MSI NX7600GT VT2D256E - GeForce 7600GT

Closer Look at the NX7600GT-VT2D256E Big and Beautiful

The NX7600GT-VT2D256E comes equipped with 12 Pixel Pipelines, 5 Vertex Shaders and is backed by 256MB of GDDR3 memory.  Clocked at 580MHz, the GPU runs 20MHz faster than NVIDIA's reference design.  The 256MBs of GDDR3 also comes clocked higher, running at 750MHz (1500MHz DDR) compared to 700MHz (1400MHz DDR).  The NX7600GT sports dual DVI outputs, dual 400MHz RAMDACs, is SLI ready and has full ViVo capability.  The core brings the same feature set as its big brother, the GeForce 7900 series, including SM3.0 and Pure video, however, with a power requirement of only 70W, the NX7600GT-VT2D256E doesn't require any supplemental power beyond what a standard PCI Express Graphics slot provides.

The one feature that makes the NX7600GT-VT2D256E stand out is its full-body cooler that spans the entire length of the card.  The cooler's two slot design draws fresh air from outside while exhausting heated air into the case to be removed by the chassis fans.  This method always ensures that cooler outside air is drawn across the heat sink, which should be the lowest temperature air available.  When removed, the oversized cooler's inner workings become more evident, showing a heat pipe design at its core.  MSI uses a tidy application of thermal interface material to ensure good transfer from GPU and RAM to the cooler.

Certainly some may be deterred by the NX7600GT-VT2D256E's very large cooler, which may not be usable in tighter cases such as mini PCs.  However, overclocking enthusiasts may appreciate the extra cooling hardware.  We should also note that the cooler is extremely quiet, even when we overclocked the card and ran it through some tests.  In our opinion, quiet is always a good thing.