The GeForce 7600 GT

Codename: G73

90 nanometer technology
12 pixel shaders, 5 vertex shaders,
12 texture units, 8 RasterOps processors
128bit memory bus
560 MHz core, 700 MHz DDR memory (1400 MHz effective)

The GeForce 7600 GT is the little card that could. A 12-pipeline card with a 128 bit memory bus, it can keep up with the 16 pipeline 256 bit cards of the previous generation, thanks to newer architecture and higher clock speeds.

Note that the memory runs at 700 MHz, which at first glance seems much faster than the competitor's roughly 500 MHz memory. Since the 7600 GT's 128 bit memory interface is half as wide as its 256 bit Radeon competition, however, it runs at about the speed that 350 MHz memory would on a 256 bit bus. This is probably the 7600 GT's biggest limiting factor.

The 7600 GT is capable of DirectX 9c / Shader Model 3.0 class effects like OpenEXR HDR lighting, but is hardware-limited in that it cannot run anti-aliasing at the same time.

The 7600 GT is the smallest card in the comparison. It does not require a dedicated power cable, because its power requirements are the lightest of the three cards.

The 7600 GT we used for testing is Gigabyte's Silent Pipe 2 card. Its clock speeds are the standard 560 MHz core / 700 MHz memory, so it will perform identically to all 7600 GT models based on the reference specification.