GeForce 7950GX2 or 7900 GTX

peustace

Well, not much experience with Graphics cards but looking at both of these just wondering if the 7950GX2 is worth the extra bit of money?

Also both cards take up two slots due to the size of the fan, is this usual? would it be worth sacrificing a spare slot just to accommodate a graphics card with a large fan?
and do ye find it a hindrance when ye are installin new pci cards?


Thanks a mill

Stephen

Most high end graphics cards these days occupy two slots. I haven't found it a hindrance - how many PCI cards do you really need? The only one I have is my soundcard. I use onboard ethernet, and haven't had a 56k modem installed in years.

8T8

Well the 7950GX2 is really "SLI on a stick" you need to make sure your motherboard has a bios update to support it & have a high resolution monitor (1600x1200+) in order to take advantage of it.

If the answer is no to both of the above then go with the NVIDIA 7900GTX or an ATI X1900XTX. If you prioritize image quality (AA & AF) then go with the ATI card but it is noisier compared to the NV card.

peustace

Cool, thanks for the info. Just one more question is the NVIDIA 7900GTX the same as the BFG GeForce 7900GTX? is it the same architecture just different labels slapped on each card?


cheers.

8T8

They are the same NVIDIA designs the chip & card and vendors like BFG, XFX, eVGA etc. sell the finished product at retail.

jesus_thats_gre

What resolutions are gonna play at?

christophicus

peustace wrote:

Cool, thanks for the info. Just one more question is the NVIDIA 7900GTX the same as the BFG GeForce 7900GTX? is it the same architecture just different labels slapped on each card?


cheers.

All of the hardware is the same but BFG tend to preoverclock their cards, meaning it will run a little bit faster then a standard 7900GTX.

CombatCow

Imo it would make more sense to get a 7800GT/GTX now...somethnig cheaper than a 7950GX2 and get a DX10 gfx card in the new year ???


CC

DirkVoodoo

I agree with 8T8 and Combatcow,

I think Anandtech or a similar site did a review of a 7950 and found that unless it was being run at very high resolutions (like those native to dells 2407 and 3007 FPW or a dual monitor setup) then the performance increase was negligible.

Definitely the time is now to go with the best 'bang-for-your-buck' option if upgrading. Wouldnt go with the x1900 xtx, i think the standard xt can be tweaked to xtx speeds, google to be sure.

awhir

DirkVoodoo wrote:

I agree with 8T8 and Combatcow,

I think Anandtech or a similar site did a review of a 7950 and found that unless it was being run at very high resolutions (like those native to dells 2407 and 3007 FPW or a dual monitor setup) then the performance increase was negligible.

Definitely the time is now to go with the best 'bang-for-your-buck' option if upgrading. Wouldnt go with the x1900 xtx, i think the standard xt can be tweaked to xtx speeds, google to be sure.

wellcome back cc

CombatCow

cheers, i'll have a new case ready to be filled with some funky new stuff after my holidays, so im sure yah will be seeing it in the modding gallery in a while

CC