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...

[greenwar]

Sweet scores and awesome bences ma man. Keep up the good job.

[forey]

sli'd 7950x2 = 30k+ anyone?

[IvanAndreevich]

Very nice.. 19K single card on stock cooling!

sli'd 7950x2 = 30k+ anyone?

No way.. CPU limited, I think.

[Turrican]

Very good scores. I'm surprised that the card is running so cool

[-Clocker-]

No way.. CPU limited, I think.

I think conroe can handle that in 3d05^^

[don_vercetti]

Conroe @ 4ghz probably could.

[Makubex_GB]

Holy $H!T!! 10769 on 3DMark06!

[lowfat]

these things are looking more and more promising as the benches show up.

[mdzcpa]

Nice work Pedro.

I'm with you, these 7950GX2 cards are serious performers. I have a thread around here where I teamed the 7950 up with an air cooled FX-60 with great results. I bought the card anticpating my upcoming move to a Conroe based system. Based on your results, looks like I made the right choice

I also have a small fan on my card too. Works wonders!

[payne280]

very nice scores, these cards are good performers for the price

[stone_cold_Jimi]

Dual GPUs ftw.

My 2x stock low-budget 7800GTs in SLI still beat a single stock X1900XT or 7900GTX. It feels like it too.

[perkam]

Single XTX can do anything 7950gx2 can in 3dmark01...imo.

Perkam

[mdzcpa]

Single XTX can do anything 7950gx2 can in 3dmark01...imo.

Perkam

With all due respect my friend, 3d01 is an outdated benchmark. Put the 7950 up against the XTX in current game titles and the XTX gets murdered.

[ODIO]

powerfull vga
it's Nvidia rock & roll now

[afireinside]

Woah nice results pedro! Making me rethink my x1900 purchase...

[CedricFP]

I would like to see Quad SLI with conroe @ 4ghz... that would certainly be interesting.

[zakelwe]

Although I am a fan of nvidia I was not too keen on the 7950GX2 when I first saw it because I did not like the 2 PCB design, I would much prefer two gpu's on one PCB a la Gigabyte and Asus. However I am slowly changing my tune as the results for an air cooled 24/7 gaming rig seemto be very good indeed at a very nice price. Nvidia just have to hone their Quad drivers as well.

Assuming it goes Quad, what are your plans for PSU ? Or is this already sorted ( this is a general question to anyone with GX2 ).

Regards

Andy

[k|ngp|n]

Good to see the Portugal guys laying down some smackage again in 3d
When quad SLI is fully functional.....

[SIOUX]

Thats a realy strong 01 nature score aswell for the clocks my friend

[Kinc]

Really nice to see someone showing of the potential of 7950GX2 with a conroe!

The internal pci-ex switch does the job the chipset would normally do. Thus we get more sys power left with 7950GX2 then SLI. I will have ln2 cooling ready for 7950GX2 and Quad-SLI tomorrow.

[Nanometer]

Come on Perkam, everyone knows that 3D marks 01 isn't really testing the video card. It's the most CPU reliant benchmark of the 3D marks series. Because the 1900XTX happend to beat the 7950 in that benchmark means absolutely nothing. If you want a good way to compare them look at '03 and '06.

[Lestat]

what reviews i was reading showed the 7950 GX2 to perform LESS than 2x 7900 in SLI.

maybe the reviewers hardware, maybe the 7900 SLI is just more efficient in their hardware, i cant say but has anyone else been seeingsimilar things


and damn it i want a conroe!!! time to put up my 955 XE and P5WD2-E Prem for sale!!!

[perkam]

Come on now guys...lets see you go after kyosen

You know you can

Perkam

[Pedro Rocha]

Good to see the Portugal guys laying down some smackage again in 3d
When quad SLI is fully functional.....

Thanks Xtreme Legend

The really game will only start with E6800 with decent multipliers, when you are plannig to start benching with the Conroe?
Belive me the jump to Intel is quite painless and its a fun to bench on it, never seem to stop scalling ..and finally we dont have cold bug - so you can drop all cold you can get it on - me and Ricky are preparing a suprise on that chapeter

I was quite amazed with the performance of this 7950GX2, specially considering its low price ..

Put an evaporator between the cards gonna quite a challange ...very dificult but not impossible