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Leadtek WinFast PX7950 GX2 TDH 1GB PCI-E Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Thursday, 03 August 2006 |
AMDZone shares a review on the Leadtek WinFast PX7950 GX2 TDH 1GB PCIe graphics card. One of the unique features that PC's have over consoles is that the hardware is configurable to the users dream. While this might be a headache for most developers having to adapt to constantly evolving hardware and testing with countless configurations at hand, it allows those with the cash to spend wildly for the best and fastest hardware and to do so every six months or so. NVIDIA's rejuvenation of SLI has been key to this, what they've deemed HD gaming and in that light we take a look at a card with the potential for the next level up, Leadtek's WinFast PX7950 GX2.
 Leadtek WinFast PX7950 GX2 TDH 1GB PCI-E Review
Leadtek's WinFast PX7950 GX2 is based off of NVIDIA's newest technology that does what ASUS and Gigabyte have for quite some time. To sum it up, it features two video boards connected together functioning in SLI without the need for a bridge or even an SLI chipset. As you might recall we've checked out cards much like this from video card vendors for quite some time but this is the first time NVIDIA has specifically made their own version for release. Why did NVIDIA do this? One of the reasons is what you might have heard of called Quad SLI, which so far has been only available to system vendors such as Dell or Alienware.
While the technology is available with the GeForce 7950 GX2 for Quad SLI and the only components necessary are a high-end power supply, good cooling, and a BIOS update, NVIDIA does not want to put it out on the market for the hardware enthusiast so unfortunately most will have to buy fully built systems if they truly want to go over the edge with Quad SLI but ultimately the benefits even for the most taxing gamines would probably be slim to none. Leadtek's card follows NVIDIA's reference design clocking in at 500MHz, 1200MHz for the memory and 512MB of GDDR3 memory per board, totaling 1GB of memory.
The card is actually smaller than you might expect, about the length of a Radeon X1900 and the width is only about an inch. It is a bulky card but not as much as other high-end configs. Another feature which is a welcome change is that these cards support HDCP, the content protection system which might become necessary in the future for high-definition content with Windows Vista. While most monitors have included HDCP support for the past year this is the first time higher-end video cards have included HDCP with all their cards. A future proof feature that's nice to have when one is shelling out this amount of money.
It is great to see NVIDIA finally making a card that combines two graphics cards after all the versions that ASUS and Gigabyte have put out and Leadtek have done an excellent job with their card providing a nice software and hardware bundle. Not surprisingly Leadtek's WinFast PX7950 GX2 is very similar to two GeForce 7900 GT video cards running in SLI, going back and forth between the lead depending on the benchmark. Checking prices, the card comes in at $550 on Newegg, which isn't bad considering the performance that you do get. Comparatively two GeForce 7900 GT's would be around the same price.
Our recommendation is if you either don't have an SLI configuration or don't want to get an SLI motherboard, the GeForce 7950 GX2 is an excellent way to go for those who don't have SLI yet still want the power of two cards together. Just be sure that your motherboard has a BIOS update compatible with the GeForce 7950 series. For those who do have SLI, it seems very unlikely NVIDIA is going to support Quad SLI anytime in the near future. The costs aren't too different between two GeForce 7900 GT's and a GeForce 7950 GX2. Overall Leadtek have done an excellent job with their card.
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