EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GT KO Superclock

Overclocking:

We overclocked the EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GT KO Superclock using NVIDIA's coolbits registry hack. This should give an indication of how well the EVGA 7900 GT KO Superclock overclocks, but please bear in mind that your own mileage may vary. We cannot guarantee that manufacturers aren't sending us samples that overclock particularly well.

The stock clocks for the EVGA's 7900 GT KO Superclock are 580/1580MHz and we were able to overclock it to 603/1600MHz without any stability problems. Above these frequencies, we experienced artifacting in both The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. The clocks we achieved were a 4% gain in core speed and a 1% improvement on memory speed - performance improvements were very small.

Value:

We found the EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GT KO Superclock available on Tekheads for £232 including VAT. EVGA tells us that stock is on the way to Overclockers UK, Scan and Ebuyer and should be listed next week. The company expects the bigger stores to be slightly cheaper than Tekheads, so if you're happy to wait out until next week, you may find a better deal. Meanwhile, Connect3D's Radeon X1900XT is for sale on Overclockers UK for £252.57 including VAT, but it is on This Week Only for £234.94 including VAT.

Final Thoughts...

EVGA's e-GeForce 7900 GT KO Superclock is a good implementation of NVIDIA's GeForce 7900 GT SKU, boasting some incredibly high clock speeds out of the box. From our testing of this card, it doesn't appear to suffer from the third day syndrome problems under heavy load, but we recommend checking EVGA's support forum for customer reports on the product. With that said though, EVGA has a solid support programme, a great warranty term and some nice perks on top.

The performance differences between the EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GT KO Superclock and ATI Radeon X1900XT are reasonably small, with a slight advantage to the ATI part. However, the purchasing decision ultimately comes down to what's on offer. Despite the Radeon X1900XT's performance advantage and incredibly attractive price, the EVGA Step-Up programme is a fantastic feature to have when NVIDIA is getting ready to release a new generation of products.

You will be able to upgrade from a card like this to something from the G80 family as soon as the new cards are released. Of course, this is dependant on waiting list times, availability, pricing and how long it takes for NVIDIA to roll out its new product line. If the conditions are right and you are waiting for DirectX 10 hardware to arrive, the EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GT KO Superclock is a pretty good place to start if you're after something to keep you happy while you wait for G80. However, if you're more concerned about performance right now, the Radeon X1900XT may be the better choice right now.