[nextpage title=”Introduction”]
GeForce 7950 GX2 is the latest high-end video card presented by NVIDIA and XFX has this model, “GeForce 7950 GX2 M570 1GB DDR3 XXX” (PV-T71U-ZDD9), which comes factory-overclocked. GeForce 7950 GX2 uses a very different design: it is actually two GeForce 7950 video cards stacked together. So it has two GPUs and a total of 1 GB of video memory (512 MB for each GPU). The good news is that it can be installed on any PCI Express motherboard – your motherboard doesn’t need to be SLI for you to install this beast. Let’s see how faster is this overclocked model against the regular GeForce 7950 GX2 and also against other products available on the market, especially Radeon X1900 XTX and GeForce 7900 GTX.
Each GPU found on GeForce 7950 GX2 normally runs at 500 MHz accessing its memory at 1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR). This reviewed model from XFX runs at 570 MHz and accesses its memory at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR). You see this factory-overclocked video card from XFX in Figure 1.
Figure 1: XFX Overclocked GeForce 7950 GX2 (PV-T71U-ZDD9).
The two GPUs are connected to the x16 PCI Express slot through a switch chip. According to NVIDIA, at this time each GPU is connected to this switch using eight PCI Express lanes, i.e., 8x performance, not 16x. Another thing to keep in mind is that each GPU is connected to its own 512 MB video memory using a 256-bit interface. Because of this GeForce 7950 GX2 is said to have 1 GB video memory accessed using a 512-bit interface. We prefer to list this video card as having 512 MB x 2 video memory and 256-bit x 2 memory interface, as this describes more accurately the architecture used by this video card.
This switch chip is 100% compatible with PCI Express specification, not requiring SLI-based motherboards. NVIDIA states that some motherboards may not be compatible with this chip and that a simple motherboard BIOS upgrade shall solve the issue. We reviewed this card using a DFI LAN Party 925X-T2 motherboard, which is based on Intel 925X chipset, and we had no problem at all, no BIOS upgrade was needed.
XFX currently has three GeForce 7950 GX2 models on their catalog:
- PV-T71U-ZDL9: 500 MHz clock, 1.2 GHz memory clock, 512 MB 256-bit GDDR3 x 2. A.k.a. “XFX GeForce 7950 GX2 M500 1GB DDR3”, that’s XFX version for the standard GeForce 7950 GX2.
- PV-T71U-ZDF9: 520 MHz clock, 1.3 GHz memory clock, 512 MB 256-bit GDDR3 x 2. A.k.a. “XFX GeForce 7950 GX2 M520 1GB DDR3 Extreme Edition”.
- PV-T71U-ZDD9: 570 MHz clock, 1.55 GHz memory clock, 512 MB 256-bit GDDR3 x 2. A.k.a. “XFX GeForce 7950 GX2 M570 1GB DDR3 XXX”, that’s the model we are reviewing.
As you can see, XFX is now posting the clock rate on the VGA model name, helping users to identify overclocked models.
You can see in our tutorial “NVIDIA Chips Comparison Table” the difference between GeForce 7950 GX2 and the other chips from NVIDIA, while on our tutorial “ATI Chips Comparison Table” you can compare it to its competitors from ATI.
On Figures 2 and 3 you can see XFX GeForce 7950 GX2 M570 1GB DDR3 XXX (PV-T71U-ZDD9). In Figure 4, you can see a profile view of the reviewed card, where you can see its two stacked printed circuit boards.
Figure 2: XFX Overclocked GeForce 7950 GX2 (PV- T71U-ZDD9).
Figure 3: XFX Overclocked GeForce 7950 GX2 (T71U-ZDD9), back view.
Figure 4: XFX Overclocked GeForce 7950 GX2 (T71U-ZDD9), profile view.
[nextpage title=”XFX GeForce 7950 GX2 M570 1GB DDR3 XXX (PV-T71U-ZDD9)”]
We disassembled this video card to take a look. In Figure 5, you can see the two printed circuit boards used by this card. A small PCB that you can see on the lower board connects them. The switch chip is located on the lower card and the video card cooler refrigerates it.
Figure 5: Video card disassembled.
We removed the lower card heatsink to take a look. It is far smaller than the heatsink used on GeForce 7900 GTX and different from the heatsink used on GeForce 7900 GT, which is all copper-made, while the heatsinks available on GeForce 7950 GX2 are aluminum-made with copper-made base. They refrigerate all memory chips (the heatsink used on GeForce 7900 GT does not touch the memory chips) and also the switch chip on the lower card.
