SLI (Scalable Link Interface) was introduced in 2004. The benefits of SLI include improved performance in the games that have an SLI profile, improved Anti-Aliasing modes with more samples and the ability to use the Havok Physics engine to do Physics on the second video card. The issues with SLI setups include: 2 separated PCI Express x16 slots, requiring the blockage of 3 or more slots, the power requirements (NVIDIA recommends a 600W PSU for two video cards). So what’s the solution to this? Enter the 7950GX2.

The card is a standard length PCB, about as long of the 7800GTX series of last year. If you look at the side of the card and the cooling, it’s pretty clear the 7950GX2 consists of two 7900 chips connected by a two screws. The cooling fan on the card is a heat sink on each graphics chip and a small fan on the bottom right portion of each PCB. There are 8 memory chips arrayed in two rows of 4 chips each.

The 7950 GX2 is a native PCI Express x16 card. Early NVIDIA PCI Express cards like the 5750 PCI Express cards required a HSI (High Speed Interconnect) bridge chip to operate on the PCI Express bus. Later NVIDIA cards including all of the 7xxx series are PCI Express native, meaning they can operate without a bridge chip. The 7950 GX2 requires 143W of power at peak, more than the 75W provided by the PCI Express bus.

One thing to notice on the card is the SLI bridge connector on the right-hand PCB. Currently NVIDIA drivers do not support “Quad-SLI” in their drivers. A later driver release in the next month or so will enable retail purchasers to buy two of these 7950 cards and SLI them, giving four 7950 chips operating in SLI on a single motherboard. With the recent announcement of the Havok Physics engine and SLI, it’ll be interesting to see what four chips will be able to do. Performance with two of these 7950s is likely to be CPU limited in most cases.

There are two DVI-I ports and a TV-Out port, the same as found on nearly every other NVIDIA card or ATI card for that matter, of the last few years. Dual monitors are possible with two digital LCD monitors, two CRT monitors with adapters (included in the bundle) or a LCD and a CRT monitor. NVIDIA has changed their Control Panel for their drivers with the Release 90 drivers, but that’ll be covered a little later in the review.