NVIDIA’s delivered another compelling GPU with the GeForce 7600 GS. You’ve got a card that delivers performance that’s greater than last year’s mainstream GPU of choice, the 6600 GT. In shader-heavy cases like F.E.A.R. the difference is as great as 10% at 800x600, while another shader-heavy case, Half-Life 2 Lost Coast sees even larger margins. The difference is greater than 20% at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200, despite the GeForce 6600 GT’s faster memory subsystem. With the GeForce 7600 GS delivering this kind of performance at price points similar to the GeForce 6600 GT, we’d definitely consider it to be the wiser upgrade. Basically the GeForce 7600 GS makes us forget about the 6600 GT. On top of this the board does all this with just passive cooling, and still supports NVIDIA’s transparency AA mode.
If NVIDIA can stick to the board’s $129-$149 price point, the GeForce 7600 GS could become a pretty popular solution for the lower-end of the mainstream segment. The GeForce 7600 GS trades blows with ATI’s more expensive Radeon X1600 XT, delivering superior performance in the flight sims we tested as well as Quake 4 and Serious Sam 2, while falling behind in titles such as Call of Duty 2, and Battlefield 2. Performance is pretty even in F.E.A.R. (with the X1600 XT coming in slightly ahead) and Half-Life 2 Lost Coast, where the X1600 XT fell behind in our HDR testing, but runs faster than the GeForce board once 4xAA is enabled. In terms of pricing, X1600 XT prices generally start around $150 and go up from there. And while we didn’t run tests today with the Radeon X1600 Pro, the board ships with a graphics core than runs 90MHz slower than the X1600 XT, while the X1600 Pro’s memory runs at nearly half the speed of the XT; we just don’t see the X1600 Pro keeping up with the GeForce 7600 GS.
Don’t get us wrong, you won’t confuse the GeForce 7600 GS’s performance with that of a GeForce 7600 GT. NVIDIA’s clearly built-in quite a bit of performance between the two cards, and while we didn’t have a GeForce 7600 GS board to test out overclocking with, we have a hard time seeing 400MHz DDR2 modules running at the 7600 GT’s stock memory frequency of 700MHz, so gamers looking for the most performance possible will still want to opt for the GeForce 7600 GT if they can afford it. The cheapest 7600 GT boards sell for just under $190, so you’ll pay about $50 more for a 7600 GT than a 7600 GS. In general, that $50 will buy you another 25-35% in performance, so you are getting your money’s worth out of the deal. More casual gamers though would likely be better served by the GeForce 7600 GS. And we certainly can’t wait to check out the HDCP-ready card from ASUS. Like we said earlier, it will probably be a huge hit among media center users.
In terms of availability, we’ve been told by NVIDIA that today’s GeForce 7600 GS announcement is “another hard launch”, with retail availability starting today, just like the GeForce 7600 GT and GeForce 7900 GT/GTX cards introduced a few weeks ago. In fact we were told that the GeForce 7600 GS launch was pulled from March 9th to today in order to ensure this. However, the fact that we weren’t able to get a reference board from NVIDIA nor a retail card from one of their board partners in time for this article strongly suggests otherwise. Gigabyte sent out a press release earlier today announcing their GeForce 7600 GS-powered GV-NX76G256D-RH. In the PR Gigabyte stated that their GV-NX76G256D-RH card wouldn’t be available until April. We have a feeling that timeframe is a little more accurate, and wouldn’t be surprised to see the GeForce 7600 GS hit retail en masse around then.
If you’re in the market for a midrange graphics upgrade, we’d highly suggest you check out the GeForce 7600 GS. After testing this product and the GeForce 7600 GT earlier this month, it certainly looks like NVIDIA’s got a pretty strong successor to the GeForce 6600 line. We wouldn’t be surprised to see these 7600 cards sell like hotcakes, just like the GeForce 6600s did…
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E Performance Review
Today marks the launch date for Intel’s Sandy Bridge-E line of processors, a new family of high-end Core i7 products based on the LGA 2011 platform. This new socket is poised to replace the existing LGA 1366 specification used by the more powerful Nehalem and Westmere parts from the past couple years, specifically Bloomfield and Gulftown, the Core i7-9xx+ line of CPUs.
With 6 cores, 15MB of cache, and support for quad-channel DDR3-1600 memory, the Core i7-3960X sounds like quite a catch. Want to know more about it and how it performs? Read on!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Review
The self-appointed "most anticipated game in history" launched worldwide this past Tuesday. Why, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, of course (of course), what else? Unsurprisingly, the military FPS debate between this and Battlefield 3 rages on, but now that both have been released, surely we can take a look and objectively evaluate them both? Luke's taken the Xbox version of MW3 for a spin this week, so to find out what he thinks of it in today's review!
Stronghold 3 Review
The latest sequel in the long-running real-time strategy franchise from FireFly Studios, Stronghold 3 is all about building your dream castle and defending it against sieging enemies. Almost exactly one decade after the first game was released, this new title promises a return to the classic and well-received gameplay that has been strayed so far from in more recent iterations. Does it live up to those expectations? Will (AKA Synchronous Failure) tells us all about it in his first official FiringSquad review, so read on!
Battlefield 3 PC Review - Single-player Impressions
One of the most highly-anticipated PC games of the year is upon us; Battlefield 3 is now available in North America! EA/DICE have finally delivered a sequel to the core Battlefield franchise, a proper follow-up to BF2. Having played through the game's single-player campaign already, ahead of the multiplayer festivities kicking off around midnight, I figured I'd share my impressions ASAP. Is it really a worthy addition to the core Battlefield series, or just another bullet point on the back of the box? Read on and find out!
Wrecked: Revenge Revisited Supersonic Software Interview
Following up on our hands-on preview from earlier this month, here's an interview with Supersonic Software, creators of Wrecked: Revenge Revisited. The game's coming out on XBLA and PSN in a matter of weeks, but for now, Luke chats with the developer about its predecessors Mashed and Micro Machines, how difficult it can be to get an indie game published, the closure of Codemasters' Guildford branch, and more!
Orcs Must Die! PC Review Orcs Must Die! is the first release from an independent developer named Robot Entertainment. Fans of classic real-time strategy games may have heard that name before, as the outfit is comprised of many veterans from Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires series.
Equal parts action and strategy, this is a tower defense game that not only puts you in command, but on the front lines of combat, as well. Slaughter thousands of orcs, ogres and other vile creatures of fantasy that invade your fortresses through 24 levels of the story-based campaign. With high levels of replayability thanks to its scoring and leaderboard functionality, multiple difficulty levels, and various styles of play, it sounds a steal at only $15. Does it deliver on all that’s promised, though? Read on and find out!
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