With the advent of the 8800 GTX series, the 7600 GT series has seen a fair bit of reduction in costs increasing its price vs. performance ratio. Therefore products built on this chipset today offer the best VFM experience in graphic cards without skimping on essential features. Being DX9 compliant with full support for shader 3.0 and HDR (High Dynamic Range) the chipset can easily run next-gen titles such as Half-Life 2 Episode 1 and F.E.A.R without too much effort. The DX9 compliance also means the chipset has full support for Windows Vista. Another important thing to note about this chipset is that it is built on a 90nm process as compared to the earlier generation which was on 130nm. This translates to smaller cards, less power requirement and cooler running products.
Here are 3 products based on this excellent chipset.
Palit 7600GT 256 MB PCi-E: Rs. 9,300
Palit Microsystems is a Chinese firm, which has been manufacturing Nvidia based Graphic card for quite a few years. The whole focus of manufacturing had been earlier intended towards the OEM market. However with their acquisition of the respected Gainward name, which was famous for its cutting edge products Palit has shifted focus and now ships directly to the industry channels. This has seen their presence and consumer awareness about their products increase leading to a greater uptake on their products.
The Palit 7600GT is based on Nvidia’s reference design for the 7600 GT series and comes equipped with the standard VGA Port, DVI Port and an S-Video out. In keeping with its reference design, the card is clocked at a 560/700 core/memory speed, which makes it an absolute stock model with no difference from other products. Where this card gains over offerings from other manufacturers, is that Palit has taken care of providing an excellent cooling solution on the card the card , i.e. the fan on the graphic card is large and keeps the card running cool allowing for some decent amount of overclocking .Another factor that helps this card is the excellent 2d quality that this card offers which is a great point, considering how often one hears gripes about the less than stellar 2d quality available from other far more reputed manufacturers. The software package that is available with this card is in keeping with its status as a low budget offering. It does not offer anything more than HDTV cable, the driver CD and a single software release in the form of Cyberlink’s PowerDVD software.Priced at Rs 9,300 its excellent cooling solution and great 2D display makes this card an excellent buy.

