Geforce 7950 gx2: NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Specs

Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 review: Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2

Previously, when you wanted two 3D cards inside your PC (for the purposes of fast, high-resolution, high-detail gaming), you needed to buy two cards from ATI or Nvidia, plug each card into your PC’s power supply, and join them together via either Nvidia’s internal SLI connector or ATI’s external CrossFire dongle. Through that process, you limit your expansion options—the bulky cards block adjacent slots—and increase the likelihood of requiring a massive power supply. Thanks to its all-in-one dual-3D-chip package, the GeForce 7950 GX2 solves all of those problems. A single GeForce 7950 GX2 still takes up two expansion slots’ worth of space, but instead of losing two adjacent slots, now you lose only one. And because it requires but a single connection to your PC’s power supply, you don’t need the 600-watt, 750-watt, or 1-kilowatt power supplies that have become far too common. Instead, Nvidia recommends only a 400-watt power supply to power a single GeForce 7950 GX2, a marked improvement.

Nvidia’s GeForce 7950 GX2 graphics card should be a PC gamer’s dream. For a suggested price of between $600 and $650, the card gives you the same 3D gaming performance as you would get from two cards at half the cost. And because Nvidia crammed two graphics processors onto a single card, you lose only half as much interior desktop real estate. But the problem is that the GeForce 7950 will be an entire generation behind in roughly six months. We can deal with the iterative updates that happen within a generation of 3D chips, but the forthcoming shift from DirectX 9 hardware—such as the GeForce 7950—to DirectX 10-based gear later this year presents too monumental a change to justify spending $600 on the card now. It’s too bad, because there’s a lot to like here.

The GeForce 7950 GX2 is much more compact than Nvidia’s first dual-3D-chip card, the GeForce 7900 GX2, which was available only from system vendors.

So it’s neither the design of the card nor its requirements that hold us back, but rather the 3D chips themselves. The GeForce 7000 series has been a solid performer for Nvidia. It helped usher in the dual-card SLI era, and even though ATI’s Radeon X1000’s can jump through a few more hoops, I think most gamers would argue that this current generation of 3D chips has served the gaming public well. If that sounds like an epitaph, you’re not far off. The problem is Windows Vista, or more specifically, Vista’s updated multimedia programming interface, DirectX 10.

DirectX is Microsoft’s Rosetta stone for combining hardware and software. As long as software programmers and hardware developers design their products to cue into DirectX, compatibility should be guaranteed. The current version for Windows XP is DirectX 9.0c. Microsoft has stated that Vista will support DirectX 9 software and hardware but that the OS will ship with DirectX 10. The GeForce 7950 GX2 (along with the rest of the GeForce 7000 series), however, is a DirectX 9 part. This means that while it will work with Vista, it won’t support the latest and greatest 3D features, so your $600 investment will be out-of-date only six months after you buy it, assuming Microsoft hits its targeted January Vista release date. While Nvidia (or ATI) has yet to announce a DirectX 10 chip, you can bet that such cards will be out or will be very near release by the time Vista launches.

All of which is too bad, because the GeForce 7950 GX2 really is a fast 3D card. Its core specs aren’t as fast as Nvidia’s single-card flagship, the GeForce 7900 GTX. That card has a 650MHz clock speed for the GPU and 800MHz for the memory, whereas the GeForce 7950 GX2 has a 600MHz GPU clock and only 500MHz for each chip’s 512MB of DDR3 RAM. We’re not surprised by the clock speed reductions given the heat and power issues inherent to running two fast GPUs in a single-slot package, but we were surprised by the performance results. (Props to Sarju Shah, GameSpot’s illustrious associate hardware editor, for sharing his benchmark scores with us).

3DMark 2005
(Higher scores indicate better performance)

1,280×1,024

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT Crossfire mode

9010

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX SLI

8835

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2

8560

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX

6018

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT

5946

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (in fps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,600×1,200 (max.

quality, no AA, no AF)

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX SLI

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT Crossfire mode

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX

On most of the charts, the GeForce 7950 GX2 hangs so close to a pair of GeForce 7900 GTX cards that the performance is basically the same. That’s especially impressive given that two 7900 GTX cards will run you about $1,000. ATI’s Radeon X1900 XT running in CrossFire mode wins by 500 points or so on 3DMark, but that too is an expensive setup, going for roughly $950. ATI still wins for 3D image quality, since on some games you can turn on more image quality features at the same time. But from a sheer dollars-per-frame-rate point of view, if Nvidia had released the $600 GeForce 7950 GX2 even three months ago, we might have called it the best deal we’d ever seen.

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast demo, 4X antialiasing, 16X anisotropic filtering (in fps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,920×1,440 (4X antialiasing, 16X anisotropic filtering)

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX SLI

115

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2

114

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT Crossfire mode

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT

Quake 4 Timedemo 5, High Quality mode (4X antialiasing, 8X anisotropic filtering) (in fps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

High Quality mode, 4X antialiasing, 8X anisotropic filtering

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX SLI

114

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2

110

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XTX Crossfire mode

108

512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT

If you’re wondering about whether you can build your own GeForce Quad SLI PC now that the 7950 GX2 seemingly makes it look easy, the answer is not yet. The 7950 GX2 is Quad-capable, but like the first generation GeForce 7900 GX2 boards, Nvidia will keep Quad SLI system-builder only for now. From what we understand, Nvidia is waiting to get the drivers ready and is making sure the retail motherboards are all up to snuff. Along with the press review material, Nvidia sent us a list of motherboards and the BIOS updates we’d need to make for each of them to get Quad SLI to work. We imagine that Nvidia wants to wait for the motherboard compatibility issues to work themselves out before flipping the DIY switch.

