Fall '06 NVIDIA GPU Refresh - Part II: GeForce 7950 GT and SLI

Introduction

Last week saw NVIDIA's introduction of the 7900 GS and the announcement of the 7950 GT. Availability of the 7900 GS has been good since launch, and quite a few manufacturers have released cards above stock clock speeds. We've been able to get ahold of a few of these cards, so we will be able to explore 7900 GS SLI performance. We will also be publishing a 7900 GS mini roundup up in the very near future. For now, here's a list of the cards we have and are currently testing, along with their core/memory clock speeds (though there are more out there).

Albatron GeForce 7900 GS 450/660
EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GS KO 500/690
Leadtek WinFast PX7900GS TDH Extreme 520/700
XFX GeForce 7900 GS 480/700
BFG GeForce 7900 GS OC 540/660

Today also marks the day that ATI slated for the availability of their X1300 XT, X1650 Pro, X1900 XT 256MB, and X1950 series. We currently see very limited availability of the X1950 XTX, X1900 XT 256MB and X1300 XT cards, but the X1950 CrossFire and X1650 Pro are still not to be found. This is certainly one of the major downsides of a paper launch: we don't know when we will see product available. Right now, the products ATI has announced appear very competitive. Their performance looks good, and the ATI stated MSRP is right on target. Unfortunately, both of these aspects could change between now and when we actually see high availability of product on the shelves. Currently, X1950 XTX cards are about $50-$100 higher than expected, as well as being mostly on back order. Some of the X1300 XT cards we've seen are hitting over $100: a price point not even the X1650 Pro is supposed to break. All of this will absolutely factor into our recommendations today.

Aside from all of this, our focus with this second and final part of our NVIDIA GPU refresh series is on the GeForce 7950 GT. We covered the specifications in our previous article, but for a quick and dirty recap, the 7950 GT is essentially an overclocked 7900 GT with 512MB of RAM as opposed to 256MB. The 7950 GT could also be viewed as an underclocked 7900 GTX. All of these cards have the same number of vertex, pixel, and raster pipes, and some 7900 GT cards can even overclock higher than stock 7950 GT speeds. At this level of performance, NVIDIA is targeting a $300 to $350 USD price range. This puts it in competition with the higher priced overclocked 7900 GT cards, as well as the X1900 XT from ATI. To bring it all home, here are our tables of GPU specifications and prices.

NVIDIA Graphics Card Specifications
	Vert Pipes	Pixel Pipes	Raster Pipes	Core Clock	Mem Clock	Mem Size (MB)	Mem Bus (bits)	Price
GeForce 7950 GX2	8x2	24x2	16x2	500x2	600x2	512x2	256x2	$600
GeForce 7900 GTX	8	24	16	650	800	512	256	$450
GeForce 7950 GT	8	24	16	550	700	512	256	$300-$350
GeForce 7900 GT	8	24	16	450	660	256	256	$280
GeForce 7900 GS	7	20	16	450	660	256	256	$200-$250
GeForce 7600 GT	5	12	8	560	700	256	128	$160
GeForce 7600 GS	5	12	8	400	400	256	128	$120
GeForce 7300 GT	4	8	2	350	667	128	128	$100
GeForce 7300 GS	3	4	2	550	400	128	64	$65

ATI Graphics Card Specifications
	Vert Pipes	Pixel Pipes	Raster Pipes	Core Clock	Mem Clock	Mem Size (MB)	Mem Bus (bits)	Price
Radeon X1950 XTX	8	48	16	650	1000	512	256	$450
Radeon X1900 XTX	8	48	16	650	775	512	256	$375
Radeon X1900 XT	8	48	16	625	725	256/512	256	$280/$350
Radeon X1900 GT	8	36	12	525	600	256	256	$230
Radeon X1650 Pro	5	12	4	600	700	256	128	$99
Radeon X1600 XT	5	12	4	590	690	256	128	$150
Radeon X1600 Pro	5	12	4	500	400	256	128	$100
Radeon X1300 XT	5	12	4	500	400	256	128	$89
Radeon X1300 Pro	2	4	4	450	250	256	128	$79

Before we take a look at performance numbers, we've got a couple retail versions of the 7950 GT in house already. Both EVGA and XFX have sent us cards, and we were quite happy to learn that the XFX card is passively cooled. Up first is a brief look at what we can expect to see from manufacturers on the 7950 GT front.