Figure 6: Lower card with its heatsink detached.
Each printed circuit board has eight GDDR3 512-Mbit 1.4 ns chips from Samsung (K4J52324QC-BC14), making 512 MB for each board and 1 GB total. These chips can run up to 1.4 GHz (700 MHz DDR). On this video card the memory chips are overclocked and run at 1.55 GHz, 150 MHz (10.71%) above the maximum clock rate labeled for these memory chips.
In Figure 7, you can see the switch chip used to connect the two GeForce 7950 chips to the single x16 PCI Express slot.
Figure 7: Switch chip.
In Figure 8, you can see one of the GeForce 7950 chips used on this video card. As you can see, it is internally called G71-D by NVIDIA.
Figure 8: GeForce 7950 chip.
[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]
- Graphics chip: Two GeForce 7950 running at 570 MHz each.
- Memory: Two banks of 1.4 ns 256-bit 512 MB GDDR3 memory from Samsung (K4J52324QC-BC14), running at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR).
- Bus type: PCI Express x16.
- Connectors: Two DVI and one mini-DIN for S-Video and Component Video output.
- Number of CDs/DVDs that come with this board: Two.
- Games that come with this board: Tomb Raider: Legend (DVD).
- Programs that come with this board: None.
- More information: https://www.xfxforce.com
- Average price in the US*: USD 683.00
* Researched at Shopping.com on the day we published this review.
[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]
During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only variable was the video card being tested.
Hardware Configuration
- Motherboard: DFI LAN Party 925X-T2 (Intel 925X, Sep. 20th, 2004 BIOS)
- CPU: Pentium 4 3.4 GHz LGA 775
- Memory: Two 512 MB DDR2-533 CM2X512-4200 CL4 from Corsair memory modules
- Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus (40 GB, ATA-133)
- Screen resolution: 1024x768x32@85 Hz
Software Configuration
- Windows XP Professional installed using NTFS
- Service Pack 2
- Direct X 9.0c
- Intel inf driver version: 6.0.1.1002
- ATI video driver version: 4.10 (6.14.10.6483)
- ATI video driver version: 4.12 (Radeon X850 Platinum Edition)
- ATI video driver version: 5.3 (Radeon X800 GT)
- ATI video driver version: 5.9 (Radeon X800 GTO)
- ATI video driver version: 6.1 (Radeon X1600 XT from HIS)
- ATI video driver version: 8.173 beta (Radeon X1000 series)
- ATI video driver version: 8.203.3.0 (Radeon X1900 XTX)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 66.93
- NVIDIA video driver version: 77.72 (GeForce 7800 GTX)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 78.02 (GeForce 7800 GT)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 81.98 (GeForce 6800 GS)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 84.21 (GeForce 7600 and 7900 series)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 91.29 (GeForce 7950 GX2)
Used Software
We adopted a 3% error margin; thus, differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.
[nextpage title=”3DMark2001 SE”]
3DMark2001 SE measures video card performance simulating DirectX 8.1 games. It is very effective software for evaluating the performance from previous-generation games, programmed using DirectX 8. In this software we run six tests. We run the software in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and with no frame buffer, then we put the antialising at 4 samples and the frame buffer at triple-buffering. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.
You may be asking yourself why we added an old program in a review of a latest generation video card. To us, it is as important to know the performance of a video card with the latest games as it is to know its performance in an older game. That’s why we kept this software in our methodology.
The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).
