The GeForce 7950 GX2 1GB Graphics Card

As we mentioned on the earlier page, the construction of the GeForce 7950 GX2 is such that the one board will interface the motherboard, while the other card has the DVI display connectors. It's a rather interesting design that fits in with the single graphics card nomenclature and what's more, the GeForce 7950 GX2 will work on any motherboard with a PCIe graphics slot. SLI motherboards are not required. The system will detect it as a pair graphics cards installed, but the drivers will see it as only one card with no messy SLI profiles or settings required. Just plug and play. Power requirements aren't exactly doubled either, but it still consumes a staggering 143W at peak usage. Despite that, it requires only one PCIe power connector and would work fine off a simple system equipped with a fine 400W power supply.

Here's a top-down view of the GeForce 7950 GX2 graphics card. The top board being the slave board with display output connectivity.

The output interfaces are as standard as they can be, however, the GeForce 7950 GX2 is fully HDCP compliant as the board has a crypto-ROM chip that stores the key required for HDCP encoding of protected digital video content. Definitely one of the first few graphics card SKUs to have this function throughout the entire series.

Over on the other end of the card, you can make out the slim cooler profile of each card. Essentially NVIDIA designed the GeForce 7950 GX2 with a specific mechanical and TDP specification to ensure it is easily accepted within the industry and yet able to garner much better performance than the former best GeForce 7900 GTX. Note that only one PCIe Molex power connector is required.

Unscrewing the top board out, here we have the primary board underneath with the PCIe x16 interface, the link bridge and connector to the slave card and even the SLI gold fingers to set up Quad SLI.

If only the secondary board had move display output options, but perhaps that may be more complex and even violate the 'single graphics card' designation. Notice the link bridge interface facing the slave board?

Here's a close-up of that. This bridge acts as both the carrier of data and power between both cards.

This fragile looking bridge is all that's holding two boards together and making the GeForce 7950 GX2 a possibility.

Though with the SLI gold finger connector on the card, it does hint of the possibility of a Quad SLI setup for consumers. However, NVIDIA has no plans to allow Quad SLI for consumers at the moment citing reasons for the lack of proper qualified motherboard support with the right BIOS to overcome the complicated intricacies such as accounting for additional latencies and the likes. They do acknowledge the availability in future, but they aren't just ready quite yet.

Motherboard Compatibility

Although we mentioned that the GeForce 7950 GX2 could work on any PEG port equipped motherboard, there is still a clause towards that. The limitation lies with the design of the GeForce 7950 GX2 as it requires a PCIe Switch to share the aggregated PCI Express X16 bandwidth between the two boards.

The logical interconnect diagram of the GeForce 7950 GX2 – note the PCIe Switch.

This switch is also the cause of incompatibility because it's not a readily recognizable component. However this can be easily overcome through a system BIOS update to ensure compatibility. Thus at the moment, only a handful of the latest motherboard BIOS' are completely compatible with the GeForce 7950 GX2. We expect the list (available here:- www.nvidia.com/GX2 ) to grow exponentially in time as this is a relatively easy update. For your convenience, we list the compatible motherboard and BIOS revisions at the time of writing:-

GeForce 7950 GX2 Motherboard Compatibility List
Manufacturer	Model	Chipset	System BIOS version
ABIT	AA8 Duramax	Intel 925X	2.4
ABIT	AW8	Intel 925X	1.4
ABIT	AN8 SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	1.9
Albatron	K8SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	1.12
ASUS	A8N32-SLI Deluxe	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16	1205
ASUS	A8N5X	NVIDIA nForce4	0902
ASUS	A8N-SLI Premium	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	1013
ASUS	A8R32-MVP Delux	ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200	0404
ASUS	A8V-E Deluxe	VIA K8T890/VT8237R	1005
ASUS	M2N32-SLI DELUXE	NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI	0404
ASUS	P5LD2-VM	Intel 945G	0508
ASUS	P5ND2-SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Ed.	0304
Biostar	i945 G-M7	Intel 945G	24F
DFI	Infinity NF4 SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	2006/04/10
ECS	KN1 SLI Lite	NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra	1.1d
ECS	nForce4-A939	NVIDIA nForce4	1.1g
Foxconn	NF4SLI7AA-8EKRS2	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Ed.	537F1P34.BIN
Gigabyte	GA-8I945P PRO	Intel 945P	F5
Gigabyte	GA-K8N Pro-SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	F4
Gigabyte	GA-K8N51PVM9-RH	NVIDIA nForce 430/GeForce 6150	F1
Gigabyte	GA-K8NF-9	NVIDIA nForce4	F10
Gigabyte	GA-K8N-SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	F9
Gigabyte	GA-K8NXP-9	NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra	F9
Gigabyte	GA-K8NXP-SLI	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	F11
Intel	D955XBK	Intel 955X	2036
Intel	D975XBX	Intel 975X	1073
Intel	SE7525GP2	Intel E7525	P08
MSI	K8N Diamond Plus	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16	A7220NZ1 v1.22
MSI	K8N Neo4-F	NVIDIA nForce4	5.2
Tyan	S2895 D/T	NVIDIA nForce 2200/2050	2895_103

List is accurate as of launch time only. Please refer to http://www.nvidia.com/GX2 for the most updated list.

In the event that you do want to pick up a GeForce 7950 GX2 card, but your motherboard isn't listed, don't despair yet. Instead, drop a friendly note to your authorized motherboard distributor or to the manufacturer directly to hasten the update process. Without this update, your motherboard might not identify the graphics card correctly and in the worst-case scenario, not boot up at all.

Notes on Monitor Support

By default when you install the GeForce 7950 GX2, it defaults to operating in a multi-GPU mode, hence limiting the monitor output capability to just one visual display unit. This is as expected since any SLI setup would have this limitation as well. If you have two monitors to be powered, the GeForce 7950 GX2 can be 'instructed' via the driver panel to switch to a multi-display mode, thus allowing you to use a proper dual monitor setup along with all its perks and functionalities. Of course when it's time to game, it would be wise to toggle back to multi-GPU mode. This option configuration option is only available via the new NVIDIA control panel interface and not in the classic driver panel interface. Here's a snapshot of that:-

Multi-GPU and Multi-display mode options are available only in the new NVIDIA control panel interface. The default operating mode for the GeForce 7950 GX2 is in Multi-GPU mode.

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