how much faster is two 7950's compared to one?

[Gsexer]

Considering the cost of one of those bad boys, is running two 7950's worth it, or is the performance gain not worth the extra 6 bones?

[Burninate]

Considering the cost of one of those bad boys, is running two 7950's worth it, or is the performance gain not worth the extra 6 bones?

I think buying one isn't worth the extra ~$300 over the 7900 GT. They're nice cards, but just about any CPU today will limit 2 7950's. So, it's probably not worth the extra ~$600 over one if you already have one. Sexer, what kind of 3dmark06 scores are you getting with that setup?

[Gsexer]

I am still purchasing parts, my rig has not come to life yet. Just trying to find out as much as I can before I slap down the plastic. I read the SLI sticky, and saw that no matter what, you dont get 2x the performance after spending 2x the cash.

[Burninate]

I am still purchasing parts, my rig has not come to life yet. Just trying to find out as much as I can before I slap down the plastic. I read the SLI sticky, and saw that no matter what, you dont get 2x the performance after spending 2x the cash.

Yeah, that's pretty much the case. You can get as much as %90 more performance from what I've heard. But if you're planning on buying a 7950, then adding another really won't yield much benefit, as you're likely to be CPU limited. It also depends on what resolution you're going to be running at. I used to have 7800GTs in SLI and I got rid of one and didn't notice much of a performance difference because I was only running games at 1280x720. If you want to do resolutions like 1920x1200 and run full AA and AF, then SLI might be for you. Just make sure you don't cheap out on the PSU, you'll need it to run dual 7950's.

[Gsexer]

I have no idea what settings I will be running my flight sim @. Right now I am using my slower than who knows what Dell with a 2.4 p4 with a 128mb 5500. I have all of the sim settings turned way down just so I dont get the slide show. Dont even think about turning on the smoke. I wanted to upgrade my card on that, but I saw that the 7950 was PCI E, I knew I would need another mobo. Not to mention that Dell used odd shaped mobos anyhow. Thats what got me started with wanting a badass rig that I can overclock and fly my sim on.

I was looking @ the PC and power Quad SLI 1Kw, but now that I have decided to go with one 7950, I am gonna stick with the PSU in my sig.

[Burninate]

I have no idea what settings I will be running my flight sim @. Right now I am using my slower than who knows what Dell with a 2.4 p4 with a 128mb 5500. I have all of the sim settings turned way down just so I dont get the slide show. Dont even think about turning on the smoke. I wanted to upgrade my card on that, but I saw that the 7950 was PCI E, I knew I would need another mobo. Not to mention that Dell used odd shaped mobos anyhow. Thats what got me started with wanting a badass rig that I can overclock and fly my sim on.

I was looking @ the PC and power Quad SLI 1Kw, but now that I have decided to go with one 7950, I am gonna stick with the PSU in my sig.

Wow, that's exactly what happened to me. I had a dell 3.0 Ghz Pentium with an ATI X300 PCI-E. I bought a new case for it and none of the Dell components would fit. So, I ditched the whole thing and gave it to my mom and I built the PC in my sig. Since you're not really sure what settings you'll be running at and you have your mind (and wallet) set on the 7950, I would recommend buying one 7950 and an SLI compatible motherboard and that PSU (it's the best one on the market) and if you're not getting the performance you want, go for a second 7950. But I doubt that you'll be disappointed with 1 7950, they can pretty much take any game on the market and run it on any setting. SLI, IMO, is expensive and kinda limits upgradability. Especially when the DX10 cards will be out by the end of the year. When you decide to upgrade, you'll either ditch both cards for one card and probably take a performance hit in order to run DX10 or you'll have to buy 2 new cards and be out a whole lot of money. Plus, as it stands, 2 7950's will be bottlenecked by any CPU on the market, making it impossible to see the full potential of the cards. Besides a 7950 roughly ='s 2 7900 GT's. And believe me, I have one 7900 GT and it's not a slouch at all and can take nearly anything at any setting and not flinch at all. But of coarse, if money is no object, then go for it all and don't worry about upgrading again in less than a year.

[White_Pawn]

2 7950's would be really nice to have but it would bottleneck the crap outta any cpu as they have said before. Although mabye a kentsfield would fair better. If you could get ahold of an ES kentsfield, it might all work out for ya. :p

[Mr. Roboto]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but you cant run 2 7950's. I thought nvidia was holding out on those drivers.

[Liquid3D]

You can run QUAD SLI, nVidia has released 9.1.3.7 Beta Quad SLI (http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_quad_beta.html) drivers. I was running Quad SLI with two 7950GX2 and discovred my
3DMark2001SE score was 25k. I removed one of the cards and that score jumped to 32,000.

I just ran single 7950GX2 at default (500/600) 3DMark06 scoring 8717 and the CPU is most likely the bottleneck. Luckily I have a Am2 3800X2 which runs at 10x300HT 3.0GHz on default Vcore, I bumped it to 1.46V alhtough AIBooster is reading 1.57V and CPUZ is reading 1.58V way too high for me? These scores were also prresent when the Vcore is on Auto in the BIS. I have the feeling Auto (due to the new overclocking trends and to accomodate the NOS Overclock feature) is similiar to SPD settings on memory instead of timings changing voltages are changing to meet the CPU's new speed?

Anyway here's the results and NO I wouldn't buy another 7950GX2 unitl people started seeing better results. Your better off buying two 7900GTX's for sure or even two 7900GT's.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=416879

[Mr. Roboto]

hmm, cool, diddn't know they were out. Doesn't look good though :(

[crfracer290]

Damn Liquid, Quad SLI and a stock HSF, lol, gone broke from 4 of those bad boys? BTW, how you liking the M2N32?

[Liquid3D]

The system is water-cooled now and I'm awaiting some 7950GX2 test blocks from Danger Den which look sweet!

http://www.dangerden.com/images/blocks/7950/small/7950_top_view2.jpg

And my setup running the Viscool V2 block
http://www.viscool.com/scripts/produkty/images/big/20060216100634V.jpg

[Liquid3D]

I removed Corsair's stock block from a Nautilus 500 external cooling system and placed the Viscool V2 on there :) I didn't have a 3/8" system for the Viscool V2 so I improvised.

The nautilus 500 is much more versatile then I'd thought it be. Once you remove their factory installed clamps you can place any block on there you want! My Athlon64 3800 X2 is running at 10x300HTT 3.0GHz