| 3DMark2001SE – 1024×768 | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 23,004 | 3.49% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 22,967 | 3.32% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 22,731 | 2.26% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 22,720 | 2.21% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 22,347 | 0.54% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 22,228 | |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 21,858 | 1.69% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 21,510 | 3.34% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 21,487 | 3.45% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 21,433 | 3.71% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 21,043 | 5.63% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 20,299 | 9.50% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 20,084 | 10.68% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 20,072 | 10.74% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 19,865 | 11.90% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 19,864 | 11.90% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 19,797 | 12.28% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 18,630 | 19.31% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 17,881 | 24.31% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 17,412 | 27.66% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 16,840 | 32.00% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 14,453 | 53.80% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 14,132 | 57.29% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 12,545 | 77.19% |
| 3DMark2001SE – 1280×1024 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 21,466 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 21,449 | 0.08% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 21,038 | 2.03% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 20,882 | 2.80% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 20,868 | 2.87% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 20,647 | 3.97% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 20,096 | 6.82% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 19,924 | 7.74% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 19,768 | 8.59% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 19,755 | 8.66% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 19,465 | 10.28% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,436 | 16.44% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 18,307 | 17.26% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,228 | 17.76% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 18,084 | 18.70% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 17,658 | 21.57% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 17,005 | 26.23% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,750 | 28.16% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 15,721 | 36.54% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 15,464 | 38.81% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 14,854 | 44.51% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 11,403 | 88.25% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 11,274 | 90.40% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 9,472 | 126.63% |
| 3DMark2001SE – 1600×1200 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 20,590 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 20,369 | 1.08% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 19,986 | 3.02% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 19,868 | 3.63% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 19,570 | 5.21% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 19,382 | 6.23% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 18,988 | 8.44% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,793 | 9.56% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 18,749 | 9.82% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 18,390 | 11.96% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,140 | 13.51% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 16,784 | 22.68% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 16,649 | 23.67% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 16,590 | 24.11% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,483 | 24.92% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 15,524 | 32.63% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 15,498 | 32.86% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 14,481 | 42.19% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 13,694 | 50.36% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 12,938 | 59.14% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 12,741 | 61.60% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 9,059 | 127.29% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 8,129 | 153.29% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 6,729 | 205.99% |
| 3DMark2001SE – 1024×768 AAx4, FBx3 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 21,165 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 21,028 | 0.65% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 20,783 | 1.84% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 20,451 | 3.49% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 20,403 | 3.73% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 20,145 | 5.06% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 19,671 | 7.59% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 19,321 | 9.54% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 19,208 | 10.19% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 19,103 | 10.79% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,336 | 15.43% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 17,187 | 23.15% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,979 | 24.65% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 16,856 | 25.56% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 16,834 | 25.73% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 16,775 | 26.17% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 16,529 | 28.05% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 16,408 | 28.99% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 15,745 | 34.42% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 15,021 | 40.90% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 13,635 | 55.23% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 9,718 | 117.79% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 8,928 | 137.06% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 8,210 | 157.80% |
| 3DMark2001SE – 1280×1024 AAx4, FBx3 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 19,774 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 19,440 | 1.72% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 19,354 | 2.17% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 18,778 | 5.30% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 18,447 | 7.19% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 18,366 | 7.67% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 18,029 | 9.68% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 17,682 | 11.83% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 17,142 | 15.35% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 17,120 | 15.50% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 16,302 | 21.30% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,056 | 23.16% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 15,117 | 30.81% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 15,080 | 31.13% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 14,294 | 38.34% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 13,833 | 42.95% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 13,655 | 44.81% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 13,652 | 44.84% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 12,892 | 53.38% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 12,364 | 59.93% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 10,487 | 88.56% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 6,915 | 185.96% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 6,049 | 226.90% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 5,755 | 243.60% |
| 3DMark2001SE – 1600×1200 AAx4, FBx3 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 18,772 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 18,424 | 1.89% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 18,090 | 3.77% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 17,322 | 8.37% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 16,919 | 10.95% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 16,299 | 15.17% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 16,213 | 15.78% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 15,920 | 17.91% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 15,734 | 19.31% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 15,503 | 21.09% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 15,362 | 22.20% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 14,418 | 30.20% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 11,829 | 58.69% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 11,663 | 60.95% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 11,127 | 68.71% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 10,659 | 76.11% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 9,891 | 89.79% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 9,455 | 98.54% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 8,429 | 122.71% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 6,620 | 183.56% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 5,625 | 233.72% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 3,558 | 427.60% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 3,205 | 485.71% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,606 | 620.34% |
[nextpage title=”3DMark03″]
3DMark03 measures performance by simulating games written to DirectX 9, which are contemporary games. We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.
The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).