We should add that with the GeForce 7950 GX2, Nvidia has put its ForceWare Release 90 drivers up for download on its Web site. With that driver set, you get Nvidia’s new Control Panel, which gives you a more user-friendly interface for managing your display and 3D settings, similar to ATI’s Catalyst Control Center software, released last year. Nvidia also claims its new software improves various video image-quality tweaks. Our resident home-theater PC guru, Dan Ackerman, is going to tackle that next week. Since the video improvements apply to all of Nvidia’s 3D cards, and we don’t expect many people will buy a GeForce 7950 GX2 for home theater needs, we will discuss the video improvements in their own article.

ATI test bed (ATI Catalyst 6.5 drivers)
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 CPU, Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe motherboard, 2GB (1GB x 2) Corsair XMS Memory, 160GB Seagate 7200.7 Serial ATA hard drive, Windows XP Professional SP2.

Nvidia test bed (ForceWare version 84.21 driver, ForceWare 91.29 driver for 7950 GX2):
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 CPU, Asus A8N32 SLI Deluxe motherboard, 2GB (1GB x 2) Corsair XMS Memory, 160GB Seagate 7200.7 Serial ATA hard drive, Windows XP Professional SP2.

NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 — Motherboard Compatibility

The NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 architecture allows two graphics processing units (GPUs) to be employed on a single graphics card for an ultimate gaming experience. The following motherboards have been tested and passed NVIDIA’s compatibility testing requirements with the GeForce 7950 GX2 graphics card*.

ABIT	AA8-DuraMAX	Intel 925X	2.4
ABIT	AB9 Pro	Intel 965P	11
ABIT	AW8	Intel 955X	1.4
ABIT	AN8 32X	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16	11
ABIT	AN8 SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	1. 9
ABIT	FATAL1TY FP-IN9 SLI	NVIDIA nForce 650I SLI	1.0
ABIT	IN9 32X-MAX	NVIDIA nForce 680i	1.0
ABIT	KN8 SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	17
ABIT	KN9 SLI	NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI	10
Albatron	K8SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	R1.12
ASRock	775i945GZ	Intel 945GZ	1. 00
ASRock	945PL-GLAN	Intel 945PL	1.00
ASUS	A8N32-SLI Deluxe	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16	1205
ASUS	A8N5X	NVIDIA nForce4	0902
ASUS	A8N-E	NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra	1013
ASUS	A8N-SLI Deluxe	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	1016
ASUS	A8N-SLI Premium	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	1011. 006
ASUS	A8R32-MVP Deluxe	ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200	0404
ASUS	A8V-E Deluxe	VIA K8T890/VT8237R	1005
ASUS	L1N64-SLI WS	NVIDIA nForce 680a	0201
ASUS	M2N32-SLI DELUXE	NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI	0404
ASUS	M2N32-WS Professional	NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI	WS 0112
ASUS	M2N4-SLI	Intel P965	0301
ASUS	M2N-E SLI	NVIDIA nForce 500 SLI	0603
ASUS	M2N-SLI DELUXE	NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI	112
ASUS	P5LD2	Intel 945P	1103
ASUS	P5LD2-VM	Intel 945G	0508
ASUS	P5ND2-SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	0304
ASUS	P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16	0121
ASUS	P5WD2	Intel 955X	0501
ASUS	STRIKER EXTREME SLI	NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI	0402
Biostar	i945 G-M7	Intel 945G	24F
DFI	Infinity NF4 SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	2006/04/10
DFI	LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D	NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra	4/6/2006
ECS	945P-A	Intel 945P	2. 58 10/18/05
ECS	KN1 SLI Lite	NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra	1.1d
ECS	nForce4-A939	NVIDIA nForce4	1.1g
EVGA	123-K8-NF47-AX	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	04/11/2006-NF-CK804-6A61FJ1AC-00
Foxconn	NF4SLI7AA-8EKRS2	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Ed.	537F1P34
Foxconn	C51XEM2AA-8EKRS2H	NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI	612W1P19
Gigabyte	GA-81945GMH-RH	Intel 945G	F3
Gigabyte	GA-8I945P-G	Intel 945P	F5
Gigabyte	GA-8I945P PRO	Intel 945P	F5
Gigabyte	GA-8N-SLI (Rev 1. 0)	NVIDIA nForce SLI Intel Ed.	F5
Gigabyte	GA-8N-SLI (Rev1.1)	NVIDIA nForce SLI Intel Ed.	F5
Gigabyte	GA-8N-SLI-Quad Royal	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Ed.	F5
Gigabyte	GA-8N-SLI Royal	NVIDIA nForce SLI Intel Ed.	F6
Gigabyte	GA-965P-DQ6	Intel 965P	F2
Gigabyte	GA-K8N Pro-SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	F4
Gigabyte	GA-K8N-SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	F9
Gigabyte	GA-K8N51GMF	NVIDIA nForce 410/GeForce 6100	F7
Gigabyte	GA-K8N51PVM9-RH	NVIDIA nForce 430/GeForce 6150	F1
Gigabyte	GA-K8NE	NVIDIA nForce4	FB
Gigabyte	GA-K8NF-9	NVIDIA nForce4	F10
Gigabyte	GA-K8N-SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	F9
Gigabyte	GA-K8NXP-9	NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra	F9
Gigabyte	GA-K8NXP-SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	F11
Gigabyte	GA-M57SLI-S4	NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI	F4
Gigabyte	GA-M59SLI-S5	NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI	D8
Intel	D955XBK	Intel 955X	2036
Intel	D975XBX	Intel 975X	1073
Intel	SE7525GP2	Intel E7525	P08
iWill	DK8EW 59102	NVIDIA nForce4 Pro 2200	V130
Jetway	939GT4-SLI-G	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	6/24/2006
MSI	K8N Diamond Plus	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	1. 2
MSI	K8N Neo3	NVIDIA nForce4	1.5
MSI	K8N Neo4 Platinum v1	NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra	1.D
MSI	K9N-SLI Platinum	NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI	1.1
MSI	P4N Diamond	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition	1.4
MSI	P6N SLI Platinum	NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI	1.2
MSI	P965 Neo-F	Intel P965	v1. 2 071706 (Available Soon)
MSI	945P NEO2-F	Intel 945P	A7176IMS v3.2 12/12/05
Shuttle	XPC Barebone Systems		Check Manufacturer’s Website
Supermicro	X6DA8	Intel E7525	1.0B
Tyan	S2895 D/T	NVIDIA nForce 2200/2050	2895_103k

