Problem with geforce 7950gx2

[sine_1]

Hello there people. Bought a Geforce 7950gx2 few months ago. It doesnt work as it should be. At first I thought it was because of my slow CPU which is just a Pentium 4 640 3.2ghz. Thought that a bottleneck CPU was slowing my card down. I later reliased that my performance shouldnt be this low. I done some research into the card and reliased that there are some incompatibility issues with the card on some motherboards. Read how so some motherboards dont actually detect the pci-xpress interface of the card. A bios update should solve the problem. I updated my bios and Nvidia drivers still the problem is there. The basically works at it's half. How do I solve this issue? Or is it still a bottleneck CPU which is causing me problem

 

[A_Dying_Wren]

Hmm... no idea why u got the 7950gx2. Its pretty damn old, uses up a lot of electricity and is no better than single chip solutions today.

CPU might be a bottleneck. Try overclocking it.

Or get urself a nice new 3870 or 8800GT.

 

[romulus47plus1]

What games are you playing dude?

 

[sine_1]

Fear, Halflife2, Quake 4 and Diablo2

Mate I got the card cheap for aus $250 from stock clearance. It's still a good card and I believe the 8800gt is better by not much. All I know its having issues because of incompatibility. I need someone to help me out thats all

 

[lameness]

Argh $250 for that???!!! Trust me the 8800gt will destroy the 7950x2 in any test. Infact even the lowly (and very cheap) radeon 3850 256mb will be faster in nearly all scenarios. My advice would be to sell it if you can and get something new. The 3850 is about £80 here in the uk so in us it must be even cheaper.

Even 2 months ago surely the 8800gt was in the $250 dollar price range?

 

[sine_1]

Mate the 3870 losses to 7950gx2 marginally yes and the 3850 is loses to 7950 by a consider amount. If you look at the overall games fps benchmark in tomshardware vga chart you will know. I have also done the calcualtion which compares the 8800ultra and 7950gx2. The 8800ultra is 19.4 approx. better than 7950gx2. By all means the 7950gx2 is not a joke off a card. When I bought my card the 8800gt was priced around $400 to $350(which were the **** generic brands). I have consulted with many people before purchasing this card and its a good one by all recommendations. It beats the 8800gts 320mb and loses to 8800gts 640mb marginally but in opengl the 7950gx2 beats the 8800gts 640mb by considerable amount.

Again I quote "it doesnt lose to 3870 and kicks the 3850 ass".

When I bought this card in late 2007 the 8800gts 512mb G92 was priced around $500 to $450, 8800gtx $650 to $700, the 8800ultra $900 to $850.

 

[rickzor]

Oh, so you didnt got it now! uff, because 250$ for that card in our days would be dumb, since you can get a gf8800 for that much amount!
But you should show some benchmarks from that card in games or 3dmarks or something so we can figure if they're acceptable in any way!
And yes, the p4 3.2 ghz is holding the card back, obviously!
Still, i find amusing how in this world of hardware vga monsters from not that way back ago, can be called "pretty damn old" like it was pointed already here!
That card is still a monster performance wise!
Dont talk about it like its decades old! Its not Pretty damn old.
My current gf4 mx 440 in my athlon 3500+ is pretty damn old.

 

[pauldh]

The 7950GX will often get crushed by a single 8800GT in new games like UT3, COD4, Crysis, Oblivion, NFS Carbon/Pro street). But I guess your prices down under were much higher for the 8800GT. Honestly, I'd rather have a 320MB 8800GTS than a 7950GX2.

If you look at the overall games fps benchmark in tomshardware vga chart you will know. I have also done the calcualtion which compares the 8800ultra and 7950gx2. The 8800ultra is 19.4 approx. better than 7950gx2.

Exactly my ongoing point about misuse of the Tom's charts. + One more person gets misled by the overall game chart summary. The 7950GX2 is not nearly within 19% of an 8800U.

