Test: BFG Geforce7950GX2 Quad-SLi

Konklusion

innovation og teknologi 4point. Det er tydeligt at sammenspillet mellem de 4 processorer virker, men det er ganske tydeligt overkill jo mindre man har en 30" LCD-skærm og samtidig ønsker brug af antialiasing. CPU'en der kan trække det vil jeg ikke mene findes endnu, og i så fald skal den overclockes en hel del. Men spændende nytænkning, der i langt de fleste tilfælde er overdrevet i forhold til 99% af markedes behov.

Design og layout 4point. Som Quad-SLi må det siges at bare udseendet af disse monster-grafikkort vil kunne få enhver nørd til at overveje Harboe vand istedet for Coca-Cola det næste års tid. Det ser imponeret og sygt ud, og nvidia har designmæssigt ramt plet. Støjen med 2 af disse kort er mærkbart højere end med 1, dog uden at være i nærheden af X1900XT's støjhelvede. Dual-slot-designet snupper en hel del plads, men pladsproblemet er præcis det samme med X1900XT-serien og Geforce7900GTX, pga. den massive køling.



Software 4-point Den driver der er brugt her, benytter sig af nvidia's controlpanel. Dette kan dog ændres til den gamle løsning, men man giver afkald på bl.a. 8, 16 og 32x SLi-FSAA. Herinde er der mulighed for at ændre alt det man ønsker i SLi-løsningen, og man kan bl.a. rode med single-chip, og flere forskellige typer af rendering. Til single grafikkort kan det virke overvældende, men som high-end og til SLi giver det en masse muligheder hvor man kan tjekke udseendet på grafikken, måle temperature og dyrke overclocking.

Ydelse 5point. Ydelsen er i top, Selvom 4000+eren er sat ud af spillet må man sige at det ikke kan blive vildere. Men vi må også konkludere at det kræver sit hardware at følge med. En kæmpeskærm og den hurtigste processor på markedet er en selvfølge ellers er Quad-SLi fuldstædig ligegyldigt.

Pris 1point. Vil man have Quad-SLi er udgiften på mange områder endnu større end blot grafikkort. Man har brug for et SLi-bundkort, helst en SLi-strømforsyning, og for at man overhovedet kan udnytte det, en skærm med en høj opløsning og gerne den hurtigste cpu på markedet. Quad-SLi vil i BFG's tilfælde nærme sig 11000kr alene for grafikkort.

Vi takker MM distribution & BFG for at have stillet disse to monster kort til vores rådighed i forbindelse med artiklen.

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En sidste lille pointe

I Quad-SLi oplevede jeg faktisk kun en af de mange fejl som jeg havde prøvet med 91.27driveren i single. Så nVidia har fået rettet på nogle ting, det er helt sikkert. Men jeg vil slutte af med, hvad kan bruge det til? Ingen mennesker jeg kender vil kunne få brug for noget der ligner blot 10% af ydelsen fra disse grafikkort. Ingen jeg kender vil give 11000kr alene for grafikkort. For mig, vil den største grund blot være lir-faktoren og blær-effekten. Det ser godt ud med sådan en bunke printplader pakket tæt op og ned af hinanden. Derfor kunne det måske være sjovt at spørge om nogle kunne finde på at købe det?
I kan jo skrive i forum-tråden tilknyttet testen.
Pointen er vel, at skal man have Quad-SLi, så er grafikkortet ikke længere så vigtigt, så sørg for at resten af hardwaren lever op til grafikkortene.

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Summary

Innovation and technology 4 points. It is clear that the 4 processors cooperate well, but it is evidently overkill unless you have a 30" LCD-monitor and you want to use anti-aliasing. I don't think a CPU that can power this setup exists yet, and then it might even need quite a bit of overclocking. But it's an amazing piece of hardware, albeit excessive compared to the needs of 99% of the market.

Design and layout 4 points. The prospect of Quad -SLi, and just the look of these monster graphics cards can tempt any nerd into cutting down on pizza and drinking budget soda instead of Coca-Cola for a year. It looks friggin' impressive and awesome; nVidia has really designed a beauty. The noise levels of two of these cards are noticeably higher than with one, but still far from the screaming hell caused by X1900XT's. The dual slot design takes up quite a bit of real estate, but no more than does X1900XT's and Geforce7900GTX's, due to the massive cooling required.



Software 4 points. The driver we used is controlled via nVidia's Control Panel. This can be changed to the old setup, which unfortunately prohibits selection of things like 8, 16 and 32x SLi-FSAA. Here you can change virtually everything you could want to regarding the SLi setup, such as single-chip and different kinds of rendering. It can overwhelming for single graphics cards, but for high-end and SLi it gives provides lots of options for verifying the graphics rendering, monitor temperatures and dabble with some overclocking.

Performance 5 points. The performance is naturally top notch. Although the 4000+ is exhausted you simply can't get anything more powerful, But we will also have to conclude that the rest of the hardware needs to be really high end. Unless you have a giant monitor and the fastest processor available, Quad-SLi is meaningless.

Price 1 point. If you want Quad-SLi, the necessary investment will be much higher than just the cost of the graphics card(s). You need a SLi-capable mainboard, preferably a SLi power supply, and in order to actually notice the potential power also a very high resolution monitor and a premium, ultra-high end CPU. The cards themselves will in the case of these BFG units set you back around 1884 $/ 1474 _.
We wish to thank MM distribution & BFG for providing us with these two monster cards for this test.

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One last note

In Quad-SLi I only experienced one of the many bugs I've seen using the 91.27 drivers in single mode. So nVidia have fixed some issues, that much is clear. But I would like to finish off asking one thing: what can you use it for? No one I know will be able to use just 10 % of the performance these cards can deliver. No one I know will ever pay even in the neighborhood of 1884 $/ 1474 _ for graphics cards. For me, the main reason would be the show-off factor. It looks damn good with that bundle of PCB's closely stacked. Hence I'd like to know if anyone is considering buying it?
Please make a note in the forum's comments section for this test.
The point must be that if you are going to get Quad-SLi, the graphics card does not matter much any more, so make sure that the rest of the hardware are at least a decent match for the graphics cards.