*NVIDIA’s internal testing is limited to System BIOS (SBIOS) and electrical interoperability with GeForce 7950 GX2. NVIDIA makes no warranties and assumes no liability with respect to the accuracy or completeness of any testing, test result, or any other information provided on this website. Nothing herein is intended to constitute any endorsement, express or implied, by NVIDIA of any product listed or not listed on this website.

NVIDIA’s GeForce 7950 GX2 graphics card

NVIDIA HAS BEEN TALKING publicly about Quad SLI for half a year now, and Quad SLI configs have been shipping for a few months in a select number of ultra-high-end PCs. Today, at long last, NVIDIA is unveiling a consumer version of its Quad SLI component card, the GeForce 7950 GX2. A single GX2 plugs into one PCI Express slot, but it actually has a pair of printed circuit boards, two GPUs, and two sets of memory chips onboard. By itself, the GeForce 7950 GX2 is an SLI setup on a stick, a dual-GPU powerhouse that fits into the same space as any other high-end graphics card with a dual-slot cooler. Slide two of these puppies into a system side by side, and you have the potential for Quad SLIbut not the reality, apparently, if you’re just a lowly DIYer.

Confused? So are we. But we do have a GeForce 7950 GX2 in our grubby little hands, and it’s still a heckuva thing, quad SLI or no.

The card
What you see below is BFG Tech’s version of the GeForce 7950 GX2.

Each of this SLI sandwich’s two printed circuit boards carries a G71 graphics processor, 512MB of memory, and a low-profile cooler. That G71 GPU is the same chip that powers the rest of the GeForce 7900 series, and in this application, it’s clocked at 500MHz. The memory chips run at 600MHz. That makes the GX2 roughly the equivalent of a pair of GeForce 7900 GT cardsbut with slightly faster GPU clocks, slightly slower memory clocks, and double the RAM per GPU.

So, uh, yeah. Powerful.

This puppy is also revised quite a bit compared to the cards that shipped in early Quad SLI systems. At 9.5″ inches, the GX2 is shorter than the earlier cardsand no longer than a Radeon X1900.

Protruding from the GX2’s expansion slot cover is a pair of dual-link DVI ports and a TV-out port. These unassuming ports include something new: full HDCP support.

I know, breathtaking, hardware copy protection as a feature!

But you’ll need it to plug into the latest HDTVs, so here it is. The board has a crypto ROM on it that works in concert with the GPU and an HDCP-ready playback application to make the magic happen. Then, all you have to do is plop down on the couch, rest your peg leg, and watch that new Blu-ray title with your one good eye. (Our BFG Tech review unit, however, did not ship with an HDMI plug adapter.)

NVIDIA says you can expect to cough up roughly $599 to $649 worth of pirate booty in order to purchase a GeForce 7950 GX2, and like many of its recent product introductions, this one should be followed by near-immediate availability of cards at online retailers.

How it works
The concept of dual-GPU teaming in a single card seems simple enough, but doing it well requires some extra hardware, especially since the ultimate goal is scaling up gracefully to Quad SLI. In order to make things work right, the GeForce 7950 GX2 has a new helper chip onboard: a custom 48-lane PCI Express switch created by NVIDIA. The switch divvies up its PCI-E lanes into three groups of sixteenone to each GPU and one to the rest of the system. This arrangement allows for high-bandwidth communication between either GPU and the rest of the system, as well as for fast data transfers between the GPUs.

Most data transfers between the GPUs, however, should happen over the dedicated scalable link interconnect (SLI!) that bridges the GX2’s two PCBs. If you look down between the card’s two circuit boards, you can see the physical connection between the cards that carries both PCI-E and SLI data.

The GX2’s internal board-to-board link is nestled between PCBs

All of this plumbing results in a single-card graphics subsystem that looks something like this, logically:

A block diagram of the GeForce 7950 GX2’s logical layout. Source: NVIDIA.

Because this is SLI on a card, it has some limitations. You may see the 7950 GX2 advertised as a 1GB card, and it undeniably has that much video RAM onboard. Yet that RAM is segregated into two 512MB pools, one for each GPU. Yes, the GX2 has about twice the memory bandwidth of a normal card, but functionally, it has a 512MB memory space. Textures and other data must be uploaded to each GPU and stored in each GPU’s associated memory.

