The top end, quad and all. £450 - £900 – ouch! US$550 - $1100 – just as bad.

Designed for extreme HD gaming, and the incredibly rich, is the Nvidia 7950 GX2. The 7950 combines the power of two GeForce 7950 graphics processing units on a single graphics card. This is pushing the boundaries of extreme performance to the extreme. The card features a 512-bit memory interface and an astounding 1GB of fast GDDR3 memory, which enables you to play games at incredibly smooth, ultra-realistic resolutions of up to 2560x1600.

But be aware, you need an SLI compatible motherboard for it to work. The best bit about this card is the fact that you can get two of these and put them in one system. Yes you guessed right, that means four GPUs in one PC! However, there is one sad piece of news about the quad SLI – it’s a bit rubbish! The performance increase of another 7950, is around 10-20% - hardly worth an extra £400, is it? Though Nvidia is working hard on the Driver and just like SLI (which was a dog to start with) Nvidia could yet pull it around.



3D Mark 06 score of the 7950GX2 is 3958, however Quad sli gives a score of…wait for it…4004 points. The worst cost/performance ratio ever seen in the graphics industry! £450 for a pathetic 100 points. I know I’m not impressed. If you’re going to get a 7950GX2 don’t bother getting two. One on its own is fast enough to handle any game you throw at it for a long time.

So there you have it, then. A complete round up of the Nvidia graphics card range – next up is a complete review of the ATI range – plus a handy guide on what card to get with your money from either camp.

Article by Lee Woods. Stay tuned for the ATI Graphics Card Round-up.