Trying to choose between very similarly priced cards: - 7950GX2 (£325) - 2x7900GTO in SLI (~£340) - X1950XTX (£325) Whatever I get will be overclocked and watercooled but which is the faster option for the cash? (I'm not planning to upgrade to Vista for a while, at least not until SP1 is released so DX10 cards won't make a lot of difference). Or will there be a price drop when the new nVidia card is released in Nov?
A good way to see the performance difference in cards would be to go here: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html and compare the benchmarks between them. They have results for multiple games, so you can see what cards to better at different games.
I don't have an xfire board and have no plans to get one. Whats really confusing is that Tom's puts the x1950xtx at nearly twice the performance of the 7950cx2 but cpc puts the 7950gx2 as slightly ahead of the x1950xtx (all at 1600x1200, I want to play at 1650x1080 with max textures and 4xaa, 8/16xaf). Hexus doesn't rate the 7950gx2 as it had issues with the motherboard they used in testing. Confusing! Then there is the 7900GTO. Its a touch slower than the 7900gtx so in SLI it should be ahead of both the 7950gx2 and the x1950xtx but is this the case? It's a new card and there seems to be limited availability and little in the way of comparisons with it being used in SLI. I have no plans to go dx10 as I don't intend to get vista until sp1 is released and I'm not sure a 530W powersupply will cover these beasts which look like they'll single handedly put a strain on the national grid. Will the release of nvidia's new card bring prices down across the board (e.g. should I wait 2-3weeks?)
The custom pc mag bench marks alot of new hardware, and the ATI card is actually the quickest one you can get (also, I'm and ATI fan boy )
I think that it is probable that new cards will push down prices, at least somewhat, because that is what always happens when new stuff comes out. I think the reason you get the different benchmarks for the cards is the test system used. From most of what I've seen, its a trade off between the GX2 and X1950XTX, with each one winning in different games.
Gravemind123: Thats exactly what it looked like to me. With the x1950xtx I could upgrade to crossfire. The 7950GX2 doesn't scale well in quad SLI and the power draw for crossfire should be less overall as there are just two cards not four. x1950xtx looks like the card of choice for the moment. specofdust: Think I'll take that advice and see how the market pans out, whether the 8800GTX is a hit or a dissapointment prices are bound to fall a little and ATI are going to want to shift their x1900/x1950 stock with the impending arrival of R600.
Quad-SLI is not as powerful as it would seem, as far as I've seen. It is really just for bragging rights, as it usually loses to X1950XTXs in CrossFire. That, and the X1950 is a little cheaper then the 7950GX2