The GX2’s PCI Express switch presents another problem, simply because it’s unfamiliar. Having a couple of GPUs in a single slot behind a PCI-E switch can cause device enumeration problems, so most motherboards will require a BIOS update in order to work with the GX2. NVIDIA has put together a list of mobos and BIOS revisions that it’s confirmed will work with the GX2 and has plans to post the list on its web site. Many of the most popular mobos are on the list already, but not all of ’em, so you’ll definitely want to check before buying a GX2.

I should note, by the way, that running a GeForce 7950 GX2 does not require an NVIDIA SLI chipset or even an NVIDIA chipset at all. Intel-based mobos and the like are happily on the GX2’s compatibility list.

Another artifact of SLI that mars the GX2’s operation affects multi-monitor setups. As with a dual-card SLI setup, you’ve got to switch the GX2 manually between multi-GPU mode and multi-display mode. Here’s how the option looks in NVIDIA’s fancy-pants new driver control panel. (This control panel, incidentally, is focus-group tested, just like ATI’s Catalyst Control Center. I hate it. Once again, focus groups prove they know nothing about good interface design.)

If you’re in multi-display mode, one of the GX2’s GPUs will output to two different displays concurrently and drive them like any other card would. In order to harness all of the GX2’s 3D horsepower, though, you’ve got to switch into multi-GPU mode, at which point one of those two displays will go blank. Frustrating, but that’s life with SLI.

Beyond the annoyance of having to pop in and out of multi-monitor mode manually, the GX2 generally appears to work like any other video card, with the GPU teaming operating transparently. The drivers default to multi-GPU mode, and you won’t see any pop-up messages reminding you to enable SLI like you will with dual-card rigs. Of course, in the background, the usual SLI stuff is happening. If there’s no SLI profile for a game in NVIDIA’s drivers, the GX2 won’t be able to accelerate it with two GPUs automatically. As usual, though, the savvy user may create a custom profile for an application if needed.

The deal with Quad SLI
The GeForce 7950 GX2 was designed for use in Quad SLI configurations and is fully capable of working in them. You may have noticed that the GX2 has only one “golden fingers” SLI connector on it, not two like on early Quad SLI cards. The ring topology we discussed in our early look at Quad SLI has been modified for the GX2. Apparently, one of those two SLI links was superfluous. That makes sense, if you think about it, because only two images need to be combinedone from each GX2in the final compositing stage of a Quad SLI rendering mode.

NVIDIA says each 7950 GX2 should pull maximum of 142 watts in real-world operation, so that a pair of ’em would require less than 300 W total. That should fit fairly easily within the power envelope of today’s best PC power supplies.

Before you get all excited about the prospect of dedicating 96 pixel shaders, 2GB of memory, and 1.1 billion transistors to pumping out boatloads of eye candy inside your PC, however, there’s some bad news. NVIDIA says Quad SLI will, at least for now, remain the exclusive realm of PC system builders like Alienware, Dell, and Falcon Northwest because of the “complexity” involved.

Yeah, that’s really what they said.

This “complexity” line is not just some off-the-cuff statement by one guy at NVIDIA, either; it’s practically corporate policy, repeated with consistency by several of the company’s representatives.

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this statement. As far as I can tell, Quad SLI requires a motherboard BIOS update, a fairly high-wattage PSU, sufficient case cooling, and a single SLI bridge connection. When explaining to your best customers why they can’t purchase two of your $649 video cards for themselves without also buying a $5K PC built by someone else, it’s probably not good idea to use a shaky excuse with an embedded insult. Especially if it also subtly sends an unnerving message about the competency of your board partners’ customer support organizations. Yet this is what NVIDIA is saying.

To underscore its commitment to keeping the GX2 chaste, NVIDIA declined to send us a second GeForce 7950 GX2 for testing in a Quad SLI config, and its current GX2 drivers apparently don’t support Quad SLI mode, anyhow. The company says it expects to see DIYers hacking together Quad SLI systems using GX2s, but such setups won’t be officially supported. There does seem to be some hope for DIY Quad SLI in the future, but NVIDIA hasn’t committed to any timetable for enabling this feature for those of us who didn’t pay Voodoo PC’s hefty premiums.

Test notes
We only received drivers for the GX2 in the middle of last week, so our testing time with the card has been extremely limited. As a result, we’ve restricted our testing to a small set of competing cards and to a single resolution and quality level per game. This is, as you may know, not our usual practice, but it will have to suffice for now. In order to tease out real differences between these products, we chose game settings and display resolutions intended to push the limits of the fastest cards we’re testing. The differences between the cards might not be so great a lower resolutions, and they might be even greater with higher ones. With luck, though, our chosen settings will present a reasonably good picture of how these products compare to one another.

Our testing methods
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least three times, and the results were averaged.