| 3DMark03 – 1024×768 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 26,189 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 24,670 | 6.16 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 18,465 | 41.83 |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 17,261 | 51.72 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,544 | 58.30 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 15,631 | 67.55 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 15,375 | 70.33 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 15,004 | 74.55 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 13,760 | 90.33 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 13,630 | 92.14 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 13,144 | 99.25 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 12,782 | 104.89 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 12,111 | 116.24 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 11,285 | 132.07 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 11,223 | 133.35 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 9,563 | 173.86 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 9,352 | 180.04 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 9,134 | 186.72 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 8,213 | 218.87 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 8,056 | 225.09 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 7,295 | 259.00 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 4,847 | 440.31 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 4,128 | 534.42 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 3,468 | 655.16 |
| 3DMark03 – 1280×1024 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 22,880 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 21,038 | 8.76% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 15,394 | 48.63% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 14,324 | 59.73% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 13,888 | 64.75% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 13,045 | 75.39% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 12,578 | 81.90% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 12,239 | 86.94% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 11,119 | 105.77% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 10,997 | 108.06% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 10,671 | 114.41% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 10,314 | 121.83% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 9,529 | 140.11% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 8,836 | 158.94% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 8,784 | 160.47% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 7,472 | 206.21% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 7,039 | 225.05% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 6,943 | 229.54% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 6,277 | 264.51% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 6,041 | 278.75% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 5,351 | 327.58% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 3,538 | 546.69% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 2,990 | 665.22% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,507 | 812.64% |
| 3DMark03 – 1600×1200 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 21,176 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 18,152 | 16.66% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 14,090 | 50.29% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 12,060 | 75.59% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 11,680 | 81.30% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 10,751 | 96.97% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 10,445 | 102.74% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 10,127 | 109.10% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 9,822 | 115.60% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 9,100 | 132.70% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 8,743 | 142.21% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 8,411 | 151.77% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 7,701 | 174.98% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 7,144 | 196.42% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 7,035 | 201.01% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 5,940 | 256.50% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 5,295 | 299.92% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 5,220 | 305.67% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,930 | 329.53% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 4,640 | 356.38% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 3,938 | 437.73% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 2,678 | 690.74% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 2,131 | 893.71% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,797 | 1,078.41% |
| 3DMark03 – 1024×768 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 19,582 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 17,431 | 12.34% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 12,560 | 55.91% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 11,819 | 65.68% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 11,576 | 69.16% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 10,989 | 78.20% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 10,275 | 90.58% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 9,929 | 97.22% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 9,325 | 109.99% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 8,999 | 117.60% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 8,834 | 121.67% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 8,108 | 141.51% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 7,330 | 167.15% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,919 | 183.02% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 6,841 | 186.24% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 5,437 | 260.16% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 4,978 | 293.37% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 4,693 | 317.26% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,405 | 344.54% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 4,177 | 368.81% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 3,411 | 474.08% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 2,378 | 723.47% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 1,966 | 896.03% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,674 | 1,069.77% |
| 3DMark03 – 1280×1024 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 16,062 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 14,067 | 14.18% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 9,997 | 60.67% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 9,467 | 69.66% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 9,368 | 71.46% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 9,050 | 77.48% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 7,980 | 101.28% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 7,733 | 107.71% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 7,249 | 121.58% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 6,979 | 130.15% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,841 | 134.79% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 6,278 | 155.85% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,324 | 201.69% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,172 | 210.56% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 5,025 | 219.64% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 3,962 | 305.40% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 3,747 | 328.66% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 3,475 | 362.22% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,116 | 415.47% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 2,547 | 530.62% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,454 | 554.52% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 1,497 | 972.95% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 1,351 | 1,088.90% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,212 | 1,225.25% |
| 3DMark03 – 1600×1200 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 13,355 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 11,629 | 14.84% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 8,168 | 63.50% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 7,852 | 70.08% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 7,563 | 76.58% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 7,364 | 81.36% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,317 | 111.41% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 6,148 | 117.23% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,873 | 127.40% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 5,807 | 129.98% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 5,614 | 137.89% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 5,024 | 165.82% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,530 | 194.81% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,018 | 232.38% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,861 | 245.89% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 3,091 | 332.06% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 2,656 | 402.82% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 2,563 | 421.07% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,377 | 461.84% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,805 | 639.89% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 1,717 | 677.81% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 1,027 | 1,200.39% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 732 | 1,724.45% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 684 | 1,852.49% |
[nextpage title=”3DMark05″]
3DMark05 measures performance by simulating DirectX 9.0c games, i.e., using the new Shader 3.0 model. This programming model is used by Far Cry game and other games to be launched in the future. This new programming model is used by GeForce 6 and 7 series from NVIDIA and Radeon X1000 series from ATI.
We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our benchmark, allowing direct comparison between them.
