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The Verdict

Inno3D GeForce 7950 GT 512MB Zalman Edition

So what we are seeing here (performance wise presented) is not really that new at all. There have been many GeForce 7900 GT 512MB cards out on the market for a while now and the 7950 GT is based on that product. This is the reason I included 7900 GT (512MB) results into today's benchmarks. Both the 7900 GT 512MB and 7950 GT 512MB are in the exact same price range and due to their standard higher clocks often offer the exact same performance. I wanted to show you that performance was pretty much parallel.

So then, we established that the GeForce 7950 GT is a refresh product, but I must admit, it's a really gorgeous graphics card to have. For roughly 300 bucks you'll receive a very fast 512MB, highly featured videocard that'll ensure you some decent bragging rights and a stack load of gaming pleasure in that gaming rig of yours.

Something else does come to mind though, it's Windows Vista. If you buy a 200 USD GeForce 7900 GS you don't have to dive deep into your wallet next year as you can upgrade way more easily to get a DirectX 10 product (because you did not spend a lot of money). Sure, this card will be Vista compatible. But investing 300 bucks on a product with no DirectX 10 compatibility with Vista a couple of months away .. that might be a something you need to keep in mind to make an objective purchase. Then again .. it can literally take until next year before we see any good DX10 titles, so that's a bit of a mixed bag.

Please rest assured that with Windows Vista all games will play fantastic in DX9 compatibility mode yet you'll miss out on some new DX10 features, Crytek's Crysis is such a title and a really good example of what DX10 is going to offer.

HDCP. All 7950 GT cards are HDCP compatible and thus HD ready. Next year with Vista when you want to playback HDCP content (movies) on your monitor... the resolution will be dumbed down or even worse, your screen will go black during playback, if you do not have a HDCP encoder chip working on the graphics card. So close to the reference cooler you'll notice a small Atmel EEPROM slash CryptoROM doing that magic for you. Mind you that if you like to playback media files with a HDCP ready graphics card... you'll also need a HDCP compatible monitor (hey don't look so angry .. don't shoot the messenger!).

Inno3D is bringing you a product that is right up-to par with the reference model from NVIDIA. Despite the fact that the cooler has to be fed from your mainboard there really is nothing negative to say about it. It's on par with performance, has a lovely Zalman cooler and comes with a good bundle. I would have loved to see it slightly overclocked at default and perhaps have a colored PCB, black or something. It's the small stuff that differentiates products like these from the competition.

The Inno3D GeForce 7950 GT series of cards are going to bring you a broad and fantastic gaming experience up to a resolution of 1920x1200 and sometimes even higher; at give or take 300 bucks the product is priced fairly especially when you consider it has been equipped with a more expensive Zalman cooler and includes a full free game (Commandos Strike Force) so don't let other reviews fool you ... this is a good, sound and quality product with a nice bundle at a fair price.

Nice gear to play your games with !

Inno3D GeForce 7950 GT 512MB DDR3 (PCI-Express)
Product:  512 MB Graphics card
Manufacturer: InnoVision
Info: InnoVision - Inno3DPrice: 289 EUR