Intel P35 Chipset and Geforce 7950 GX2

[Xanxicar]

Hello all,

I will be purchasing a barebone system with Intel P35 Chipset on it but the problem is that i dont know whether it will run Geforce 7950 Gx2 card. I m looking to purchase this nvidia card because im gettin it for pretty cheap and its a very fast card even today, so i was just wondering is intel P35 chipset compatible with Nvidia geforce 7950 Gx2 card?. I dont know the motherboards brand or model because the retailer has not listed em on their website, here are specs of the mobo :

"Form Factor ATX
Socket Type LGA 775 Pin
Compatible Processors Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium D, Pentium 4 or Celeron D processors Intel Hyper-Threading Technology supported
Chipset Intel P53
Max FSB 1333
IDE Type 1 x ATA/133 + 4 x SATAII With RAID
Max Bus Speed 1333
Graphics 1 x PCI Express x16
Expansion Slots 2 x PCI Express x16, 2 x PCI Express x1, 2 x PCI
Memory Dual channel, unbuffered, 1.8V DDR2 800, (4) 240-pin DIMM sockets, max 8GB
Audio Integrated, 7.1 channel High Definition (Realtek)
LAN Integrated Gigabit (10/100/1000) Realtek
Firewire IEEE 1394 No
USB Up to 8: 4 in rear I/O area + 4 internal 2-port headers: ver. 2.0
IO 1 x PS/2 keyboard
1 x PS/2 mouse
1 x RJ45 (LAN)
4 x USB 2.0
1 x line-in/line-out/mic/center/sub (audio)
1 x parallel (SPP/ECP/EPP)
1 x COM (16550-compatible UART)
SPDIF
1394"


So anyone know whether i will be to run this card or should i just purchase 7900GTX (which im also gettin for around the same price but i thought 7950 gx2 was faster?)

 

[MarcVenice]

Won't work, you need SLI support for that card. 7900 GX2 should work though, since that's 1 card with 2 processors on it, whereas the 7950 gx2 is basicaly 2 7900gtx's glued together.

7900gtx shouldn't be a problem at all.

 

[Acanthus]

The P35 chipset does support it... however, without knowing your particular mobo we cant tell you absolutely for sure if it will run fine.

The 7950 is faster than the 7900 by a huge margain.

A few things to note:

Power consumption with the 7950 is very high, it will require a beefy power supply, even moreso if you are going to be running quad core.

Windows Vista and SLI still dont play well, and since the 7950 GX2 is basically single card SLI, you will run into some issues in vista (especially 64 bit versions).

 

[MarcVenice]

@ acanthus. Since when do p35 chipsets support sli ? No go last time I checked. Only crossfire is supported, and 1 pci-e slot will only run at 4x instead of 16x.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Won't work, you need SLI support for that card. 7900 GX2 should work though, since that's 1 card with 2 processors on it, whereas the 7950 gx2 is basicaly 2 7900gtx's glued together.

7900gtx shouldn't be a problem at all.

Im only seeing one PCI-e 16x connector. Text

 

[MarcVenice]

I'm totally confused, at some respectable site I read you needed an SLI ready mobo for the 7950 gx2, now at several others I'm reading you don't, which actually is the beauty of the 7950 gx2. It doesn't need 2 pci-e slots, that's for sure. I think your initial statement was right, and it is compatible with the p35 chipset. Btw I read you need a PSU with at least 450w and 27a on the 12v rails. So for a PSU I'd go wit the 520hx from corsair.

 

[bulan880]

Would a 7950GX2 work as it should or at all on my P35 DQ6 board?

 

[aka1nas]

My understanding of the GX2 was that it didn't need an actual SLI board, just a board with a full x16 slot(electrically x16, not just physically as it somehow splits up the lanes for the GPUs). If this is accurate, a P35 board should be ok. I really wouldn't recommend purchasing that card at this time, though. It's power hungry, has all the limitations of SLI, and is not really all that fast compared to newer GPUs. Remember, it's basically a pair of 7900GTs with, IIRC, slightly slower memory. A 7900GTX or a 7950GT would be faster than one of the individual GPUs on it and a single G80-based card would probably beat the crap out of it in actual usage.

 

[bryanW1995]

what kind of deal are you getting on the gx2? is this a card that you're buying for $100 from a buddy or did you find it online for "50 % off"? If the deal is good enough then it's probably worth the risk/hassle, but I would definitely want to plug it into the dq6 before paying for it if possible.

 

[n7]

Gah i feel sorry for all those who bought 7950GX2s
Such a scam of a card that = constant compatibility/driver hell...

 

[bulan880]

Well I'll get it for quite a good deal, about $140 which I reckon is worth it since it's still at the top of cards. At least at Tom's Hardwares VGA chart http://www23.tomshardware.com/...8&model2=725&chart=318

But I still want to be dead sure it'll work before I buy it.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: bulan880
Well I'll get it for quite a good deal, about $140 which I reckon is worth it since it's still at the top of cards. At least at Tom's Hardwares VGA chart http://www23.tomshardware.com/...8&model2=725&chart=318

But I still want to be dead sure it'll work before I buy it.

I still wouldn't buy it. Not worth the headache.

 

[thilanliyan]

There's a list on the nvidia website of compatible motherboard for the 7950 isn't there?

Search around for a compatibility list.

 

[bulan880]

There is, it says that the DQ6 is compatible but only on the 965 chipset. But then again it might only be because the list is old.