 

[emp]

The part that you're missing is that the GF7 series are lately horribly tanking on most of the newer titles like pauldh pointed out. Since the charts are based of some old titles it is no surprise that you were misled by them. I would much rather have my GTS 320 or even a 8800GS over that card at this moment.

I would suggest that you test it on another machine and try an RMA if the card is truly damaged, but if they are going to replace it with another 7950GX2 then you might aswell just get a cheap 8800GS and sell the 7950 to another poor soul.

 

[romulus47plus1]

The part that you're missing is that the GF7 series are lately horribly tanking on most of the newer titles like pauldh pointed out. Since the charts are based of some old titles it is no surprise that you were misled by them. I would much rather have my GTS 320 or even a 8800GS over that card at this moment.

I would suggest that you test it on another machine and try an RMA if the card is truly damaged, but if they are going to replace it with another 7950GX2 then you might aswell just get a cheap 8800GS and sell the 7950 to another poor soul.

+1

 

[sabot00]

even worse is that review might even be using a 8800ultra G80.
The 7950GX2 is old and only has DX9.

 

[sine_1]

Yes I am aware that the Geforce 7950gx2 is not going to be well compatiable with the latest games as the 8 series is. Peronsely speaking the 8800gts 320mb is a piece of crap due to low amount of memory. Pretty much every game the 7950gx2 runs supreme over it. Tomshardware has tested every card with a good balance of latest games and fairly old ones.
Its not the best card but still pretty good and by all means competes with the 8800 series. If you do the calculation in tomshardware charts the 8800ultra is 19.4% faster than 7950gx2. Do it yourself then but yes I do agree that its not entirely accuarate but atleast gives you some insight how fast the card is.

I didnt write this forum to know how good my card is. Merely to know how to fix the issue. Now if you people with 8800 series want to shrug me well dont bother posting here.

Yes I will be getting a Geforce 9900gtx when it comes out thats definite.

 

[fly2hip8]

Yes I am aware that the Geforce 7950gx2 is not going to be well compatiable with the latest games as the 8 series is. Peronsely speaking the 8800gts 320mb is a piece of crap due to low amount of memory. Pretty much every game the 7950gx2 runs supreme over it. Tomshardware has tested every card with a good balance of latest games and fairly old ones.
Its not the best card but still pretty good and by all means competes with the 8800 series. If you do the calculation in tomshardware charts the 8800ultra is 19.4% faster than 7950gx2. Do it yourself then but yes I do agree that its not entirely accuarate but atleast gives you some insight how fast the card is.

I didnt write this forum to know how good my card is. Merely to know how to fix the issue. Now if you people with 8800 series want to shrug me well dont bother posting here.

Yes I will be getting a Geforce 9900gtx when it comes out thats definite.

I have the 7950gx2 as well and I am having problems too. When I ran 3dmark06 I only get around 4400 with the card clocked at 545/743. The stock clock is 500/600. It should be scoring over 9,000. My cpu is x6800 @ 3.2 To me it would seem that only one of the GPUs is working. However, that is just a theory. Sorry, I can't help you.

 

[sine_1]

Hey there mate. Listen I have done some research into the card and what turns out is that alot of motherboard doesnt detect the pci-xpress host controller of the card, its more like a pci xpress switch. If it doesnt detect the switch then the card doesnt funtion propely in some cases doesnt even boot in some motherboards. This problem has being rectified with Nvidia based motherboards with new bios upgrade but alot of other chipset companies didnt even bother to do a bios upgrade which could make their motherboards compatiable with Geforce 7950gx2. Mine is an acer motherboard with an ATI chipset and apparently didnt release any bios upgrade that can make the 7950gx2 compatiable. They released one bios upgrade in 2006 march, I installed that and the card still didnt improve its performance in my machine.

This problem is also extending with the 9800gx2 cards where alot of motherboards even at current age hasnt detected pci xpress host controller. Either companies dont like gx2 models or just not bothered to waste money to create a bios that is compatiable with gx2 models.

