Building a new machine ... 7950GX2 or dual 7900 GTs?

[Ramzie]

Hey guys so im building a new system in the next month (trying to hold out for conroe) and im wondering about video cards.

Should i get one of the new 7950GX2s or 2 7900 GTs?

Ive heard alot of people saying the 7950GX2 is crap ... but it costs as much as 2 7900 GTs and from the benchmarking ive seen scores higher then two single 7900 GTs in SLI ... + it adds the possibility of quad SLI in the near future ... im just curious what everyone thinks.

Go 1 7950GX2, 2 7900 GTs, 1 7900 GTX? any experiences, thoughts, recomendations appreciated.

Ramzie

 

[Todd33]

1 card w/ 1GB or two cards with 512MB total....

Get the 7950

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Todd33
1 card w/ 1GB or two cards with 512MB total....

Get the 7950

Actually even the 7950 has only a 512mb frame buffer. You don't get a useable 1GB of vram. It's just as if you had 2 7900GTX (512mb) cards in SLI. The marketers say 1GB cause it's bigger than 512mb but you still only have a 512mb frame buffer.

Check the Techreport.com review of the 7950 for confirmation of what I said.

To the OP, what are the rest of your comp specs??

 

[hardwareking]

well for 2 7900 gt's,u'll need to get an sli mobo.That adds to cost.
If i were u i'd get the 7950 gx2 as that card will run on any mobo with a up-to-date bios.
It's as good as 2x 7900 gtx in sli - some clock/memory speed loss.So it'll be slightly slower than 2 gtx's in sli but it'll costs less.

 

[Todd33]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: Todd33
1 card w/ 1GB or two cards with 512MB total....

Get the 7950

Actually even the 7950 has only a 512mb frame buffer. You don't get a useable 1GB of vram. It's just as if you had 2 7900GTX (512mb) cards in SLI. The marketers say 1GB cause it's bigger than 512mb but you still only have a 512mb frame buffer.

Check the Techreport.com review of the 7950 for confirmation of what I said.

To the OP, what are the rest of your comp specs??

I didn't say the 7950 had 1GB per GPU, but it's still twice the amount of the 2x 7900GT for the same price.

 

[Fadey]

Well i had a 7800gtx and i went to a 7950gx2 and i love it... By default the 7950gx2 is cheaper and faster than 7900gt sli which u also need a sli board for.. but u can volt mod , oc and bbq your card a 7900gt to higher speeds. The 7950gx2 isnt a bad overclocker but not as good as a 7900gt..

 

[Ramzie]

Ok heres the rest of my system.

Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe mobo
AMD Athlon 64 4600+ X2 socket AM2
Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2 800 TWINX2X2048-6400C4
3 WD 250GB SATA 3.0 HDs with 16mb cache in Raid 5
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi ExtremeMusic Soundcard
Enermax Liberty ELT620AWT ATX 12V 620W PSU
Lian Li PC-S80 Black Case
Plextor PX-755SA DVD-RW
ZALMAN AM2 9500 Heatsink
Arctic Silver 5

So ... what do you guys think? go 7950GX2 and go quad eventually?

 

[nitromullet]

If your plan is to go quad-SLI, I would get a stronger PSU than that. I would be thinking PCP&C 1GW...

 

[beggerking]

wait until NV actually has a working quad driver before you purchase 7950..

 

[Todd33]

Originally posted by: Ramzie
go 7950GX2 and go quad eventually?

Yes, No.

 

[Ramzie]

Dont think Quad SLI will catch on Todd33? ya i should probably get a bigger PS if im thinking about quad SLI in the future.

Thanks for the input guys, unless anyones got more compelling evidence one way or the other im going to get the BFG 7950GX2 for my new system. Ill let u guys know how it turns out =)

 

[gramboh]

I'd go 7950GX2 for sure, it's good value for money (especially in Canada, it's $30-50 more than a X1900XTX haha).

RE: Your system,

1) check out the Seagate 7200.10 320gig Barracuda SATA2 drives with perpendicular recording. Nice performance boost. 3 of those in RAID 5/6 = you win.

2) wait for Core 2 Duo if you can hold out 6 weeks (assuming availability)

3) Not familiar with Enermax quality lately, I know OCZ and Seasonic are supposed to have very good 500-600W PS' with stable rails for running high power video cards.

 

[mancunian]

Single card solution will always be better, go for the 7950GX2.

 

[Golgatha]

At the resolutions 7900GT SLI or 7950GX2 can play, the 512MB per core on the 7950GX2 will make it a better investment. As long as the motherboard supports the GX2, I'd say go for it.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: gramboh
I'd go 7950GX2 for sure, it's good value for money (especially in Canada, it's $30-50 more than a X1900XTX haha).

RE: Your system,

1) check out the Seagate 7200.10 320gig Barracuda SATA2 drives with perpendicular recording. Nice performance boost. 3 of those in RAID 5/6 = you win.

2) wait for Core 2 Duo if you can hold out 6 weeks (assuming availability)

3) Not familiar with Enermax quality lately, I know OCZ and Seasonic are supposed to have very good 500-600W PS' with stable rails for running high power video cards.

