MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE GeForce 7950GX2

For testing the NX7950GX2, we used an Athlon 64 X2 4600+ processor on a DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR motherboard. We also used 2GB of Corsair DDR RAM (TWINX2048-4400) and a 120GB Maxtor SATA hard drive. The NX7950GX2 was compared to an XFX 7900 GT 550M Xtreme in both single and SLI configurations and to an ATI Radeon X1900 XTX with reference clock speeds. Note that the XFX 7900 GTs are overclocked, which we expect will give them a slight advantage when in SLI mode over the NX7950GX2.

HotHardware Test System AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Powered

Performance Comparisons with 3DMark06 v1.0.2 Details: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/

3DMark06

Futuremark recently launched a brand new version of its popular benchmark, 3DMark06. The new version of the benchmark is updated in a number of ways and now includes not only Shader Model 2.0 tests but also Shader Model 3.0 and HDR tests as well. Some of the assets from 3DMark05 have been re-used, but the scenes are now rendered with much more geometric detail, and the shader complexity is vastly increased as well. Max shader length in 3DMark05 was 96 instructions, while 3DMark06 ups the number of instructions to 512. 3DMark06 also employs much more lighting, and there is extensive use of soft shadows. With 3DMark06, Futuremark has also updated how the final score is tabulated. In this latest version of the benchmark, SM 2.0 and HDR / SM3.0 tests are weighted, and the CPU score is factored into the final tally as well.

MSI's 7950 GX2 really impressed us in 3DMark06. We did expect the XFX 7900 GTs to perform the best in this benchmark since they are overclocked, but the 7950 GX2's scores are impressive considering it is a single card. The following game benchmarks will tell us if this two-GPU wonder can maintain impressive numbers in real-world scenarios, however.