 

[sabot00]

GX2 models are a piece of crap, They still require games to support SLI in order to use both GPUs. A single 8800ultra/GTX is still VERY good. I think palit makes a 1gb version. Palit made a 1gb version of 8600GTS(VERY BAD CHOICE) 9600GT(VERY BAD CHOICE) 8800GT(OK) so they probably made a 1gb version of the 8800ultra/GTX. I think a 1gb version can go head n head with a 9800GX2. The problem with the 9600GT/8600GTS is that they simply dont have the mem bandwidth or raw power to need that much memory.

Edit: they dont...
bottom line is that GX2 card have 3 things:
1. Massive power consumption
2. Massive price tag
3. Massive heat, they dont generate as much heat as a tri-SLI but pretty close.

 

[pauldh]

Yes I am aware that the Geforce 7950gx2 is not going to be well compatiable with the latest games as the 8 series is. Peronsely speaking the 8800gts 320mb is a piece of crap due to low amount of memory. Pretty much every game the 7950gx2 runs supreme over it. Tomshardware has tested every card with a good balance of latest games and fairly old ones.
Its not the best card but still pretty good and by all means competes with the 8800 series. If you do the calculation in tomshardware charts the 8800ultra is 19.4% faster than 7950gx2. Do it yourself then but yes I do agree that its not entirely accuarate but atleast gives you some insight how fast the card is.

I didnt write this forum to know how good my card is. Merely to know how to fix the issue. Now if you people with 8800 series want to shrug me well dont bother posting here.

Yes I will be getting a Geforce 9900gtx when it comes out thats definite.

Ugh, there you go again. Let me try to explain a flaw to your logic with the 19.4 % you keep mentioning. You are doing yourself a great disservice misusing and trusting the charts like that. That 19.4 % calculation is so off base and useless you simple must take the time to understand this. It adds up all games and all resolutions. WHo cares if two are similar at 10x7 resolution when both are limited by a CPU? But a 15 fps difference when it is 15 fps vs 30 fps is huge and doesn't bring the average up much for those 100+ fps low res benchies. Seriously, the charts are terribly misleading when misused as you are doing. And that overall game fps sorry to say is a dumb idea which they should remove because it is not used as Tom's intended. People keep quoting it like it represent all gaming and is a definite number to go by. It is so far from it as it is old games and when low res ties cancel out meaningful high res scores.

And they do not test new games. Those charts are a summary of 12 months of reviews, how can they test the latest games? Where's UT3, COD4, Crysis, etc? The games they test are from 2004-2006. Oblivion is the best one there to judge GPU performance in modern games. So lets disect your 19% and specifically look at the best example game they bench.

At high res 19x12, the 7950GX2 averages 15.6 fps the 8800U average 30.4 fps. The 320MB 8800GTS averaged 20.9 fps, same as the 640MB version. So much for crippled crap 320MB GTS. http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-vga-charts/oblivion-the-elder-scrolls-4-outdoor,571.html?p=1613%2C1591%2C1614%2C1601%2C1596%2C1598%2C1597%2C1602%2C1600%2C1590%2C1616%2C1612%2C1599%2C1579%2C1615%2C1594%2C1574%2C1595%2C1581%2C1643%2C1589%2C1577%2C1593%2C1637%2C1583%2C1592%2C1582%2C1635%2C1573%2C1586%2C1641%2C1570%2C1642%2C1636%2C1578%2C1640%2C1608%2C1634%2C1568%2C1572%2C1609%2C1588%2C1587%2C1580%2C1639%2C1610%2C1576%2C1611%2C1562%2C1633%2C1632%2C1638%2C1631%2C1604%2C1607%2C1560%2C1571%2C1628%2C1575%2C1630%2C1566%2C1569%2C1626%2C1624%2C1627%2C1620%2C1629%2C1585%2C1567%2C1558%2C1622%2C1625%2C1561%2C1623%2C1619%2C1606%2C1559%2C1603%2C1621%2C1565%2C1605%2C1557%2C1618%2C1564%2C1584%2C1617%2C1563

