EVGA 7950GX2 Dual GPU meet Intel Bad Axe and Conroe E6600

[Pedro Rocha]

Today I was doing a mini-review of an EVGA 7950GX2 for my friend Rui from Aquapc and I decide to promote an unexpected meeting: 7950GX2 Dual GPU with Intel Bad Axe and Conroe E6600

1st of all, they work very well together, the Bad Axe is even one of 975X mobos recommended by Nvidia in their list of 7950GX compatible boards..

The 2nd good surprise is the overclock capability of these new Nvidia card: from stock 500 MHz GPU / 600x2 Mhz - they jump without any effort above 600-800 (1600Mhz effective on mem)

3rd: silence!!! - very important for me - card is virtually inaudible, even at full load ..

4th, temperatures are very acceptable for such a small stock cooler, however for overclocking I recommend put a silent 120mm fan (800rpm or even less rpm are enough and don't make any noise) - with that never pass 60ºC at full load even during long benchs (ambient temp here around 24ºC) - - see photo for fan position:



(The fan above the card is to cool Bad Axe chipset that get very hot at near 420FSB)


Well let's see the results:

3D Mark 2003 :




3D Mark 2005 :




3D Mark 2006 :




And last but not least - 3D Mark 2001 :




In conclusion, with new generation CPUS (well.. Conroe ) that does not limit GPU performance; the 7950GX2 can get you a very similar performance to 2 ATI X1900XT in Crossfire..But for near half of the price

The prices here in Portugal (in Euros) are X1900 CF Master € 545 +X1900XTX € 539 = Total - € 1.084

The price for the EVGA 7950GX2 Dual GPU is (also here) :€ 595 - very very competitive for the performance offered

Now just imagine, what these cards will do when (and if) the drivers that allow Quad SLI will be available for Conroes mobos ..good times coming

This is Pedro Rocha over and out, I hope your enjoy the meeting...