Overclocking
Overclocking is a valuable tool when looking to get the most out of your graphics solution. Many card manufacturers sell overclocked versions of their cards, often with positive results. A few of the cards we have come with their own factory overclock, but we make a habit of doing our own user-overclocking whenever we can and this review is no exception.
We were able to overclock these cards using Coolbits for the NVIDIA cards, and a handy program called ATI Tool for the ATI cards. ATI tool has a built in 3D view of a rotating fuzzy cube to test the stability of the card while overclocking on the fly. We use this to get our initial overclocks, and then follow this test up with repeated game benchmarks to ensure that the card runs stably (i.e. without any graphical tearing or artifacts). Below is a list of the cards and the overclocks we achieved, as well as their factory clock speeds.
Heat is always an issue when overclocking, and because we are dealing with silent graphics cards, we took extra care when boosting the clock speeds for these cards. Interestingly, all of these cards were able to be overclocked to some degree and saw a degree of performance increase. Of course some overclocked more than others, and there were a few cards that did notably well for us, as our table shows. In particular, the Gigabyte X1300 got a 160 MHz boost in the core clock resulting in about a 23% boost in Battlefield 2 at 1024x768, making the game much more playable at this resolution. The MSI NX7300 GT also got a high overclock in both the core and memory clock. It appears that in general some of the slower cards like the X1300s and 7300s overclock better than the faster ones, which is ultimately good news for those who are limited to the slower cards because of price.
Once we achieved our overclocks for these cards, we again tested performance in Battlefield 2 and Oblivion to get a general idea of the increase in performance with the new clock speeds. As these are two of the most graphically demanding (and popular) games in our testing, their benchmarks are particularly useful to see how well these cards overclock. Keep in mind, however, that how well a card overclocks will vary even between two cards of the same model and manufacturer, so the clock speeds we achieved with our Gigabyte 7600 GS won't necessarily be what you will see with your Gigabyte 7600 GS.
Now that we have our overclocked performance numbers along side of our factory clocked ones, we can see how well these cards perform overclocked relative to each other. In Battlefield 2, we can see how certain cards that only got borderline-playable framerates at 1600x1200 and 1280x1024 with their factory clock speeds became playable at these resolutions with a bit of overclocking. The MSI NX7300 GT in particular at 1600x1200 gets a 35% increase in frame rate going from 21.7 fps to 29.3 fps. Also, the Gigabyte 7600 GS benefits the most from its overclock to 549 and 890 MHz at 1600x1200 resolution, getting almost a 17% increase in framerate.
In Oblivion, the increases in framerates seem a little more dramatic in the more graphically intensive "Oblivion Gate" benchmark, but we again see a few marked improvements in performance in each benchmark. Again the MSI NX7300 GT and Gigabyte 7600 GS stand out with their performance increases. In this roundup, the Gigabyte 7600 GS sets itself apart from the other three 7600 GS cards (the MSI NX 7600 GS, EVGA e-GeForce 7600 GS, and the ASUS EN7600 GS Silent). Not only is it the only 7600 GS that comes with a factory overclock, but it also manages to achieve the highest user overclock of the four resulting in slightly better overall performance.
Overclocking is a valuable tool when looking to get the most out of your graphics solution. Many card manufacturers sell overclocked versions of their cards, often with positive results. A few of the cards we have come with their own factory overclock, but we make a habit of doing our own user-overclocking whenever we can and this review is no exception.
We were able to overclock these cards using Coolbits for the NVIDIA cards, and a handy program called ATI Tool for the ATI cards. ATI tool has a built in 3D view of a rotating fuzzy cube to test the stability of the card while overclocking on the fly. We use this to get our initial overclocks, and then follow this test up with repeated game benchmarks to ensure that the card runs stably (i.e. without any graphical tearing or artifacts). Below is a list of the cards and the overclocks we achieved, as well as their factory clock speeds.