Our test systems were configured like so:

Processor	Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2. 4GHz
System bus	1GHz HyperTransport
Motherboard	Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe	Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe
BIOS revision	1205	0404
North bridge	nForce4 SLI X16	Radeon Xpress 3200
South bridge	nForce4 SLI	ULi M1575
Chipset drivers	ForceWare 6. 85	ULi Integrated 2.20
Memory size	2GB (2 DIMMs)	2GB (2 DIMMs)
Memory type	Corsair CMX1024-4400 Pro DDR SDRAM at 400 MHz	Corsair CMX1024-4400 Pro DDR SDRAM at 400 MHz
CAS latency (CL)	2.5	2.5
RAS to CAS delay (tRCD)	3	3
RAS precharge (tRP)	3	3
Cycle time (tRAS)	8	8
Hard drive	Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA 150	Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA 150
Audio	Integrated nForce4/ALC850 with Realtek 5. 10.0.6060 drivers	Integrated M1575/ALC880 with Realtek 5.10.00.5247 drivers
Graphics	GeForce 7900 GT 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 91.29 drivers	Radeon X1800 XT 512MB with Catalyst 6.5 drivers
	GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB PCI-E with ForceWare 91.29 drivers	Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB with Catalyst 6.5 drivers
	GeForce 7950 GX2 1GB PCI-E with ForceWare 91.29 drivers
OS	Windows XP Professional (32-bit)
OS updates	Service Pack 2, DirectX 9. 0c update (April 2006)

Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing. Although these particular modules are rated for CAS 3 at 400MHz, they ran perfectly for us with 2.5-3-3-8 timings at 2.85V.

Our test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing.

Unless otherwise specified, image quality settings for the graphics cards were left at the control panel defaults.

The test systems’ Windows desktops were set at 1280×1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

Quake 4 1.2 with trq4demo5 demo
Battlefield 2 1.3
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 1.1 beta
FEAR 1.05
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast with trcoast2 demo
FutureMark 3DMark05 Build 1.20
FRAPS 2.7.2

The tests and methods we employ are generally publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.

Pixel-filling power
The GeForce 7950 GX2 is really just SLI on a single card, but with a little fudging, it’s possible to express the GX2’s peak fill rate potential and memory bandwidth alongside the single-GPU cards out there.

	Core clock (MHz)	Pixels/ clock	Peak fill rate (Mpixels/s)	Textures/ clock	Peak fill rate (Mtexels/s)	Memory clock (MHz)	Memory bus width (bits)	Peak memory bandwidth (GB/s)
Radeon X1600 XT	590	4	2360	4	2360	1380	128	22. 1
GeForce 6800	325	8	2600	12	3900	700	256	22.4
GeForce 6600 GT	500	4	2000	8	4000	1000	128	16. 0
Radeon X800	400	12	4800	12	4800	700	256	22.4
GeForce 6800 GS	425	8	3400	12	5100	1000	256	32. 0
GeForce 6800 GT	350	16	5600	16	5600	1000	256	32.0
Radeon X800 XL	400	16	6400	16	6400	980	256	31. 4
Radeon X1800 GTO	500	12	6000	12	6000	1000	256	32.0
GeForce 7600 GT	560	8	4480	12	6720	1400	128	22. 4
GeForce 6800 Ultra	425	16	6800	16	6800	1100	256	35.2
GeForce 7800 GT	400	16	6400	20	8000	1000	256	32. 0
All-In-Wonder X1900	500	16	8000	16	8000	960	256	30.7
Radeon X1800 XL	500	16	8000	16	8000	1000	256	32. 0
Radeon X850 XT	520	16	8320	16	8320	1120	256	35.8
Radeon X850 XT PE	540	16	8640	16	8640	1180	256	37. 8
XFX GeForce 7800 GT	450	16	7200	20	9000	1050	256	33.6
Radeon X1800 XT	625	16	10000	16	10000	1500	256	48. 0
Radeon X1900 XT	625	16	10000	16	10000	1450	256	46.4
GeForce 7800 GTX	430	16	6880	24	10320	1200	256	38. 4
Radeon X1900 XTX	650	16	10400	16	10400	1550	256	49.6
GeForce 7900 GT	450	16	7200	24	10800	1320	256	42. 2
GeForce 7800 GTX 512	550	16	8800	24	13200	1700	256	54.4
GeForce 7900 GTX	650	16	10400	24	15600	1600	256	51. 2
GeForce 7950 GX2	*2 500**	32	16000	48	24000	1200	*2 256**	76.8

….and this little experiment shows us what a monster the GX2 really is. All told, this thing has over twice the peak multitextured fill rate of a Radeon X1900 XT and a whopping 76.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Feed the thing a synthetic fill rate benchmark, and it proves those numbers are for real:

No other “single” card comes close. Of course, taking advantage of this power in the real world could prove tricky. Let’s move on to some games and see what happens.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
We tested Oblivion by manually playing through a specific point in the game five times while recording frame rates using the FRAPS utility. Each gameplay sequence lasted 60 seconds. This method has the advantage of simulating real gameplay quite closely, but it comes at the expense of precise repeatability. We believe five sample sessions are sufficient to get reasonably consistent and trustworthy results. In addition to average frame rates, we’ve included the low frames rates, because those tend to reflect the user experience in performance-critical situations. In order to diminish the effect of outliers, we’ve reported the median of the five low frame rates we encountered.

We set Oblivion’s graphical quality settings to “High.” The screen resolution was set to 1600×1200 resolution, with HDR lighting enabled. 16X anisotropic filtering was forced on via the cards’ driver control panel.

Quake 4
In order to make sure we pushed the video cards as hard as possible, we enabled Quake 4’s multiprocessor support before testing.

F.E.A.R.
We’ve used FRAPS to play through a sequence in F.E.A.R. in the past, but this time around, we’re using the game’s built-in “test settings” benchmark for a quick, repeatable comparison.

All in all, the GX2 looks very potent compared to the single-GPU cards.

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
This expansion level for Half-Life 2 makes use of high-dynamic-range lighting and some nice pixel shader effects to create an impressive-looking waterfront. We tested with HDR lighting enabled on all cards.

