Foxconn 7950GT 512MB – FV-N79GM3D2-HPOC – Evaluation

Product: Foxconn 7950GT 512MB FV-N79GM3D2-HPOC
Author: Paul Mercer
Date: December 2006
Product cost: MSRP $279
Manufacturer: Foxconn/Nvidia
Spelling and Grammatical Editor: PlanetX64 Staff

Introduction

This may be the first time we?ve seen a piece of Foxconn kit in for review, but they?re certainly no newcomer. Established over 30 years ago, Foxconn is actually the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., a global leader in providing mechanical solutions. It is the largest manufacturer of connectors for use in PCs in Taiwan and a leading manufacturer of connectors and cable assemblies in the world.
The 7950GT from Nvidia is yet another spin-off card from the 7-series (as if there weren?t enough already). Since the 7900GS now offers similar performance to a 7900GT but at a lower price point, the 7900GT needed to be improved slightly and the 7950GT is the result.
Nvidia set the default speeds at 550 MHz for the core and 1400 MHz for the 256 or 512MB of memory, so depending on how you look at it, it?s either an underclocked 7900GTX or a beefed up 7900GT.

{mospagebreak title=Specifications and Features}

Specifications and Features

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 7950GT
Core: G71
CoreClock: 580MHz
Pixel Pipeline: 24
Vertex Pipeline: 8
RAMDACs: 400MHz
Memory Type: GDDR3
Memory Size: 512MB
Memory Clock: 1560MHz
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Graphics Bus Technology: PCI Express x16
Cooler: Fansink
Connectors: Dual Dual-Link DVI + HDTV-Out

> NVIDIA? GeForce? 7950GT.
> 512MB GDDR3 High-Speed Memory.
> NVIDIA? CineFX? 4.0 Engine.
> NVIDIA? Intellisample? 4.0 technology
> Microsoft? DirectX? 9.0c Shader Model 3.0.
> OpenGL? 2.0 Optimizations and Support
> NVIDIA? SLI? Technology
> Built for Microsoft? Windows Vista?

Features: 4.25 out of 5

{mospagebreak title=Overview}

Overview

The Foxconn 7950GT arrived in full retail packaging, sealed in cellophane. Looking at the specs from the 7950GT that Foxconn sent, it?s clear they didn?t listen to Nvidia when they mentioned the default speeds and the box proudly displays that this is the ?Over-Clocking Version? on a silvery label.

I was a little surprised at the design that the folks at Foxconn had chosen for their graphics card until I looked closer at the slogan ? ?The Art of More?…. Well the box is certainly ?arty?.

{eat yer heart out Picasso}
     

Opening the box, cardboard separators kept all of the parts from rattling around too much or being damaged.

Digging deeper, I was quite pleased to find ?the art of more? in the form of a free gamepad, which is a nice inclusion for a gamers card. The pad is fairly solid and well made and I?ve had no problems whatsoever using it during testing.
Copies of VirtualDrive v10 and RestoreIT v7.0 were bundled with the graphics card. While unusual,  the usefulness to gamers remains to be seen.

     

Foxconn has decided to do away with the whiney reference heatsink. The replacement, while still a single slot design, has a slightly larger fan which should help in both the noise and cooling departments.

Under the new heatsink is the familiar G71 core.

     

The memory used is labelled as Qimonda. This brand may seem unfamiliar to some, but you may recognise them by another name – Infineon. Googling the code on the memory; HYB18H512321AF-14, it seems they?re already overclocked from the rated settings of 700MHz and  2.0V.
http://www.qimonda.com/graphics-ram/gddr3/index.html

Running at 1560MHz gives the Foxconn 7950GT approximately 49.9GB/s of memory bandwidth

Using the formula: 

Memory Bandwidth = Memory bus width * memory speed / 8

The memory bus width is measured in bits. Since the GeForce7?s bus is 256-bit DDR, by adding the numbers in, you get:
256 * 1560 / 8 = 49920MB/s