The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).
| 3DMark05 – 1024×768 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 8,172 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 8,096 | 0.94% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 7,370 | 10.88% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 7,342 | 11.30% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 7,222 | 13.15% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 7,220 | 13.19% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,982 | 17.04% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,863 | 19.07% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 6,789 | 20.37% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 6,471 | 26.29% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,343 | 28.83% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 5,732 | 42.57% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,594 | 46.09% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 4,991 | 63.73% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,941 | 65.39% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,537 | 80.12% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 4,301 | 90.00% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 3,993 | 104.66% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,675 | 122.37% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,886 | 183.16% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 2,872 | 184.54% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 1,701 | 380.42% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 1,433 | 470.27% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,365 | 498.68% |
| 3DMark05 – 1280×1024 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 7,918 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,804 | 1.46% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 6,962 | 13.73% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 6,761 | 17.11% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 6,726 | 17.72% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,699 | 18.20% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 6,534 | 21.18% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,208 | 27.55% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 6,067 | 30.51% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 5,554 | 42.56% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,504 | 43.86% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,780 | 65.65% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 4,740 | 67.05% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,130 | 91.72% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 4,085 | 93.83% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,745 | 111.43% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 3,479 | 127.59% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 3,192 | 148.06% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,093 | 156.00% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,253 | 251.44% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 1,957 | 304.60% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 1,259 | 528.91% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,040 | 661.35% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 992 | 698.19% |
| 3DMark05 – 1600×1200 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 7,749 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,598 | 1.99% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 6,559 | 18.14% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,513 | 18.98% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 6,220 | 24.58% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 6,191 | 25.17% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 5,862 | 32.19% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,524 | 40.28% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 5,371 | 44.27% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,786 | 61.91% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 4,785 | 61.94% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,096 | 89.18% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 3,931 | 97.13% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,455 | 124.28% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 3,376 | 129.53% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,091 | 150.70% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 2,856 | 171.32% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,608 | 197.12% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 2,430 | 218.89% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,789 | 333.15% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 1,264 | 513.05% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 944 | 720.87% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 814 | 851.97% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 708 | 994.49% |
| 3DMark05 – 1024×768 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 7,845 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,735 | 1.42% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 6,893 | 13.81% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 6,788 | 15.57% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,717 | 16.79% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 6,656 | 17.86% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 6,655 | 17.88% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,123 | 28.12% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 6,052 | 29.63% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 5,874 | 33.55% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,559 | 41.12% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 4,971 | 57.82% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,634 | 69.29% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,108 | 90.97% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 4,072 | 92.66% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,700 | 112.03% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 3,655 | 114.64% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 3,523 | 122.68% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,881 | 172.30% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,232 | 251.48% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 1,287 | 509.56% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,038 | 655.78% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 935 | 739.04% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 903 | 768.77% |
| 3DMark05 – 1280×1024 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 7,647 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,485 | 2.16% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,571 | 16.37% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 6,325 | 20.90% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 6,040 | 26.61% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 5,968 | 28.13% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 5,955 | 28.41% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,277 | 44.91% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 5,186 | 47.45% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 4,915 | 55.58% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,664 | 63.96% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 4,028 | 89.85% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,738 | 104.57% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 3,295 | 132.08% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,286 | 132.71% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 2,969 | 157.56% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 2,891 | 164.51% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 2,510 | 204.66% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,232 | 242.61% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,722 | 344.08% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 803 | 852.30% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 581 | 1,216.18% |
| 3DMark05 – 1600×1200 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 7,447 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,209 | 3.30% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,253 | 19.09% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 5,668 | 31.39% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 5,288 | 40.83% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 5,285 | 40.91% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 4,266 | 74.57% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 4,205 | 77.10% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 4,168 | 78.67% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,776 | 97.22% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,746 | 98.80% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 3,325 | 123.97% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 2,644 | 181.66% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 2,553 | 191.70% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 2,365 | 214.88% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,235 | 233.20% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 2,233 | 233.50% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 1,948 | 282.29% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 1,552 | 379.83% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,374 | 441.99% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 589 | 1,164.35% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 341 | 2,083.87% |
[nextpage title=”Doom 3″]Doom 3 is one of the heaviest games available today. As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions: 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and high. We ran demo1 four times and wrote the obtained number of frames per second. The first result we discarded at once, since it is far inferior than the other results. This happens because at the first time we run the demo the game must load all textures to video memory, fact that doesn’t happen from the second time we run the demo on. From the three results left, we consider as our official result the middle result, i.e., we discard the highest and the lowest values. Curiously almost all times the values obtained at the second round on were the same.
A very important detail that we must mention is that Doom 3 has an internal FPS lock: it is only capable of generating 60 frames per second, even if your board is able to produce more frames per second than that. This is done in order to make the game to have the same “playability” sensation independently from the video card installed on the PC. This lock, however, is disabled in the game benchmarking mode.
