixel Shader	VS /VS complex
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	2876.5	5979.9	144.9	75.3/46.6
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	2830.5	6648.9	184.2	51.5/37.6
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	2958.0	6862.7	189.4	51.9/38.6
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	3104.6	7086.8	197.3	54.4/40.6
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 06	3DMark 06	?	?
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	3006	?	?
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	3077	?	?
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	3154	?	?
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	3266	?	?
?	?	?	?	?
SM2.0 Test	Score	GT1	GT2
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	1222	9.262	11.091
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	1319	10.756	11.234
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	1356	11.058	11.543
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	1415	11.519	12.070
?	?	?	?	?
HDR/SM3.0 Test	Score	HDR1	HDR2
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	1223	11.982	12.562
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	1193	10.500	13.365
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	1235	10.899	13.792
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	1288	11.368	14.383
?	?	?	?	?
CPU Test	Score	CPU1	CPU2
ATI X1800GTO 500/1000 MHz	1103	0.347	0.561
Nvidia 7600GT 560/1400 MHz ref clock	1105	0.347	0.562
Gainward 7600GT 575/1500 MHz default	1100	0.346	0.560
Gainward 7600GT 600/1560 MHz overclocked	1098	0.345	0.559
?	?	?	?	?

The overclocked Gainward 7600 GT is the fastest in Doom 3. It runs 22 frames faster than X1800 GTO and up to three frames faster than Nvidia reference 7600 GT. Overclocked Gainward is again the fastest card in Doom 3 with FSAA and Aniso. It runs up to eight frames faster than X1800 GTO or up to five faster than reference 7600 GT.

T=he Gainward outperforms all the other cards by 5 FPS in 16x12 in Far Cry and runs nine frames faster from X1800 GTO at 20x15. ATI X1800 GTO is faster in 12x10 and 16x12 but all the rest are on Gainward overclock side.

Both Gainward cards are slightly faster in Half life 2 with and without FSAA and Aniso. X1800 GTO is faster just at 20x15 with FSAA and Aniso.

Gainward cards manages to be a little bit faster in Quake 4 and it can match if not outperform X1800 GTO in scores with FSAA and Aniso. ATI wins two Gainward wins two resolutions.

Again, both Gainward cards are significantly faster in Fear and can get up to 15 frames faster from the slowest one and up to five frames faster than the reference 7600 GT. ATI is still the fastest and wins up to five frames with FSAA 4X and 16 X Aniso but Gainward runs 20x15 faster by a single frame.

As expected, the overclocked and non-overclocked Gainward come in fastest in Battlefield 2 and have up to seven frames advantage over ATI's X1800 GTO. When you turn FSAA and Aniso, ATI gets the crown and runs nine frames faster at 10x7 and massive seventeen frames faster in 12x10 but loses by six frames compared to the overclocked Gainward at 16x12 and by seven frames at 20x15.

Our newcomer Oblivion is the fastest using the overclocked Gainward card. It runs up to six frames faster than its competitors. It is also the fastest with FSAA and Aniso but ATI wins FSAA 4X, 8X Aniso and HDR as it is the only card to support it.

The overclocked Gainward card wins all the 3DMarks.

In Short
This card will cost just about €200 making it a perfect card for the money. Nvidia did a great job with the G73 but Gainward manages to squeeze a little bit more from the design. I can say that this card actually does outperform X1800 GTO in most of the cases, including FSAA and Aniso settings. You will lack Avivo and HDR + FSAA on the card but if you want to buy sub $/€199 card I think Gainward 7600 GT Bliss should get high on your list.

It is faster than the competition, available today and can be easily overclocked to be faster than its original clock. It took just a few MHz overclock to declare the victory but, beware, ATI's partners are coming back for revenge as they finally can and will overclock its reference cards. Till that day comes this is the fastest 7600 GT we tested so far and, at the same time, the fastest sub-€$199 card. ?

Reviewed and tested by Sanjin Rados and Fuad Abazovic