7900 GTO Single & SLI Testing on a Badaxe

[The Asgard]

Greetings,
Right just finished some testing on 2 MSI 7900 GTO's in single and SLI config on a Badaxe motherboard with the 85.96 Modded drivers. All tests in this part were run on a [email protected]'s 1:1 400 FSB 4-4-4-12

Single card only running @ default with 91.47 drivers

3D mark 06

3DMark Score 6281 3DMarks

SM 2.0 Score 2514 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 2352 Marks
CPU Score 3080 Marks

Fear
Max Detail ( Soft Shdows Off ), no AA, 16 Ani, 1600x1200
Min 43
Avg 73
Max 156

Company of Heroes
Max Detail inc AA at 1920x1200
Min 18 Avg 38 Max 108


-----------------------------------------------------------

SLI with modded 85.96 Drivers @ default

3D mark 06

3DMark Score 10373 3DMarks

SM 2.0 Score 4644 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 4193 Marks
CPU Score 3084 Marks


Fear
Max Detail ( Soft Shdows Off ), no AA, 16 Ani, 1600x1200
Min 82
Avg 134
Max 365

Company of Heroes
Max Detail inc AA at 1920x1200
Min 36 Avg 68.5 Max 176


----------------------------------------------------

SLI Overclocked to 685/720


3D mark 06

3DMark Score 10897 3DMarks

SM 2.0 Score 4936 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 4469 Marks
CPU Score 3083 Marks

Fear
Max Detail ( Soft Shdows Off ), no AA, 16 Ani, 1600x1200
Min 82
Avg 143
Max 377



-----------------------------------------------------

Heres one I did with my 6600 OC to 3.8G to see how they scale in 3D mark 06



3DMark Score 10963 3DMarks

SM 2.0 Score 4911 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 4439 Marks
CPU Score 3244 Marks

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=522751

 

[The Asgard]

Very impressed to say the least! SLI worked amazing no hassles what so ever. Just need some profiles for the latest games. Out of all the hardware I have tested this year. X1900XT-X, X1900GT, X1900GT SLI, X1800XT, 7950GX2 this combo is the best. Its cheap, its quiet, it rocks!

Will be keeping this setup thats for sure.


///


well until the next card comes out

 

[The Asgard]

OK just sorted out a profile with Company of Heroes using AFR2

Single Min 18 Avg 38 Max 108
SLI Min 36 Avg 68.5 Max 176

Not too shabby at all.

 

[The Asgard]

you get the same with a single card and two in SLI?

Or have I missed something?

Don't see the point of it by your testing.
I get 10300 06 marks with my GX2

Two GTO's in Sli cost more than a GX2
I tried SLI with 7900 GTX on the 975 chipset with conroe and the cost wasn't worth it.

Its a typo. The dreaded cut and paste. Updated.

Default out of the box score with a GX2 is 8300. Default on these is 10,300. The system is faster OC. I never played that much with OC but 11K would be easy I would have thought.

The cooling is far better on this setup

Quieter

If a card fails you can buy another. GX2 = Throw away

This solution is a bit cheaper than a GX2 or the same.

 

[The Asgard]

But if a GX2 fails I just get another.
I have the option of quad SLI where as this offers similar performance but ties up two slots.

The GX2 is quiet anyway.

plus the fact the drivers used,the hacked ones are old in the tooth now and you are stuck with them at least until someone modds another set.

Qaud SLI does not work and won't work properly with DX9

Expensive option to replace a GX2

This setup is far quieter and does not dump heat into your case

Good performance with hacked drivers, newer drivers will be even better. Not had any issue with any of my games I have tried so far. Far less issues than I had with my GX2

 

[The Asgard]

You have an absolutely lovely rig mate and those are absolutely fantastic scores but easyrider is right, a 7950 is more efficient in terms of cost and performance than your 7900GTO SLI setup. You can also RMA any card is that you don't have to throw anything away.

I am building my Conroe next week and I hope my overclock is as good as yours.

Cost wise there is not much in it but you do get more performance out of the box and the cooling solution is far better. I was not happy with how hot the GX2 ran especially overclocked. GX2 breaths fire into you case. This setup only cost me £240 ( special price, dont ask ) so I'm happy for now.

 

[The Asgard]

As long as you are happy thats all that matters

Do I detect the green eyed monster

 

[The Asgard]

Basically I can upgrade all my hardware FOC. So I never have anything for more than five minutes. I test/bench this hardware because I enjoy it but I also try to give you peeps some unbiased opions on current hardware and how they perform. It doesn't matter to me if X is better than Y because at some point I will have Y

 

[The Asgard]

eh?

This is old news to me I was playing with SLI on the intel chipset a month back.

Was not impressed.

Driver restrictions etc... put me off.

The GX2 I have is fine for my needs.