| GPU Overclocking | ||
| Factory Clock | User Overclock | |
| ASUS NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT | 420/1240 | 481/1290 |
| ASUS NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 512 | 400/540 | 483/596 |
| ASUS NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS | 400/800 | 442/874 |
| ASUS NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT | 500/1000 | 561/1070 |
| ASUS ATI Radeon X1600 XT | 590/690 | 624/751 |
| GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT | 560/700 | 608/734 |
| GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS | 450/800 | 549/890 |
| GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT | 450/800 | 474/858 |
| GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS | 550/800 | 644/851 |
| GIGABYTE ATI Radeon X1600 PRO | 500/400 | 580/432 |
| GIGABYTE ATI Radeon X1600 XT | 590/690 | 621/706 |
| GIGABYTE ATI Radeon X1300 PRO | 600/400 | 650/409 |
| GIGABYTE ATI Radeon X1300 | 450/350 | 610/405 |
| EVGA NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS | 400/800 | 445/875 |
| Sparkle NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS | 550/532 | 611/700 |
| Albatron NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT | 400/800 | 502/884 |
| HIS ATI Radeon X1600 PRO | 500/400 | 597/441 |
| HIS ATI Radeon X1300 PRO | 600/400 | 640/445 |
| MSI NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS | 400/800 | 441/875 |
| MSI NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT | 350/667 | 486/830 |
Heat is always an issue when overclocking, and because we are dealing with silent graphics cards, we took extra care when boosting the clock speeds for these cards. Interestingly, all of these cards were able to be overclocked to some degree and saw a degree of performance increase. Of course some overclocked more than others, and there were a few cards that did notably well for us, as our table shows. In particular, the Gigabyte X1300 got a 160 MHz boost in the core clock resulting in about a 23% boost in Battlefield 2 at 1024x768, making the game much more playable at this resolution. The MSI NX7300 GT also got a high overclock in both the core and memory clock. It appears that in general some of the slower cards like the X1300s and 7300s overclock better than the faster ones, which is ultimately good news for those who are limited to the slower cards because of price.
Once we achieved our overclocks for these cards, we again tested performance in Battlefield 2 and Oblivion to get a general idea of the increase in performance with the new clock speeds. As these are two of the most graphically demanding (and popular) games in our testing, their benchmarks are particularly useful to see how well these cards overclock. Keep in mind, however, that how well a card overclocks will vary even between two cards of the same model and manufacturer, so the clock speeds we achieved with our Gigabyte 7600 GS won't necessarily be what you will see with your Gigabyte 7600 GS.
| Battlefield 2 v1.22 Overclocked | |||||
| 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 | Avg. Increase | |
| ASUS 7800 GT Top Silent (481/1290) | 60.2 | 59 | 58.7 | 57.5 | 1.85% |
| ASUS 7600 GS Silent 512 (483/596) | 61.7 | 56.6 | 43.8 | 32.6 | 11.01% |
| ASUS 7600 GS Silent (442/874) | 60.7 | 57.9 | 47.5 | 36.3 | 5.33% |
| ASUS 6600 GT Silencer (561/1070) | 59.1 | 51.4 | 38.8 | 30.3 | 8.66% |
| ASUS EAX1600 XT Silent (624/751) | 61.7 | 55.3 | 39.9 | 29.2 | 4.96% |
| GIGABYTE 7600 GT (608/734) | 59.7 | 58.2 | 57.5 | 51.1 | 1.44% |
| GIGABYTE 7600 GS (549/890) | 60.6 | 56.6 | 53.4 | 41.7 | 7.64% |
