GeForce 7 Series

The GeForce 7 Series is a series of desktop graphics chip company Nvidia and successor of the GeForce 6 Series. All cards of the GeForce 7- series support Shader Model 3.0 (SM 3.0) 9.0c by DirectX. Main competitor was the ATI Radeon X1000 series. Successor is the Nvidia Geforce 8 series.

  • 3.1 Distribution
  • 3.2 abbreviation

History

The Geforce 7 series was introduced in mid-2005 on the market, replacing the GeForce 6 series, whose architecture it is based. With 20 official models, the Geforce 7 was one of the most extensive Geforce desktop series. Anisotropic filtering of the Geforce 7 series partly produced a so-called texture flickering, which was heavily criticized in the press and produced a poorer image quality compared to the Radeon X1000 series from ATI.

The first card of the GeForce 7 series Geforce7800 the GTX was launched on 22 June 2005. Based on the G70 graphics processor is still manufactured in the 110- nm manufacturing process, the Geforce 7800 GTX proved in their presentation as the fastest graphics card on the market. This was well rated in the trade press, partly because it was early widely available. The Geforce 7800 GTX was the last high-end graphics card, which still had a single-slot cooler.

As an inexpensive alternative to the GeForce 7800 GTX Nvidia presented on 11 August 2005 the GeForce 7800 GT. This was delivered with reduced clock rates and a disabled quad. While this resulted in a loss of performance of up to about 15 %, but the discount was significantly higher. Since the GeForce 7800 GT was still faster than the high-end models of the previous series ( Geforce 6800 Ultra, Radeon X850 XT), she could have good sales figures. Nvidia brought under the name GeForce 7800 GS still an AGP version of the 7800 GT on the market, for which a bridge chip had to be installed.

After competitor ATI beginning of October 2005 delayed its first models of the Radeon X1000 series presented, had the new top model, the Radeon X1800 XT (which was available until the end of November, however ), a higher performance than the GeForce 7800 GTX. Since the card was not only faster, but also better image quality as well as had been cheaper to produce by the 90 - nm manufacturing process, Nvidia came under pressure. At the same time accounted for the technological edge to offer 9.0c until then the only manufacturer graphics cards with DirectX, with ATI was also on top of that be able to represent HDR effects and anti-aliasing activated simultaneously; Nvidia was the de facto only with the Geforce 8 series. ATI had presented next to the X1800 series, the X1600 and X1300 series and was thus already cover the whole market. Therefore, it was necessary for Nvidia for marketing reasons, the so-called " performance crown " for the fastest graphics card on the market, retrieve again and presented on 14 November 2005, the GeForce 7800 GTX 512, which was referred to in the trade press as a Geforce 7800 Ultra. The Geforce 7800 GTX 512 still based on the G70 graphics processor, but the clock speeds were drastically increased. To counteract the resulting higher heat generation, Nvidia built a newly developed dual- slot cooler, which in contrast to the ATI competition proved to be very quiet. Nvidia increased for the first time at a reference design the graphics memory to 512 MB ​​. In combination with the higher clock rates, the Geforce 7800 GTX 512 proved again as the fastest graphics card on the market. However, clocked at 850 MHz GDDR3 memory was difficult available at this time why the Geforce 7800 GTX 512 was produced only in small numbers.

On 9 March 2006, Nvidia introduced at CeBit before the Geforce 7600 GT. The card based on the G73 graphics processor ( a halved version of the G71 ) and replaced the successful Geforce 6600 GT in the mainstream sector. The Geforce 7600 GT had over the competition from ATI, the Radeon X1600 XT, an approximately 60 % higher performance. Since she could keep the good price- performance ratio of its predecessor the same time, the 7600 GT took a quasi- monopoly position and became one of the most commercially successful cards of the Geforce 7 series. The problem was solved, that the technical shortcomings of the high-end sector over ATI (incompatibility of HDR effects and anti-aliasing, and texture flickering ), for the mainstream sector were relatively insignificant. ATI responded first with the Radeon X1900 GT, which was based on a teildeaktivierten R580 graphics processor, but for technical reasons had higher production costs. Only the Radeon X1650 XT was able to compete on the price -performance ratio forth with the GeForce 7600 GT, but only came in early 2007 on the market. Nvidia responded with the change to the 80 - nm manufacturing process and was able to reduce production costs. Thus, the Geforce 7600 GT remained successful on the market until it was superseded by the end of April 2007 Geforce 8600 GTS. The GeForce 7600 GT was also marketed with reduced clock speeds and DDR2 memory under the name GeForce 7600 GS.