Battlefield 2
We test BF2 using FRAPS and manual gameplay, much like we did with Oblivion.

Pretty impressive. In Battlefield 2, the GX2 actually achieves twice the average frame rate of the GeForce 7900 GTand more than twice its median low frame rate.

3DMark06

The GX2 keeps it going in 3DMark06, totally outclassing the rest of the field.

Power consumption
We measured total system power consumption at the wall socket using a watt meter. The monitor was plugged into a separate outlet, so its power draw was not part of our measurement. To keep things even, we did our power consumption testing for all cards using the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe motherboard.

The idle measurements were taken at the Windows desktop with AMD’s Cool’n’Quiet CPU clock throttling function disabled. The cards were tested under load running Oblivion using the game’s High Quality setting at 1600×1200 resolution with 16X anisotropic filtering.

Unsurprisingly, the GX2 consumes more power when sitting at the Windows desktop than any of the single-GPU cards. The shocking thing is the power use under load. The Radeon X1900 XT-based system draws 27 watts more power at the outlet than the otherwise-identical GX2-based rig. Craziness.

Ok, maybe it’s not so crazy. We’ve seen similar achievements with dual-core CPUs, after all. And the GX2 certainly acts the part; its cooler seems a little quieter under load the Radeon X1900 XTX’s. The GX2 isn’t as whisper quiet as the GeForce 7900 GTX, but it’s pretty darned good, considering.

Conclusions
Somehow, I didn’t really expect a “single” GeForce 7950 GX2 card to be a compelling product outside of a Quad SLI configuration. This puppy does have its warts, including the need for mobo BIOS updates and the SLI-like limitations for multi-monitor use that may turn some power users away. Still, the GX2 is remarkably tame overall. This card takes up no more space, draws no more power, and generates no more heat or noise than a Radeon X1900 XTX, but its performance is in another class altogether. The multi-GPU mojo generally happens transparently, too, thanks to a healthy collection of SLI profiles already established in NVIDIA’s drivers. Putting two GPUs on a card has allowed NVIDIA to overcome the limitations of its present GPU designs and of current fab process tech to achieve new performance heights in a single PCI Express slot.

Of course, such things have been possible for quite some time in the form of a two-slot SLI or CrossFire solution, but the GX2 still has much to recommend it. Doubling up on GeForce 7900 GTs would get you an SLI setup in the same price range, but with lower (stock) GPU clock speeds and only 256MB of memory per GPU. And the GX2 works in any chipset, which may prove to be a real boon if you fancy one of Intel’s Conroe processors, an Intel chipset, and uber-fast graphics. I could see that combination becoming very popular this summer, if things shake out as expected.

All that’s left now is for NVIDIA to enableand supportQuad SLI in consumer-built systems. Let’s hope NVIDIA comes to its senses on that one sooner rather than later.

Characteristics of NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 / Overclockers.ua

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GeForce 7950 GX2 video card [in 1 benchmark]

NVIDIA
GeForce 7950 GX2

PCIe 1.0 x16 interface
Core frequency 500 MHz
Video memory size 512 MB
Memory type GDDR3
Memory frequency 1200 MHz
Maximum resolution

Description

NVIDIA started GeForce 7950 GX2 sales on June 5, 2006 at a suggested price of $599. This is a desktop video card based on the Curie architecture and 90 nm manufacturing process, primarily designed for office use. It has 512 MB of GDDR3 memory at 1.2 GHz, and coupled with a 256-bit interface, this creates a bandwidth of 38.40 Gb / s.

In terms of compatibility, this is a dual-slot PCIe 1.0 x16 card. The length of the reference version is 270 mm. An additional 1x 6-pin power cable is required for connection, and the power consumption is 110W.

It provides poor performance in tests and games at the level of

0.68%

from the leader, which is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.

GeForce
7950 GX2

GeForce RTX
3090 Ti

General Information

Features

GeForce 7950 GX2’s general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. They indirectly speak about GeForce 7950 GX2’s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results. of 900 (Tesla S2050) Textory speed 12.00 of 939.8 (H200 SXM5) 9025 9025 9025 9025 9025 9025 9025 9025 9025 9025 9025 9025 9022
Information on GeForce 7950 GX2 compatibility with other computer components. Useful for example when choosing the configuration of a future computer or to upgrade an existing one. For desktop video cards, these are the interface and connection bus (compatibility with the motherboard), the physical dimensions of the video card (compatibility with the motherboard and case), additional power connectors (compatibility with the power supply).

Overall benchmark performance

This is our overall performance rating. We regularly improve our algorithms, but if you find any inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in the comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

7950 GX2
0.68

Passmark

Passmark

This is a very common benchmark included in the Passmark PerformanceTest package. He gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation by running four separate tests for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the latter is done in 4K resolution if possible), and a few more tests using DirectCompute.

Benchmark coverage: 26%

7950 GX2
201

Game tests

FPS in popular games on GeForce 7950 GX2, as well as compliance with system requirements. Remember that the official requirements of the developers do not always match the data of real tests.

Medium FPS

Popular games

Relative performance

Overall GeForce 7950 GX2 performance compared to its nearest desktop counterparts.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 220
104.41

ATI Radeon HD 4650 AGP
102. 94

NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
100

NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2
100

ATI Radeon HD 4570
98.53

AMD Radeon HD 6450
98.53

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS
97.06

Competitor from AMD

We believe that the nearest equivalent to GeForce 7950 GX2 from AMD is Radeon HD 6450, which is slower by 1% on average and lower by 2 positions in our rating.