For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Doom 3, read our tutorial on this subject.
The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).
| Doom3 – 1024×768 Low | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 96.7 | 5.91% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 95.9 | 5.04% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 95.2 | 4.27% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 95.1 | 4.16% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 94.7 | 3.72% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 94.5 | 3.50% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 94.1 | 3.07% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 94.1 | 3.07% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 93.4 | 2.30% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 92.2 | 0.99% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 92.1 | 0.88% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 91.4 | 0.11% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 91.3 | |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 84.5 | 8.0% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 82.7 | 10.4% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 79.5 | 14.8% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 77.1 | 18.4% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 75.9 | 20.3% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 69.7 | 31.0% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 66.6 | 37.1% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 55.6 | 64.2% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 54.1 | 68.8% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 30.9 | 195.5% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 25.2 | 262.3% |
| Doom3 – 1280×1024 Low | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 94.9 | 3.15% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 94.1 | 2.28% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 93.9 | 2.07% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 92.0 | |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 91.6 | 0.4% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 91.4 | 0.7% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.4 | 0.7% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 90.4 | 1.8% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 87.5 | 5.1% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 85.3 | 7.9% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 82.2 | 11.9% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 80.8 | 13.9% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 77.5 | 18.7% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 76.6 | 20.1% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 75.8 | 21.4% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 61.5 | 49.6% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 59.9 | 53.6% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 55.1 | 67.0% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 46.8 | 96.6% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 44.7 | 105.8% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 37.3 | 146.6% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 36.6 | 151.4% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 19.6 | 369.4% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 16.0 | 475.0% |
| Doom3 – 1600×1200 Low | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 92.0 | 0.22% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 91.8 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.6 | 0.22% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 89.0 | 3.15% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 86.6 | 6.00% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 83.4 | 10.07% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 80.8 | 13.61% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 77.5 | 18.45% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 76.2 | 20.47% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 70.9 | 29.48% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 69.1 | 32.85% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 64.4 | 42.55% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 63.4 | 44.79% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 63.1 | 45.48% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 62.4 | 47.12% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 46.2 | 98.70% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 45.9 | 100.00% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 38.9 | 135.99% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 31.7 | 189.59% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 31.5 | 191.43% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 26.5 | 246.42% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 25.5 | 260.00% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 13.1 | 600.76% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 10.6 | 766.04% |
| Doom3 – 1024×768 High | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 95.3 | 3.47% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 94.8 | 2.93% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 94.8 | 2.93% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 94.6 | 2.71% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 94.4 | 2.50% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 93.6 | 1.63% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 92.3 | 0.22% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 92.2 | 0.11% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 92.1 | |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 91.8 | 0.33% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.7 | 0.44% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 90.9 | 1.32% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 88.8 | 3.72% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 83.6 | 10.17% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 81.7 | 12.73% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 76.5 | 20.39% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 73.8 | 24.80% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 70.8 | 30.08% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 65.5 | 40.61% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 61.0 | 50.98% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 50.4 | 82.74% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 48.7 | 89.12% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 27.8 | 231.29% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 22.9 | 302.18% |
| Doom3 – 1280×1024 High | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 94.9 | 3.60% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 94.8 | 3.49% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 93.8 | 2.40% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 91.6 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.3 | 0.33% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 91.2 | 0.44% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 90.2 | 1.55% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 88.7 | 3.27% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 86.7 | 5.65% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 82.4 | 11.17% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 80.9 | 13.23% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 78.2 | 17.14% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 74.4 | 23.12% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 73.9 | 23.95% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 72.4 | 26.52% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 58.5 | 56.58% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 55.5 | 65.05% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 52.6 | 74.14% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 44.4 | 106.31% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 41.7 | 119.66% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 34.4 | 166.28% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 33.4 | 174.25% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 18.4 | 397.83% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 15.0 | 510.67% |
| Doom3 – 1600×1200 High | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 91.5 | 0.11% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 91.4 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.4 | 0.00% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 88.4 | 3.39% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 88.3 | 3.51% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 82.2 | 11.19% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 79.9 | 14.39% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 75.8 | 20.58% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 75.2 | 21.54% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 68.5 | 33.43% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 67.8 | 34.81% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 61.4 | 48.86% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 61.1 | 49.59% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 60.6 | 50.83% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 60.3 | 51.58% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 44.2 | 106.79% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 43.4 | 110.60% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 37.7 | 142.44% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 30.5 | 199.67% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 30.4 | 200.66% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 25.0 | 265.60% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 24.1 | 279.25% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 11.6 | 687.93% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 10.3 | 787.38% |
[nextpage title=”Far Cry”]
Far Cry is a game based on the new Shader 3.0 (DirectX 9.0c) programming model available on series 6 and 7 from NVIDIA and series X1000 from ATI graphics chips. We’ve updated the game to version 1.3.