| GIGABYTE 7300 GT (474/858) | 67.3 | 61.2 | 38.3 | 28.9 | 12.60% |
| GIGABYTE 7300 GS (644/851) | 45.3 | 62.2 | 23.4 | 17.1 | 47.40% |
| GIGABYTE X1600 PRO (580/432) | 61.2 | 63.2 | 35.3 | 25.7 | 2.28% |
| GIGABYTE X1600 XT (621/706) | 62.2 | 64.2 | 39.5 | 27.7 | 25.38% |
| GIGABYTE X1300 PRO (650/409) | 47.8 | 65.2 | 23.2 | 16.5 | 30.95% |
| GIGABYTE X1300 (610/405) | 37.6 | 66.2 | 18 | 12.4 | 82.61% |
| EVGA e-GeForce 7600 GS (445/875) | 60.7 | 57.9 | 47.5 | 36.3 | 5.33% |
| Sparkle 7300 GS Ultra 2 (611/700) | 42.3 | 31.8 | 21.9 | N/A | 24.28% |
| Albatron 7300 GT (488/860) | 70.4 | 55.2 | 40.2 | 30.3 | 22.86% |
| HIS X1600 PRO (597/441) | 61.6 | 51.2 | 36.3 | 26.4 | 13.79% |
| HIS X1300 PRO (640/445) | 48.1 | 35.7 | 23.5 | 16.8 | 9.40% |
| MSI 7600 GS (441/875) | 60.6 | 57.8 | 47.5 | 36.3 | 5.25% |
| MSI 7300 GT (486/830) | 68.4 | 53.4 | 39 | 29.3 | 34.63% |
| Oblivion Gate Overclocked | |||||
| 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 | Avg. Increase | |
| ASUS 7800 GT Top Silent (481/1290) | 59.7 | 56.9 | 47.2 | 37.5 | 4.00% |
| ASUS 7600 GS Silent 512 (483/596) | 42.1 | 32 | 21.7 | 16.3 | 13.32% |
| ASUS 7600 GS Silent (442/874) | 50.7 | 35.6 | 25.4 | 18.5 | 12.29% |
| ASUS 6600 GT Silencer (561/1070) | 40.6 | 27.8 | 19.6 | 14.9 | 16.19% |
| ASUS EAX1600 XT Silent (624/751) | 40.2 | 29.4 | 20.2 | 15.5 | 7.51% |
| GIGABYTE 7600 GT (608/734) | 61.5 | 53.9 | 38 | 27.6 | 8.83% |
| GIGABYTE 7600 GS (549/890) | 52.4 | 42.2 | 28.1 | 21.8 | 14.57% |
| GIGABYTE 7300 GT (474/858) | 38.9 | 29.7 | 20 | 14.9 | 6.79% |
| GIGABYTE 7300 GS (644/851) | 21 | 16.1 | 10.7 | 7 | 18.06% |
| GIGABYTE X1600 PRO (580/432) | 32.4 | 25.2 | 17.4 | 13.5 | 10.61% |
| GIGABYTE X1600 XT (621/706) | 38.7 | 27.7 | 20.9 | 15.7 | 6.11% |
| GIGABYTE X1300 PRO (650/409) | 28 | 19.2 | 12.9 | 9.5 | 11.53% |
| GIGABYTE X1300 (610/405) | 22.4 | 16.3 | 11.2 | N/A | 34.35% |
| EVGA e-GeForce 7600 GS (445/875) | 50.8 | 35.7 | 25.5 | 18.5 | 12.54% |
| Sparkle 7300 GS Ultra 2 (611/700) | 19.6 | 14.5 | 9.7 | N/A | 26.05% |
| Albatron 7300 GT (488/860) | 41.2 | 29.9 | 22 | 15.9 | 19.69% |
| HIS X1600 PRO (597/441) | 35.7 | 27.1 | 19.1 | 13.2 | 17.44% |
| HIS X1300 PRO (640/445) | 26.5 | 18.9 | 13.1 | 8.5 | 6.95% |
| MSI 7600 GS (441/875) | 50.6 | 35.6 | 25.4 | 18.5 | 12.23% |
| MSI 7300 GT (486/830) | 41 | 30.5 | 20.4 | 15.7 | 37.47% |
Now that we have our overclocked performance numbers along side of our factory clocked ones, we can see how well these cards perform overclocked relative to each other. In Battlefield 2, we can see how certain cards that only got borderline-playable framerates at 1600x1200 and 1280x1024 with their factory clock speeds became playable at these resolutions with a bit of overclocking. The MSI NX7300 GT in particular at 1600x1200 gets a 35% increase in frame rate going from 21.7 fps to 29.3 fps. Also, the Gigabyte 7600 GS benefits the most from its overclock to 549 and 890 MHz at 1600x1200 resolution, getting almost a 17% increase in framerate.
In Oblivion, the increases in framerates seem a little more dramatic in the more graphically intensive "Oblivion Gate" benchmark, but we again see a few marked improvements in performance in each benchmark. Again the MSI NX7300 GT and Gigabyte 7600 GS stand out with their performance increases. In this roundup, the Gigabyte 7600 GS sets itself apart from the other three 7600 GS cards (the MSI NX 7600 GS, EVGA e-GeForce 7600 GS, and the ASUS EN7600 GS Silent). Not only is it the only 7600 GS that comes with a factory overclock, but it also manages to achieve the highest user overclock of the four resulting in slightly better overall performance.