Unlike recent Nvidia graphics cards (which, although they supported HDCP – High Definition Content Protection, it was up to the manufacturers to implement it on the cards), all GeForce 7950 GT cards are required by Nvidia to support HDCP. This means no wondering ?does it?, doesn?t it?? where the 7950GT is concerned. Every 7950GT will have the ability to decode and watch future HD-DVD and BLURAY movies.
(Although as the firing squad found out, not necessarily in full resolution).
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_purevideo_hd_preview/page3.asp

 

Packaging and Accessories: 4.5 out of 5

{mospagebreak title=Performance}

Performance

For testing, I chose a few fairly popular games:

Call of Duty 2
F.E.A.R.
Half Life 2: Lost Coast
Need For Speed: Carbon
Oblivion
Tomb Raider Legend

Test System:
Intel D975XBX ?BadAxe?
Intel Core2Duo E6700 @ 2.66GHz
2GB TeamGroup Xtreem PC5300 @ DDR800 4-4-4-8
2x 80GB Hitachi Deskstar 7200RPM SATA2 w/8MB cache
Tagan EasyCon 580W
ATi Radeon X1950Pro
XFX GeForce 7900GT 256MB 520/1500
Foxconn 7950GT 512MB 580/1560

Driver versions:
Intel Chipset: 8.1.1.1001
Intel Matrix RAID: 6.2.0.2002
ATi Catalyst: 6.11
Nvidia GeForce:  93.71

As usual, a selection of software (Office, Diskeeper, etc.) was pre-installed and all drives defragged before testing began.
I tested the game framerates first at 1280×1024 resolution and then keeping the same graphical settings increased the resolution to 1680×1050 to see how well the cards would react and cope.

Call Of Duty 2
Despite being the oldest game in these tests, Call Of Duty 2 still presents quite a challenge even for todays graphics cards.

XP x86 @ 1280×1024	XP x64 @ 1280×1024
XP x86 @ 1680×1050	XP x64 @ 1680×1050

F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. is a good example of a modern day first-person-shooter. With almost constant action and plenty of gunfights, you need a pretty fast card available to ensure minimum slowdown in frantic battles.

XP x86 @ 1280×1024	XP x64 @ 1280×1024
XP x86 @ 1680×1050	XP x64 @ 1680×1050

Need For Speed: Carbon
NFS:Carbon  left the Nvidia cards feeling a little road rashed.

XP x86 @ 1280×1024	XP x64 @ 1280×1024
XP x86 @ 1680×1050	XP x64 @ 1680×1050

Oblivion
Oblivion is another game that is hard on the current DirectX9 GPU’s, especially Nvidia’s cards. The large draw distances and detailed scenery demand a lot from the vertex and geometry shaders.

XP x86 @ 1280×1024	XP x64 @ 1280×1024
XP x86 @ 1680×1050	XP x64 @ 1680×1050

Tomb Raider: Legend
Tomb Raider with its wide open areas, posed a challenge for all of the cards even without any Anti-Aliasing.

XP x86 @ 1280×1024	XP x64 @ 1280×1024
XP x86 @ 1680×1050	XP x64 @ 1680×1050

3DMark06
Unfortunately testing had already began before the latest 1.10 upgrade/patch for 3DMark06 was released. So for this review, the results shown will be from the 1.02 build. 

ATi X1950PRO

Windows XP x86

Windows XP x64

XFX GeForce 7900GT

Windows XP x86

Windows XP x64

Foxconn GeForce 7950GT

Windows XP x86

Windows XP x64

As can be seen from the gaming results, the extra 256MB of memory over say a 7900GT doesn?t offer much of an improvement in framerates. The differences start to become more apparent as the resolution is increased, but unfortunately, despite having 512MB the card lacks the brute force to make running higher resolutions possible in all situations and sometimes offers little benefit to running an older 7900GT.