As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and very high. To measure the performance we used the demo created by German magazine PC Games Hardware (PCGH), available at https://www.3dcenter.org/downloads/farcry-pcgh-vga.php. We run this demo four times and made an arithmetical average with the results. This average is the result presented in our graphs.
This game has a very important detail in its image quality configuration. Antialising, instead of being configured by numbers (1x, 2x, 4x or 6x) is configured as low, medium or high. The problem is that on NVIDIA chips both medium and high mean 4x, while on ATI chips medium means 2x and high means 6x, making the comparison between ATI and NVIDIA chips completely unfair. Because of that we configured antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering at 8x manually at the video driver control panel.
For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Far Cry, read our tutorial on this subject.
The results you check below. Keep in mind that models marked as “OC” are factory-overclocked. GeForce 7900 GT OC from XFX was running at 550 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.63 GHz (815 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7900 GT is 450 MHz/1.32 GHz (660 MHz DDR). GeForce 7950 GX2 OC from XFX was running at 570 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.55 GHz (775 MHz DDR) while the standard clock configuration for a GeForce 7950 GX2 is 500 MHz/1.2 GHz (600 MHz DDR).
| Far Cry – 1024×768 Low | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 148.26 | 12.58% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 145.56 | 10.53% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 145.51 | 10.49% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 145.42 | 10.43% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 145.16 | 10.23% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 144.93 | 10.05% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 144.54 | 9.76% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 144.44 | 9.68% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 144.02 | 9.36% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 136.68 | 3.79% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 136.43 | 3.60% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 135.74 | 3.08% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 135.72 | 3.06% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 135.67 | 3.02% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 135.44 | 2.85% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 134.94 | 2.47% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 134.93 | 2.46% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 132.76 | 0.81% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 131.69 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 131.48 | 0.16% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 130.43 | 0.97% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 123.60 | 6.55% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 120.56 | 9.23% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 112.52 | 17.04% |
| Far Cry – 1280×1024 Low | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 145.00 | 13.38% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 143.19 | 11.96% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 142.98 | 11.80% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 142.41 | 11.35% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 141.73 | 10.82% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 140.71 | 10.02% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 140.49 | 9.85% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 138.43 | 8.24% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 133.27 | 4.21% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 133.24 | 4.18% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 133.09 | 4.07% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 132.52 | 3.62% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 132.32 | 3.46% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 132.16 | 3.34% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 131.86 | 3.10% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 131.78 | 3.04% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 131.03 | 2.46% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 127.99 | 0.08% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 127.89 | |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 127.71 | 0.14% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 127.24 | 0.51% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 89.16 | 43.44% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 87.83 | 45.61% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 72.96 | 75.29% |
| Far Cry – 1600×1200 Low | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 145.81 | 13.04% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 143.59 | 11.32% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 142.30 | 10.32% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 141.82 | 9.95% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 139.29 | 7.99% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 134.03 | 3.91% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 133.96 | 3.85% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 133.93 | 3.83% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 133.71 | 3.66% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 133.59 | 3.57% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 133.18 | 3.25% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 132.30 | 2.57% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 130.85 | 1.44% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 128.99 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 128.38 | 0.48% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 128.32 | 0.52% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 127.64 | 1.06% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 121.01 | 6.59% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 109.30 | 18.01% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 108.98 | 18.36% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 105.22 | 22.59% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 63.37 | 103.55% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 59.82 | 115.63% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 48.85 | 164.05% |
| Far Cry – 1024×768 Very High | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 78.79 | 7.48% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 76.61 | 4.50% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 76.55 | 4.42% |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 76.18 | 3.91% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 75.82 | 3.42% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 75.38 | 2.82% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 75.35 | 2.78% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 74.65 | 1.83% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 73.93 | 0.85% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 73.31 | |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 73.03 | 0.38% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 72.70 | 0.84% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 70.72 | 3.66% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 69.40 | 5.63% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 67.93 | 7.92% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 63.05 | 16.27% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 54.82 | 33.73% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 48.28 | 51.84% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 47.91 | 53.02% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 40.72 | 80.03% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 38.28 | 91.51% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 23.67 | 209.72% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 20.41 | 259.19% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 18.74 | 291.20% |
