"There's nothing like the power of a BFG" and it's true!
Written: Jun 30 '07 (Updated Jun 30 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Tons of Power and Memory equate to steller performance!
Cons: Has some hefty power and system requirements. Can be a bit pricey!
The Bottom Line: The perfect balance of power, memory, and overall performance. It's worth every penny!
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| thetool721's Full Review: BFG Technologies GeForce® 7950 GT OCâ„¢, (512... |
It's been years since my last new machine so I figured it was time to upgrade my home machine. After a disappointing selection of video cards from the PC manufacturer, I decided to go elsewhere for my video card needs. After reviewing options at a few online retailers, I decided on the BFG Tech NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT OC 512MB video card.
If you're not familiar with BFG Tech, you should get acquainted by visiting their website (http://www.bfgtech.com). These guys are serious about gaming, and provide some stellar options when it comes PC hardware. "There's nothing like the power of a BFG"...
To make things easy, I figured I'd start with my experience with this card. After all, this is an Epinion right? After that, I'll give some specs and details for those interested or looking for more information!
My Experience
This card is an amazing piece of work, I have to say that up front. My last machine was fairly disappointing when it came to graphics, so my opinion might be a little tainted. However, I'm quite impressed with the product thus far!
My Experience: Installation
The install was pretty simple, as you might expect. Just slip it into the available PCI Express 16x slot and away you go. There is one curveball though, and it relates to power! You have to hook a power connection directly to the video card!
If your power supply has a PCI-e power connector (it's a 6-pin connector), you just plug it in. If you don't have a PCI-e power connector, you can use the provided adapter and plug it into two available 4-pin molex connections. Make sure you hook up BOTH connections!
Once you have the case sealed up, simply hook up your monitor(s) just as you had before. If you're using DVI just plug and play. If you're using VGA, simply use the supplied adapters and connect your monitor as normal!
When you first boot up, windows will detect the card and install the drivers for you. Once that's done, head out to NVIDIA"s site and download the latest drivers for the card! I always like to be on the latest video drivers.
My Experience: Using it!
The performance is awesome! Games I played on my previously machine (that framed horribly) fly by smoothly with little to no issues. Frame rates are up where you'd like them, and the games I've tested so far are nice and smooth. I have two displays connected to my machine, and both perform equally well. I love the card so far!
I've heard many complaints about general Vista performance when it comes to video. If you've seen the Vista requirements lately, you already know that there is a hefty need for video power to use the Vista AERO features. To be honest, I've been quite impressed with the performance on this system so far. It's definitely running better than it was on the old "built in" video card did. A video card upgrade for Vista is definitely worth it!
My Experience: The "Vista Experience Index"
Vista has an "Experience Index" it uses to calculate your "systems performance" factor. This number is then used as a measure to determine if "Vista compatible" software will work well on your machine. So, if your machine is a "3.0" and the game you want to buy is a "4.0 or higher", it means the game won"t run so well on your machine. Currently, "5.9" is the highest "Vista Experience Index" you can score.
In my case, the system had a fairly weak video card onboard when I purchased it. On this card, my rating came back at a measly "3.0". Once I installed the 7950 GT OC, the index immediately jumped to 5.9 (i.e. top of the scale). With plenty of memory and tons of horsepower, the video department is no longer sandbagging my score at 5.3!
Detailed Information on the Card
Here is a quick rundown on the card details, specs, and requirements.
The video card itself:
- NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT chipset with a core clock of 565Mhz (vs. 550Mhz Standard)
- 512MB GDDR3 Memory clocked at 1430Mhz (vs. 1400Mhz standard)
- PCI Express x16
- 2 Dual-Link DVI-I + HDTV connectors and supports Multiple Monitors
- The card is also SLI ready (i.e. two separate cards can act as one to greatly improve performance!)
The box ALSO contains the following components:
- Quick Install Guide (Full Guide on CD if needed)
- 2 DVI-I to VGA Dongles
- 1 HDTV Dongle
- Dual 4-pin to single 6-pin Power Adapter
- Driver CD
The minimum system requirements are:
- 256MB of system memory
- Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista
- CD or DVD-ROM drive
- 50MB free disk space
- A 350W PCI Express compliant system power supply (with 12V current rating of 22A or more)
- A PCI Express compliant motherboard. A vacant X16 PCI Express slot
- Two available hard disk drive power dongles (smaller floppy disk drive connector is not sufficient) -or- A PCI Express supplementary power connector
For those of you looking for more information on this card, check out BFG Tech's website at the following URL. It has all the data you need!
- http://www2.bfgtech.com/bfgr7950512gtoce.aspx
NVIDIA versus ATI
When it comes to video cards, there are two major chipset options available when it comes to vendor; NVIDIA and ATI. You can find plenty of opinions online as to "which is better", so I won"t fight that holy way here. Simply put, just find the card that gives you what you need and go from there. In most circumstances, either company"s chipset will provide all the power you need!
Interface Options (AGP and PCI Express)
If you haven't purchased a PC in a while, you might not be familiar with PCI Express. Your video card is most likely an AGP card, which was a great performer in its time. Now, PCI Express is moving out into the forefront in regards to performance.
This particular card is a PCI Express x16 card. Make sure you have a PCIe x16 slot available in your machine before you buy this card! It's hefty requirement, and most times you only have 1 available (unless you have a really high end machine). There are plenty of options for those of you out there stuck with AGP, but this one isn't for you.
One other honorable mention here is SLI. SLI is NVIDIA's fancy acronym for running multiple graphics cards within the same machine (ATI has "Crossfire"). For those of you with two available PCI Express x16 slots, you can run TWO video cards in tandem with one another! So if the performance of one card wasn"t enough, you could add ANOTHER!
GPU Clock Frequency
GPU Clock Frequency is the speed at which the graphics processor runs. Again, the faster the better, as faster means more data in less time! In this case, the GPU runs at an overclocked 565 MHz and can process 1.17 BILLION vertices per second!
"Onboard" Video Memory
Video memory equates to memory "on the card" that can be used for graphics processing. In this case, the more memory the better, especially when it comes to Vista. This card has 512MB on board. Yes, this card has more memory than most computers! This might not be 100% accurate, but it was before Vista came along!
Another factor here would be memory clock speed. The faster the clock speed, the quicker the data moves. As you might have guessed, the higher the better here as well. In this case, the card is overclocked at 1430 MHz with a bandwidth of 45.7GB/sec. Now that's FAST!
Technical Support
As with any product, technical support can be a big factor in your decision. In this case, the manufacturer provides a lifetime warranty on their product. They also provide TOLL FREE 24x7 support by phone, which puts them a step above most! If support is important to you, this manufacturer definitely provides it!
In Conclusion
Simply put, this card is amazing. It's the highest in the NVIDIA 7000 series and has the specifications to prove it. It's also one of the few that boast 512MB of memory on board. It has done good by me so far, and I won"t trade it for anything. Ok, maybe for one of those "dual core" 8000 series cards, but that's not too likely! So in the meantime, I'll be more than happy with what I have!
If you've made it down this far, thanks for sticking it out! I hope this information will help you in your decision as to which video card to choose.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 239.99
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Epinions.com ID:
thetool721
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Member: Joseph Hobbs
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
An IT junkie...
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