Same game at 12x10. The 7950GX2 averaged 22.4 fps. The 320MB 8800GTS averaged 31.2 fps. The 8800U averaged 45.4 fps. Now, I guarantee you that the GF8 series sees higher minimum fps too. The GF7 series had significantly lower minimum fps vs the X19xx series and GF8 series in Oblivion. Average is only part of the story. http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-vga-charts/oblivion-the-elder-scrolls-4-outdoor,569.html?p=1591%2C1601%2C1596%2C1613%2C1614%2C1598%2C1597%2C1643%2C1600%2C1590%2C1602%2C1599%2C1637%2C1635%2C1595%2C1616%2C1594%2C1641%2C1583%2C1615%2C1612%2C1593%2C1592%2C1579%2C1589%2C1574%2C1581%2C1636%2C1642%2C1577%2C1611%2C1582%2C1640%2C1586%2C1634%2C1628%2C1632%2C1573%2C1631%2C1608%2C1639%2C1633%2C1570%2C1630%2C1578%2C1638%2C1588%2C1609%2C1587%2C1610%2C1568%2C1572%2C1580%2C1629%2C1576%2C1604%2C1627%2C1607%2C1624%2C1571%2C1620%2C1626%2C1566%2C1562%2C1585%2C1575%2C1622%2C1569%2C1560%2C1567%2C1625%2C1623%2C1603%2C1619%2C1605%2C1561%2C1565%2C1584%2C1621%2C1559%2C1606%2C1618%2C1564%2C1563%2C1617%2C%2C

So much for 19% compared to an Ultra when the 320MB GTS can beat it by 50%. It's more like a 100+% lead for the Ultra in the game that best represents modern shader heavy games. And like it or not, the 320MB 8800GTS or even the $100 8800GS is better now than the 7950GX2.

Anyway, sorry to nitpick just this one point as I know it's not your focus for this thread. But I think it's important you understand where the 7950GX2 sits in current gaming and also how flawed your use/misuse of Tom's charts are. If not for you, then at least other people will see this and hopefully learn from it. So many people keep doing thiswith the charts too and the overall picture they get of how cards stack is so far from reality. Anyway, I'm done. Take it or leave it, but if you want a clearer picture, you'll take it and not dilute meaningful victories with high fps, low res, cpu limited results from old games.

Another example. The overall game score puts the X1950XTX, 7900GTX, and HD3850 very close but in that order. That is ridiculous. The 7900GTX is far worse than the other two NOW. And the leader of the three for current games is the HD3850. Yet, people will point to it and say hey, the 7900GTX is better than the HD3850, look at Tom's charts. Then they go to play a new game like UT3, and look at the 7900GTX vs other cards: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3127&p=8

Another view of the HD3850 that begs to differ with Toms Charts overall game fps total ranking:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=9

 

[sabot00]

+1 for you pauldh :lol:

 

[pauldh]

As far as addressing your problem. What games are playing bad? And at what resolution? The more specific you can be the better. For sure you cpu will hold you back in some games, especially at lower resolutions.

Fear is very GPU limited and is single threaded. So I would think you could have very decent Fear performance. HL2 really should stress your system either. Episode 2 would be more demanding. Keep in mind, beast of a CPU used in this one compared to yours. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3122&p=3

CPU scaling:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3122&p=2

 

[pauldh]

+1 for you pauldh :lol:

Thanks. Honestly I am not trying one bit to be mean, a jerk, or single him out. I am just amazed that it seems weekly we see someone post crazy GPU rankings and then use the Toms charts as their source. 7950GX2 within 19% of the 8800U is just one example.

Another common example is people assuming the 7600GT > HD2600XT because that's what Tom's overall total game fps says. Then, worse they make recommendations based on that, which is what erks me the most because it effects peoples money and buying decision. Imaging someone spending more for a 7600GT than an HD2600XT based on this flawed advice and then hoping to play UT3, COD4, Crysis, Oblivion, etc. where the HD2600XT is just so much better. The charts do not at all reflect just how bad the GF7's sometimes now tank in new popular games compared to their former direct competitors (cards they traded blows with in old games).