Radeon HD
6450

Compare

Here are some of AMD’s closest competitors to the GeForce 7950 GX2:

ATI Radeon HD 4650
107.35

ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO
104.41

ATI Radeon HD 4650 AGP
102.94

NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2
100

ATI Radeon HD 4570
98. 53

AMD Radeon HD 6450
98.53

AMD Radeon HD 8210E
95.59

Recommended processors

According to our statistics, these processors are most often used with the GeForce 7950 GX2.

Athlon 64
X2 6000+

4.8%

Athlon 64
X2 5000+

4.8%

Core i7
2600K

4.8%

Pentium 4
P4 3.0

4.8%

Ryzen 5
5600H

4.8%

Celeron
G1610

4.8%

Core 2
Duo T5670

4.8%

Core i3
3225

4.8%

Core i3
380M

4.8%

Core i3
2120

4. 8%

User rating

Here you can see the rating of the video card by users, as well as put your own rating.

Tips and comments

Here you can ask a question about the GeForce 7950 GX2, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.

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«Give me two!» Testing Quad SLI based on two GeForce 7950GX2 / Video cards

Instead of preface

Recently we have tested a new product from NVIDIA — GeForce 7950GX2. The video card is made in the form of a «sandwich» of two PCBs, each of which carries its own G71 GPU and 512 MB of video memory. Despite its dual nature, the GeForce 7950GX2 is positioned as a single video card and, what is most important for today’s testing, it has a V-Link connector, that is, theoretically, you can take two GeForce 7950GX2 and try to combine them into a Quad SLI bundle.

NVIDIA white papers state that Quad SLI support is not currently available and will only be available in future versions of ForceWare drivers and only to authorized OEMs. For Russian «left-handers» who are accustomed to assembling anything «on their knees», such restrictions may seem somewhat far-fetched, but NVIDIA’s policy is understandable. The Quad SLI system imposes not only increased demands on the computer hardware in terms of power consumption, the number and speed of PCI-Express slots, etc., but also on the software part of the complex. The main point that requires increased attention is how to optimize the load distribution and synchronization of work simultaneously for four GPUs. And if the SLI technology has already been debugged, time-tested and is able to demonstrate a performance increase of up to 80%, then with Quad SLI everything is not so clear. This explains NVIDIA’s slowness in bringing Quad SLI to the market. On the other hand, the potential market for Quad SLI can hardly be called a mass market anyway. In the most massive segment of displays with a diagonal of 15, 17 and even 19inches, the typical resolution is 1024×768 or 1280×1024 pixels. Under these conditions, today’s top video cards, not to mention SLI and CrossFire, are quite capable of providing maximum picture quality at maximum graphics settings. And the segment of displays capable of providing a resolution of 1600×1200 and above is much more modest, not to mention the 30-inch Dell 3007WFP and Apple Cinema displays with a maximum resolution of 2560×1600 pixels.

Nevertheless, it was very interesting to see with my own eyes what this Quad SLI is. And the ASUS EN79 video card will help us with this50GX2.

ASUS EN7950GX2

As usual, we won’t review the ASUS EN7950GX2 video card in detail. It is no different from the reference GeForce 7950GX2. There is nothing surprising in this. The practice of issuing top-end video cards manufactured by order of a video chip developer has not bypassed the GeForce 7950GX2 either. It is clear that in this case the delivery set will differ only in the shape and design of the package, a set of accessories and branded stickers.

Box containing EN7950GX2 is habitually large for ASUS graphics cards. Specifications and system requirements are, of course, exactly the same as for the MSI NX7950GX2 graphics card. Two GPU G71, total video memory 1 GB, minimum power supply — 400 W (at least 27A on the 12V line).

Only a modest sticker on the cooler reveals that it belongs to ASUS, while the surface of the heatsink cover bears part of the image of NVIDIA’s branded «eye».

Scope of supply:

DVI/D-SUB adapter — 2 pcs.
HDTV-out cable
Auxiliary power cable
Quick Installation Guide
Multilingual manual disc
«King-Kong» disc
CD with «Project SnowBlind» game
Branded CD case.

Since it is obvious that the ASUS EN7950GX2 video card is an exact copy of the reference model GeForce 7950GX2, we didn’t take it apart and photograph it in detail. It is unlikely that at the moment we would see something different from the reference there.

Since we already have two samples of GeForce 7950GX2 together with MSI NX7950GX2, we tried to combine their efforts. Look, aren’t they beauties?

Next, we will tell you about how we assembled Quad SLI «on the knee» and what came of it in the end.

Do-it-yourself Quad SLI

Of course, the GeForce 7950GX2 has a V-Link connector, like most modern video cards based on NVIDIA chips, but we couldn’t even imagine that it’s so easy to make two GeForce 79s work in one harness50GX2.

How we got there. As you know, our test bench is based on MSI K8N Diamond Plus motherboard. The motherboard is based on the nForce4 SLI x16 chipset and has two full-fledged PCI-E 16x slots. When the second video card based on the GeForce 7950GX2 appeared in the test lab, we plugged it into the test bench, put a V-Link bridge on the top connectors of the video cards, turned it on and… the system started up.

Already good. Then we installed the drivers, checked the «SLI Enabled» checkbox and at the same time one more to display the load distribution on the screen during the launch of the 3D application. And that’s what happened.

As you can see on the screenshot, the system proudly reported that it works in Quad SLI mode!!! While the usual SLI mode corresponds to a slightly different inscription (the screenshot below was taken during testing of a single GeForce 7950GX2).