| Far Cry – 1280×1024 Very High | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 75.28 | 5.83% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 73.31 | 3.06% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 72.96 | 2.57% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 71.77 | 0.90% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 71.17 | 0.06% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 71.13 | 0.00% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 71.13 | |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 71.03 | 0.14% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 70.00 | 1.61% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 68.59 | 3.70% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 67.93 | 4.71% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 67.09 | 6.02% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 53.88 | 32.02% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 53.81 | 32.19% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 51.53 | 38.04% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 45.80 | 55.31% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 38.43 | 85.09% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 35.59 | 99.86% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 31.41 | 126.46% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 28.20 | 152.23% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 25.82 | 175.48% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 15.07 | 372.00% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 14.15 | 402.69% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 13.62 | 422.25% |
| Far Cry – 1600×1200 Very High | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 OC (XFX) | 72.35 | |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 71.88 | 0.65% |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 71.70 | 0.91% |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 71.57 | 1.09% |
| GeForce 7900 GT OC (XFX) | 69.37 | 4.30% |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 68.62 | 5.44% |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 60.12 | 20.34% |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 59.50 | 21.60% |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 59.36 | 21.88% |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 58.10 | 24.53% |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 54.23 | 33.41% |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 52.35 | 38.20% |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 39.93 | 81.19% |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 39.62 | 82.61% |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 34.29 | 110.99% |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 34.06 | 112.42% |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 27.74 | 160.81% |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 24.51 | 195.19% |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 22.78 | 217.60% |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 20.01 | 261.57% |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 19.53 | 270.46% |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 11.28 | 541.40% |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 8.04 | 799.88% |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 7.01 | 932.10% |
[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]
Analyzing results gathered with 3DMark franchise, we can say for sure that GeForce 7950 GX2 is the fastest single-slot video card available on the market today. XFX model, “GeForce 7950 GX2 M570 1GB DDR3 XXX” (PV-T71U-ZDD9), is even faster, as it is factory-overclocked.
On 3DMark05, for example, while we saw some performance difference on lower resolutions compared to Radeon X1900 XTX from ATI and GeForce 7900 GTX, was at 1600×1200 with all image quality settings enabled that overclocked GeForce 7950 GX2 from XFX showed all its power, being around 20% faster than Radeon X1900 XTX and 30% faster than GeForce 7900 GTX.
On Shader 2.0 simulation with 3DMark03, the performance difference was even higher and could be seen on all resolutions and configurations used. On this program the reviewed card from XFX was between 60% and 80% faster than Radeon X1900 XTX and between 40% and 60% faster than GeForce 7900 GTX, depending on the configuration that was used.
We are pretty confident that performance difference between the reviewed card and Radeon X1900 XTX is even higher at resolutions above 1600×1200. Unfortunately we didn’t have a video monitor capable of displaying above 1600×1200.
On Doom 3, however, we didn’t see any significant performance difference between those three video cards, probably due to the CPU and amount of RAM we were using (we should change our video card testing platform very soon, the problem is collecting again all data for all video cards, and some of them we had to return to the manufacturer).
And on Far Cry funny enough other video cards were slightly faster than the reviewed card, keeping the same performance level of GeForce 7900 GTX.
We also hadn’t any SLI or CrossFire configurations to compare this video card to, so we kept the comparison only between single video cards.
Keep in mind that according to NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 will be SLI-compatible pretty soon by just upgrading the video driver.
This video card is clearly targeted to users willing to run at least at 1600×1200 with all video quality enhancements enabled and have a lot of money. According to NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 came to the market between USD 599 and USD 649. This model from XFX is costing, on average, USD 683.
In you research carefully you will find a huge price differences. For example, this model is quoted at USD 700 at Tigerdirect.com, however the other overclocked GeForce 7950 GX2 model from XFX (520M Extreme) can be found there at USD 600. Honestly, we don’t think it is worth paying one hundred bucks just to have a factory-overclocked model as you can achieve the same overclocking level just by configuring two sliders on the video driver that will cost you nothing.
Of course this video card is targeted for the ultra enthusiasts that want to have the latest, the fastest and the more expensive pieces of hardware in their dream machine. Other very high-end video cards especially GeForce 7900 GTX (which is quoted around USD 500 at this same store) continue to be an excellent choice if you want a great performance with all image quality settings enabled at very high resolutions but don’t think it is worthwhile spending USD 600 or more on a video card.