Also at CeBIT on March 9, 2006, Nvidia Geforce before even the 7900 GT and 7900 GTX, which 7800 GT, 7800 GTX and 7800 GTX replaced the Geforce 512. This had already proved against the newly released Radeon X1900 - series as useless as they could not compete in terms of performance, nor on the price - performance ratio. Nvidia now used the G71 graphics processor, which decreed against the G70 not only fewer transistors, but was also prepared in 90 - nm manufacturing process ( instead of 110 nm). Therefore, the production cost could be reduced significantly and higher clock rates are achieved due to physical reasons. On the GeForce 7900 GTX G71 was delivered with the highest clock rates, which had the performance of the Radeon X1900 XTX about. The poorer image quality was less noise compared based on the cooler of the GeForce 7800 GTX 512, so that in the high-end range resulted in a stalemate. Some Geforce 7900 GTX models were later marketed with reduced memory clock than GeForce 7900 GTO. The Geforce 7900 GT had about the performance of the GeForce 7800 GTX at lower production costs. In contrast to the GeForce 7800 GT was able to dispense with the deactivation of a quad. Nevertheless, the performance at higher resolutions strongly collapsed because of the 256 MB of graphics memory was too small now. Therefore, Nvidia's board partners brought independently cards with 512 MB ​​on the market. Since the price-performance ratio compared to the ATI competition still was not enough, Nvidia Geforce 7900 GT replaced the 14 September 2006 the 7950 GT with higher clock rates. Due to the better performance of these sold successfully in the market. G71 GPUs built with a disabled quad Nvidia Geforce 7900 GS still on.

A special feature of the Geforce 7 series is that Nvidia for the first time introduces dual graphics cards. Previously had its own board partners try to develop dual graphics cards, but which had no real relevance to the market. At CeBit 2006 Nvidia Geforce 7900 GX2 presented initially. This consisted of two printed circuit boards that communicate with a bridge chip SLI together. However, the GeForce 7900 GX2 had had a massive over- length, required a special PCI power connector and was therefore not on the retail market. Nvidia Geforce 7900 GX2 and revised the presented on 5 June 2006, the GeForce 7950 GX2 (also for the retail market ). This again had a relatively normal PCB length and an additional standard power connection. The Geforce 7950 GX2 proved again as the fastest graphics card on the market and Nvidia the first time allowed the construction of a so-called quad- SLI system consisting of four GPUs.

Technology

Quads

The graphics chips used consist of so-called " quads ". Depending on the version Quads can also be disabled. A quad is the GeForce 7 series of four graphics pipelines, a texture mapping unit ( TMU ) and a Vertex Processing Unit ( VPU ) (4 × 1 × 1). The basic version of each chip consists of four graphics pipelines, however, a TMU and three VPU (4 × 1 × 3). Depending on the stage of development, therefore, the budget increases in eg two quads on 8 × 1 × 4 and three quads on 12 × 1 × 5, etc. So be achieved all the desired configurations.

GPUs

Within the GeForce 7 series GPUs are employed different that is. Terms of their manufacturing technology and its max Distinguish quad number.

Naming

The GeForce 7 series the same naming scheme is used as in the GeForce 6 series. All graphics chips are identified by a four-digit number, which generally ( for Geforce 7) start with a "7". The second digit then divides the family into different market segments, the third and fourth digits are used for further differentiation.

Division

  • 71xx / 72xx / 73xx / 75xx: low-cost
  • 76xx: Mainstream
  • 78xx / 79xx: High- End

Abbreviation

  • GS - budget version, the weakest version in the mainstream and high -end segment
  • GT - powerful version, the low-cost and mainstream segment, the most powerful version
  • GTO - special edition, less powerful GTX version
  • GTX - powerful version (only in high-end segment)
  • GX2 - version with two graphics chips on a map (only in high-end segment)

Model data

Notes:

  • The specified clock rates are the established recommended by Nvidia or. However, is the final determination of the clock rates in the hands of the respective graphics cards manufacturers. Therefore, it is quite possible that there are graphics cards models or will be having different clock speeds.
  • Also, it is the responsibility of manufacturers, whether or not the final graphics card has a PCIe or AGP connector, because GPUs with native PCIe interface can be customized with the help of a bridge chip ( HSI bridge ) use for AGP graphics cards.
  • The clock frequency of the memory is also often reported as twice. The reason for this is the double data rate (DDR ).

Geforce 7 as IGP

Three integrated graphics units ( IGP), the built in Nvidia 's chipsets marketed under the name GeForce 7025, GeForce 7050 and GeForce 7100.

Desktop-Computer ATI Technologies R400 Series Byte Accelerated Graphics Port Graphics processing unit#Integrated graphics solutions GeForce 100 Series
363791
de