My Liberty 620 ran ATI 1800XT Crossfire with a dual-core 920@4.0Ghz perfectly fine. That power supply is quality through and through.

 

[Ramzie]

Ya ... ill take a look at the seagates thanks for the tip! but as for Core 2 Duo ... its a price thing. Sure the performance is like 30% on encoding and stuff (probably more since im not getting a FX-62 and tahts what u see compared) but at the resolutions i play its only like 10% improvement in games and for $400 dollars more for the best Conroe chip ... 15% isnt worth it for me.

Soooo, ill stick with a AM2 4600 (4800 would be nice if the memory divider issue is solved for the 1mb onboard cache but hey)

Alright, so far then what ive taken from this post is

1) go 7950GX2
2) Get a beefier PS if im thinking of going quad some day (OCZ or Seasonic)
3) Check out some segate HDs with perpendiculer recording.

So ... i guess now, conroe really THAT much better then a 4600 X2?

 

[Polish3d]

Only if most people are able to OC it on air to around 3.5ghz

Now a 3.5ghz conroe is going to perform pretty close to a 4ghz X2, which is orgasm fast

 

[Ramzie]

heres another question, how much power would i really need in a PSU to run my system + 2 7950GX2s" 750W? 1KW seems kinda excessive...

 

[deadseasquirrel]

My advice probably goes against everything everyone else is saying. I might have missed what monitor you're using and what resolution you're playing at, but I see that you mention that, at your resolution, Conroe wouldn't provide much improvement. So, I'm assuming you're at 1600x1200 or above.

In that case, my advice is to move up to SLI 7900GTX. I know, I know, the price is a lot higher. But I can figure out a way to make it work for ya. Why, you ask? Well, SLI GTX provides anywhere between a 20-48% increase in performance over the GX2, depending on your resolution and depending on the game. See here for the comparison (the largest gains in FEAR and Oblivion).

So, that answers the "why", but to answer the "how" is a bit of a stretch. Right now, your GX2 and 4600+ are going to cost around $1126 (prices taken from AT's RTP engine). My thought is to scale the 4600+ down to a 3800+. It will reach similar overclocks as the 4600+, albeit with less cache and a different divider, but it will perform identical in gaming at your resolution anyway. Worst case is that it isn't a great overclocker and now your encoding times are a few minutes slower.

So, the 3800+ costs $315 and $420 each for the GTXs. So, about $1150-- basically, $25 higher than your current desired config. Except this config will perform 20-48% better for $25 more.

Again, crazy idea, I know. But worth a look.

 

[Skott]

I think if it were me, and I'll be facing this decision later this year, I'd opt for the 7950GX2. One slot allows more room for other cards if I wanted, and...the possibility of Quad SLI later on. I seen that CyberPower PC is already selling rigs with Quad SLI so although nVidia isnt actively supporting the drivers yet I dont think it'll be too long before they do. Apparently some vendors are going ahead with it on their own so its only a matter of time before nVidia actively starts supporting Quad SLI. Thats just what i would do though as of right now.

I do however think 7900 in SLI is a very good idea as well but its not as future proof as 7950GX2 can be. Although that may or may not be a issue with certain people. I guess its all in how you look at it and how much money is at your disposal.


Edit: I wouldnt buy from CyberPower PC though. I have seen and heard alot of bad things about them on various messageboards so buyer beware about them.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel
at your resolution, Conroe wouldn't provide much improvement. So, I'm assuming you're at 1600x1200 or above.

Conroe @ 1600x1200

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel
at your resolution, Conroe wouldn't provide much improvement. So, I'm assuming you're at 1600x1200 or above.

Conroe @ 1600x1200

Something is really off with his FEAR numbers for the AMD at 1600x1200.

See here for one example. And that one is with a GTX, not SLI GTs like compgeek.

In fact, when you think about it, games such as HL2 and Quake4 are already more affected by CPU power than most other games, and even they show no improvement from A64 to Conroe at 1600x1200.

 

[Nightmare225]

And at GX2 is NOT equivalent to 2 GTX's, it's equivalent to two GT's with 512mb of memory.

 

[Ramzie]

Ok well my moniter ViewSonic VP191b is max 1280x1024 so .... with that resolution being my max in mind, what should i do?

I am on the other hand gettin a nice Samsung 32" widescreen LCD soon ... which i intend to use for games =P

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: Ramzie
Ok well my moniter ViewSonic VP191b is max 1280x1024 so .... with that resolution being my max in mind, what should i do?

Then none of the above, and forget what I wrote earlier. Just get a single 7900GT.

I am on the other hand gettin a nice Samsung 32" widescreen LCD soon ... which i intend to use for games =P

Not sure what the resolution for that is, but it's probably less than 1600x1200. So, either way, unless you're throwing some money into a good monitor, a 7900GT or x1900xt would be PLENTY. It varies per game, but Anandtech's article shows that, at your resolution, in some games, an XT or GTX is equal to the GX2. i.e. for that resolution, I don't think the GX2 is worth the extra money.