What are you implying?
That i want GTO is sli?

Na seen it done it and worn the T shirt.Time to move on.

Good for you.

I'm sure some people will find it interesting even if you don't. The world does not revolve around you young Padawan contary to what you might think.

 

[The Asgard]

That looks very good indeed. I'll probably get a pair myself.

I am surprised that the ram won't go further though. 720 seems lower than other people were getting and it'll certainly be bottlenecking the rest of the performance. Was that auto-detect or are you just playing it safe given the reputation of the 7900 family?

In single mode they were hitting 800 but I couldnt get much more than 720 in SLI for some reason. Might be down to the drivers

 

[The Asgard]

Also, Asgard, what did you do to get SLI to work for Company of Heroes? I'm not familiar with the term AFR2.

EDIT: Good work too by the way.

Basically I just setup a profile and one of the options is AFR2 which seemed to work and work well.

AFR is Alternative Frame Rendering

 

[The Asgard]

Don't be angry with him. He's not what you call the er... most "socially gifted" bloke form what i've seen of him on the forum. If computer hardware floats his boat and gives him some sense of superiority then leave him to it. The rest of us appreciate the thread for what it is.

I'm not angry he just makes me laugh and I like toying with him.

Its good to here that people appreciate my efforts. I ceratinly get a lot of nice emails

 

[The Asgard]

Thanks for taking the time to post your results Asgard. My GTO just arrived, waiting for latest drivers to download.

Did you bother flashing the bios in the end? Or did you just overclock?

It is worth mentioning that it's a heck of a long card... but I'm guessing a lot of you already know this. I had to reconfigure my drive cages, cables etc in order to jam it in lol... nice airflow now, was worth it.

Guess there is no point posting results myself now, perhaps if I get another GTO I will, since my rig is somewhat outdated compared to you lots

No I didn't bother flashing in the end and I thought for a change I would leave these standard.

m8, post your results its always interesting to see how the cards compare in different rigs and how well they scale. I would be very interested

 

[The Asgard]

Without a volt mod, 9000 (clocks at 600/1600 roughly). Getting to 10k wouldn't be a problem with the mods, but one of my cards is giving up the ghost and I've back the whole thing off to 500/1480.

If I do get a pair of gtos i'll probably suicide the dieing one just to see how far it goes.

EDIT: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=419090

That's what i got without the volt mod.

Thats a nice score you have there not bad at all.

If I was you I wouldn't bother upgrading you have a nice rig and I bet in the real world you wouldn't tell any difference

 

[The Asgard]

Sorry Asgard, hope you don't think I'm hijacking your thread...

Updated 3DMark05 score (760 memory, 700 core):

9997

Aww so close... but don't think I should risk pushing the card any further, not right away anyway.

Updated F.E.A.R test score (760 memory, 700 core):

Min: 34
Avr: 152
Max: 67

So, it has made a difference, just not a great deal...

Great scores keep em coming. Cracking card m8.

Post away.

 

[The Asgard]

Thanks mate

How far did you manage to push your two GTOs in the end?

In single mode with the latest drivers I think I could get about 700/800 but for some reason in SLI they wern't happy much past 685/720 although I didn't do that much fiddling. I got the feeling that the detect routine was failing them early. The hacked driver detects them as a 7900GT.

 

[The Asgard]

Final set of benchmarks, for those of you who are interested:

7900 GTO running at 700 Core / 760 Mem, rest of spec in siggy.

3DMark03 - 21880
3DMark05 - 10239
3DMark06 - 5210

Little dissapointed with the 3DMark06 score, was expecting 6000 or so... but I guess my CPU may be letting me down.

Conclusion:

Performs noticabley better than my previous 7800GT SLI setup. Used the money I had from selling those to pay for this new card. I am more than happy with the trade and, if really necessary, I know I can install another one for some SLI action

As Gibbo and others have stated numberous times already, it's a cracking card, overclocked or not...

The cpu score does weight the 06 score but im sure your cpu wouldn't make much difference in the majority of games. The only games I have played where a better CPU helps is Oblivion and COH.

Nice scores m8

 

[The Asgard]

HI m8

Check the motherboard section for me, I have a thread in there and maybe you can help.

Done m8

 

[The Asgard]

Got a simple question for the asgard.

Did you spot any apreciable picture quality difference after moving over to the green side?

My finger's hovering over the check out now button but i've also got dibs on a 2nd hand x1900-xt

Cheers

No real difference. Ati colours tend to be more vivid in wow. Water seems better with Nvidia. Not seen any shimmering. Very similiar. Both good.

 

[The Asgard]

What power PSU are you running with the 7900GTO's in SLI?
Thanks

Seasonic 600W but i'm sure a good quality 450watt would cut it no problem. These seem to draw less current than my X1900XT. Certainly less heat.