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Summary

This is a basic preview of this product intended for readers who just want a quick look at the new product.  If you are interested in the full review, with all the technical data and benchmarks that you are used to seeing on PC Perspective, please click on this link to get to that article.

NVIDIA today is announcing the GeForce 7950 GX2 graphics card.  The 7950 GX2 is a totally new GPU (well not really) and is a comprehensive dual-GPU solution reference design from NVIDIA.  It sports two 7-series graphics cores and 1GB of total memory.  It should be quite a beast.

NVIDIA is placing the 7950 GX2 on the top of its product line, marketing it as the new flagship card for their GeForce 7-series of GPUs.  This is interesting because while the multi-GPU configuration of the 7950 GX2 card will out perform the previous flagship 7900 GTX in most cases, it won’t in every case.  In games that are heavily CPU bound or don’t support multi-GPU rendering modes, the lower clock speeds of the 7950 GX2 will mean it will run slightly slower than the 7900 GTX and more inline with the 7900 GT.

The 7950 GX2 is of course still based on the same G71 architecture and chip that the 7900 GT and GTX use, so the technology, features, die sizes and all will remain the same. 

The BFG 7950 GX2 is identical to the NVIDIA reference design with the exception of the sticker placed on the top heatsink fan unit.  The clock speeds are 500 MHz core and 600 MHz memory; there is no out-of-the-box overclocking on any of these units.  As far as I know, that is the case from all the vendors that will be selling 7950 GX2 cards today.  Perhaps the vendors got some “feedbackâ€� from NVIDIA when all the trouble with the 7900 GTX overclocking and freezing issue hit the fan…?

Let's take a quick look at performance:

The BFG 7950 GX2 simply outperforms every other video card we have tested, period.  Without any overclocking over the reference speeds, this card is just plain fast and was able to out perform both the 7900 GTX and the X1900 XTX in every benchmark we threw at it.  Coupling two GPUs in multi-GPU rendering with 1GB of total frame buffer memory, the GX2 makes the most of NVIDIA technology to bring a best-in-class offering to the table.  If you want the fastest single graphics card on the market, then this is going to be it for some time.

Quad SLI is the real holy grail of these new 7950 GX2 cards.  We have seen dual-GPU graphics cards from Gigabyte and Asus in recent years without the need for an NVIDIA reference design, so the GX2 in and of itself isn’t incredibly new technology.  What the Taiwanese engineers were unable to do was get two of their cards to work in SLI mode to have quad-GPU rendering, which is what NVIDIA is hoping catches on.

I have spoken with several vendors and manufacturers and they are saying the $599 price mark should actually be hit by at least one of the initial card brands to start.  If that does indeed turn out to be the case, I hate to admit it, but the 7950 GX2 might actually be a “good dealâ€� if you are hardcore gamer and enthusiast.  Yes, yes, I know $600 is expensive for a graphics card, but considering how much the original X850 and 7800 GTX 512 cards went for, $600 is a steal.  (Well, okay, that is stretching it.) 

Final Thoughts

The BFG GeForce 7950 GX2 is without a doubt the fastest graphics card on the market today.  NVIDIA did their homework on the development of their second multi-GPU reference design, fixing the issues of PCB size and power usage that arose in the first iteration.  We can’t wait for Quad SLI to hit its stride, but the GX2 is more than enough to tide us over.

This is a basic preview of this product intended for readers who just want a quick look at the new product.  If you are interested in the full review, with all the technical data and benchmarks that you are used to seeing on PC Perspective, please click on this link to get to that article.

Be sure to use our price checking engine to find the best prices on the NVIDIA 7950 GX2, and anything else you may want to buy!

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