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TheInternal - Tuesday, September 12, 2006 - link
It's wonderful to see Anandtech take the time to review silent products. I've really been trying to quiet down my PC, and seeing this review gave me some further encouragement. With rumors of ASUS acquiring XFX, it will be interesting to see if Anandtech decides to review the passively colled XFX 7950 GT with heat pipes that look awfully reminescent of the ones from the ASUS 7800 you reviewed.I'm also curious to see if any 7900 GS cards become available with passive cooling soon.
Richey02hg - Tuesday, September 5, 2006 - link
I was just curious if any of these cards are AGP? or they all PCI Express only? and also, its hard to tell since an x800xt all in one wonder isnt in there. But would any of these be an upgrade over that? Because I have to admit, just seeing that word "silent" makes me happy cause my GPU is insanely loudJarredWalton - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - link
All are PCIe. I'm not sure if there are any silent AGP cards out there other than very low end components. As for the X800 XT, that is roughly equivalent to the 7800 GS in performance, albeit without SM 3.0 support. 7600 GT would also be pretty similar in performance I think. I would recommend holding onto your current system as long as you can, and when he can no longer stand the performance it offers do a wholesale upgrade to PCI-E GPU and motherboard, and probably a new CPU and RAM is well. At that point, you might as well just go ahead and buy a completely new system -- you could even try selling off your current system to recoup some of the cost.Richey02hg - Thursday, September 7, 2006 - link
thanks for the advice, Im actually planning to get a laptop in 2006 and thanks to your review im definetly waiting for that second wave (forget the name) of the core 2 duos for laptops :)Eddie Lin - Thursday, August 31, 2006 - link
Gigabyte seems don't need reserve SLI bridge seems 7300GS only go with S/W SLI and don't need bridge. Is really good heatsink design on this cardDerekWilson - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
Thanks Eddie --We have added this information to the article.
yacoub - Thursday, August 31, 2006 - link
It's an absolute joke that Asus and Gigabyte don't have silently-cooled 7900GTs out yet. The card requires less power and runs cooler than the 7800GT did. It's a shoe-in to get a silent version. wtf.This is practically a roundup of grandfathers and retirees when you include a 7800GT. ;P
nullpointerus - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
Maybe they are trying to get rid of old cards without dropping the price too much?yyrkoon - Thursday, August 31, 2006 - link
Alot of people that would consider buying a fanless GPU wouldnt even care if it DID make tons of noise, some of us live in deserts, where its extremely dusty. There is nothing like owning an air compressor or two, just for 'dusting' you house, shops, and PC / electronics innards.I guess I'm one of the few people who actually enjoy having a fan or two on while I'm sleeping for background noise, but less moving parts means longer part life here in the Nevada desert. However, I own a eVGA 7600GT KO, that has a fan on it, and you know what, I have a really hard time hearing it from 6 feet away. In fact, the 120mm low RPM fans that came with my Lian Li case make more noise, and they dont make much noise themselves.
I think its a great idea that these manufactuers are making products like this, but at the same time, for me personally its not really an option. I only buy parts from a compnay with a good reputation, and offer excellent customer support, and hence I'm very picky about who I buy from. At the same time, I know what I want, and if something passive isnt availible on say a 7600GT (which is what I wanted for this current system), and at the same time, from a company I would normally buy parts from, then I wont bother. I would think it a better option to buy the part you wanted for a video card, then buy an aftermarket passive cooler if it comes down to that (which would probably void your warranty, so again, for some of us, not really an option).
So basicly, what it boils down to, is that I have to buy a graphics card with a fan to get what I want, and if problems later ensue, its a good thing I have a can of miracle oil around, and a few saringes . . .
Josh Venning - Thursday, August 31, 2006 - link
These are some good points; it's true that with less moving parts you would theoretically see longer life and resistence to dust and dirt, something that could be a plus. And while it's true that a normal graphics card (with a fan on it) will be pretty hard to hear from a little ways away inside your computer case, the idea is that some people need that extra bit of silence for whatever reason, and every extra fan adds to the noise level on the system. For myself, when recording sound/music with a computer, getting things as quiet as possible is very important, so this is one case where eliminating even a couple of dbs is worth buying a silent gpu for. (especially if, like myself, your recording computer is one you also want to be able to play games on.)