 

Performance: 4.5 out of 5 

{mospagebreak title=Overclocking}

Overclocking

The Foxconn 7950GT already has a default (overclocked) core speed of 580MHz with the memory running at 780MHz, so I didn?t really expect a lot of headroom since the memory and GPU core are already running well above the reference speeds.

Using Coolbits to enable the overclocking sliders, I proceeded to find the maximum clock speeds while using RTHDRIBL (Real-Time High Dynamic Range Image-Based Lighting) to heat the card up and check for any graphical corruption.

If RTHDRIBL was able to run for ? hour without showing any form of corruption, I considered it semi-stable and continued to test using games and 3DMark to check for complete stability.

When testing the overclock, it soon became apparent to me that temperature was going to be the the limiting factor before corruption set in. I was able to run 3D applications such as 3DMark06 without any problems up to a 627MHz core speed, but after only a few minutes of gaming the action would freeze as the graphics card paused and throttled.

Eventually I settled at clock speeds of 621MHz for the core and 1620MHz for memory. This is just shy of the 7900GTX default core speed of 650MHz and allowed for some small improvements to the framerates of games (some more than others) and 3DMark scores.

Call Of Duty 2

1280×1024

1680×1050

 

F.E.A.R.

1280×1024

1680×1050

 

Oblivion

1280×1024

1680×1050

 

Need For Speed: Carbon 

1280×1024

1680×1050

 

TombRaider: Legend

1280×1024

1680×1050

 

Half Life 2: Lost Coast

1280×1024

1680×1050

 

3DMark06 

Windows XP x86

Windows XP x64

 

Temperatures recorded (using the Nvidia control panel):

Stock:
Idle = 44
Load = 67

Overclocked:
Idle = 44
Load = 73C

Regarding fan speed and noise…
As the supplied heatsink and fan was very quiet, I?m not entirely sure if the fan speed ever actually varies. It may well do so, but during testing, I was unable to hear any audible change going from idle to load. While this is a good thing as the card remains practically silent during use, it also makes me wonder how the card might perform with better cooling.

{mospagebreak title=Price and Warranty}

Price/Warranty
 
The recommended retail price from Foxconn is $279, which isn?t a bad price for such a high powered card when you take into consideration that it has 512MB of memory and some excellent video/HTPC features. Unfortunately at the time of the review, I was unable to find these particular cards in stores. Although the non-overclocked versions could be found online for as low as $235.44, hopefully the overclocked versions will be more widely available soon…

Foxconn warrants its graphics cards against defects in material and workmanship under normal use for 3 years, during the first year it is a no questions asked, ?real-time? warranty.
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/

Price/warranty: 4.25 out of 5

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}

Conclusion

The Foxconn 7950GT is already fighting a losing battle; the problem is not with the performance of the card though, but rather the current buzz and hype surrounding DirectX10. With DirectX 10 drawing nearer, some people are already selling their soul and their grandmother (and possibly the kids too) to get hold of one of Nvidia?s latest 8-series cards. While the new cards do offer the latest and greatest technology, the current pricing puts them out of the reach of a lot of us mere mortals. For me, the performance and features of the Foxconn 7950GT will be just fine as a stopgap while waiting to see how the new DX10 cards actually perform in DX10 applications (and while waiting for current prices to drop).

With near silent operation, HDCP and PureVideo HD acceleration, the Foxconn 7950GT could be the perfect card for a high end HTPC system. Although it doesn?t necessarily offer much of an incentive to upgrade if you already own an older 79series card, considering how much it costs, it does offer decent performance in most of today?s games and would make a great addition to a slightly older system.

 
Pros:
Quiet operation
Overclockable
Windows Vista Ready
HDCP capable

Cons:
DirectX10 is coming soon
Hot running

Scores:

Packaging and Accessories: 4.5 out of 5
Features: 4.25 out of 5
Performance: 4.5 out of 5
Price/warranty: 4.25 out of 5

Total: 17.5 out of 20

 

We would like to take this oppourtunity to thank the folks at Foxconn for sending the 7950GT for review and wish everyone a Happy Holiday.

Discuss here…