You can already tell from the screenshots that the Quad SLI still works. Pay attention to the green bars showing the GPU load. The stripes in the case of Quad SLI are much smaller in height, which means less load on video cards than in the regular SLI mode (the graphics settings were set the same for both cases).

Before we start testing, let’s think about what the performance gain of Quad-SLI could be compared to a single video card running at the same frequencies. Of course, there is no need to talk about a fourfold increase. Inevitably, there will be overhead for load balancing and subsequent synchronization. We know that the performance gain of an SLI bundle compared to a single video card is about 80%. That is, two video cards in SLI mode work about 1.8 times faster than one of the same video card. Suppose that when combining video cards in SLI mode, the proportion will be preserved, that is, two GeForce 7950GX2 in Quad-SLI mode will work 1.8 times faster than a single GeForce 7950GX2. Then, multiplying 1.8 by 1.8, we get 3.24 (times). That is, according to this estimate, a Quad-SLI of two GeForce 7950GX2 will be approximately 3.24 times faster than a single video card of the same configuration. But that’s in theory.

Let’s see what practice will show. We decided to take a bunch of 7900GTX-SLI, single 7950GX2, 7900GT, as well as a «half» of 7950GX2 as «rivals» of Quad SLI. Method for obtaining «half» of 7950GX2 is quite simple, it is enough to switch the operating mode from multiprocessor to multidisplay in the NVIDIA control panel. In this case, only one of the two GPUs available on the 7950GX2 is used in 3D applications. The inclusion of the «half» 7950GX2 in the list is due to the desire to test the effectiveness of the joint work of four GPUs in comparison with the same, but single. This time the graphics cards were not overclocked.

GeForce 7950GX2 tested using NVIDIA 9 beta drivers1.31.

For ease of viewing, the results of GeForce 7950GX2 in Quad SLI mode and «halves» of 7950GX2 are highlighted in light green. In parentheses are the nominal frequencies of the GPU / memory, respectively.

Surprisingly, there is no increase in results in 3DMark’06. A bundle of two GeForce 7950GX2 shows exactly the same results as a single GeForce 7950GX2. Let’s try to figure out why.

Here it is necessary to make a lyrical digression. As in the case of conventional SLI, we can see a performance increase only when the drivers are optimized for a particular application. For new games or applications, it is quite likely that the drivers do not have the appropriate profile, and as a result only one video card is used from all available. On the other hand, as the number of GPUs increases, the overhead of distributing the load between them increases, and this can lead to lower results if the performance is limited by the CPU. It is difficult to say which of these two factors played a decisive role in this case. Let’s see what will happen next.

In 3DMark’05 the situation for Quad SLI in the performance of two GeForce 7950GX2 only gets worse. A pair of GeForce 7950GX2 shows even lower results than a single video card of this type.

Still works. In 3DMark’03 we can see that Quad SLI is slightly ahead of the single GeForce 7950GX2, however, it still fails to overtake the 7900GTX-SLI bundle.

Synthetic tests show that Quad SLI is of little use. But do not forget that we conducted tests in 3DMark with default settings, that is, without enabling anisotropic filtering and full-screen anti-aliasing. So if you want to show off your «parrots» to your friends — one Quad SLI is not enough (sorry for the pun). You will also need a very powerful (or overclocked to the limit) central processor. In the meantime, we’ll see if Quad SLI will be of any use in games.

We present here the results only in two resolutions — 1280×1024 and 1600×1200. It makes little sense to test such powerful video cards at low resolutions, and at high resolutions the existing display does not allow.

In Half-Life2, the results look exactly the same as in synthetics. Quad SLI lags behind the single GeForce 7950GX2, while its «half» is slightly ahead of 7900GT.

It’s the same in DOOM3. Really from Quad SLI there is no sense at all?

Even at a resolution of 1600×1200 Quad SLI cannot overtake 7900GTX-SLI, and the overall distribution of results resembles the alignment of forces in 3DMark’03.

I can’t even believe it. It’s done! Quad SLI is finally outperforming the 7900GTX-SLI bundle. The advantage is not so great, but it is clearly not accidental.

Further transition to 1600×1200 resolution demonstrates the convincing superiority of Quad SLI over all rivals. And here we can note a very interesting fact. Look at the results of the «half» GeForce 7950GX2 and Quad SLI. The number of frames per second shown by these video cards is 36 and 99, respectively. If we divide one by the other, we get that the four-head solution is 2.75 times faster than a similar single-processor video card. This is somewhat less than in the theoretical estimate that we received above. Nevertheless, the result is very decent, considering that the central processor is not the most powerful nowadays, and the video drivers are in beta. As Quad SLI technology improves, we can expect results closer to the theoretical maximum.

Conclusions

In summary, it’s safe to say that Quad SLI technology definitely has potential. Moreover, it will be revealed in the best possible way, first of all, in heavy graphics modes and at high resolutions, and, of course, in new games with the most «heavy» graphics. Of course, all this is possible, provided that appropriate work is carried out to optimize drivers, applications and create appropriate profiles. Since NVIDIA works very closely and successfully with application developers, there is no doubt that profiles for new games will appear on time.

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NVIDIA’s GeForce 7950 GX2 graphics card

Characteristics of NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 / Overclockers.ua

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«Give me two!» Testing Quad SLI based on two GeForce 7950GX2 / Video cards

Instead of preface

ASUS EN7950GX2

Do-it-yourself Quad SLI

Conclusions