Hi people.
I am back for the second time today with another review for you. This time around its another graphic card from NVIDIA’s stable the 9800GTX. 9800GTX release followed the 9800GX2 which we reviewed recently.
While 9800GX2 was obviously aimed at enthusiasts with extremely deep pockets, the 9800GTX is a different story. NVIDIA priced this card just right and with good reason.
Today we take a look at eVGA 9800GTX. In next few pages we will have a look at how this card performs and if it makes sense to buy this card in the first place.
Lets have a look.
[BREAK=9800GTX Specifications]
9800GTX
This card again is G92 derivative. NVIDIA is getting all it can out of very successful G92 which debuted with 8800GT.
Like 8800GT and 9800GX2, this is again 65nm chip containing 754 million transistors. There are no surprises here. This is basically carbon copy of 8800GTS G92 as far as specifications are concerned.
Here is a quick look at the specifications of this card.
[BREAK=The Box and Packaging.]
Lets take a look at the card.
The card shipped in traditional looking eVGA box but in green colour. And this time around the box is different. This card came in hardboard box unlike cardboard type boxes we are used to see from eVGA and most other manufacturers. It adds weight as well as sturdiness to the packaging.
Again on the inside the packaging is totally unlike what I was used to from eVGA. The card is not in usual molded plastic box but comes surrounded by the foam. It does not look at nice but its more effective and card is now better protected.
The bundle is very basic. Nothing much came with the card except driver cd, power cables and DVI to VGA dongles. I was really disappointed by this. I expected DVI to HDMI dongle at least in this package. But that was not the case.
Lets have a look at the card itself on the next page.
[BREAK=Card photos]
The card may be carrying same chip as 8800GT but similarity ends there. Once you open up the packaging sheer size of the card is surprising. Its much longer than 8800GT.
The entire front is covered with the plastic frame which conceals the 9800GTX heatsink. Only fan is visible.
The card is equipped with 2 regular 6 pin PCI express power connectors. No connector issue with this card like 9800GX2. It also has audio in for DVI audio passthrough.
We also get twin SLI connectors for 3 way SLI support.
On the backplate we have usual 2 dual link DVI ports and TV out.
And here is the photo of the backside of the card.
Now time for some fun. Lets see how this card looks naked
[BREAK=The card stripped down]
Removing all the screws on back side of the card plus 2 screws from the back plate and gently pulling the heatsink reveals the core. Here is the photo of naked card.
As you can see, the PCB is quiet different than previous generation NVIDIA cards.
And here is the G92 chip up close and personal.
The card is also equipped with 0.8ns Samsung DDR3 ram which means it is rated at 2500Mhz. This should make this card a monster of an overclocker when it comes to memory speed. We will find out all about the same little later on.
The heatsink photo for you. The memory is in contact with the heatsink through the good old white thermal pads. The core contact area is copper but to my surprise the finish was very poor. It was not lapped properly but it did the job very well.
These cards are suppose to be equipped with hybrid power supply circuitry which in the future with compatible motherboard will allow the card to be totally shut down when not in use to save power.
[BREAK=Software for the card.]
Software for the card.
As you must know, NVIDIA forceware driver suit is all you need for the card.
This page is here to show you something new I noticed in the control panel with GPU with Geforce 9 series cards with 174.74. Its additional video properties.
NVIDIA has added contrast adjustment and Dynamic contrast feature in forceware. Up on inquiring, it is confirmed that this feature will be available on GF8 series of cards. And it really works well.
Two thumbs up.
Enough of this talk. Let’s now move onto some real benchmark numbers.
Lets move on to the test system.
[BREAK=Test system and how we tested]
We used following test bed for this review
CPU : Intel C2D E8400
Motherboard : Abit IX38 Quad GT
RAM : Transcend AxeRam DDR2 800
Power Supply : OCZ GameXstream 700W SLI certified.
Operating System : Windows XP SP2
Drivers : 174.74 WHQL
Games Used : World In Conflict, Unreal Tournament 3, Bioshock, Call Of Duty 4, Crysis
How we tested.
This is high end gaming platform. So all tests were done in a way that will reflect high resolution gaming. With 20 and 22 inch monitors becoming mainstream, resolution selection of 1680x1050 made sense. And this being a high end GPU, we eliminated the lower resolutions.
Each test was ran multiple times to make sure results are consistent and an average of the results was taken. The settings used for each game will be mentioned on the page itself.
We pitted the card against 8800GT which was clocked to 600/1000 and 9800GX2.
[BREAK=3Dmark 2006 v1.1.0]
3Dmark 2006 v1.1.0
As everyone must be aware of, 3Dmark 2006 is very popular synthetic benchmark.
Lets see how this card fares.
As you can see it scores about 1000 3Dmarks more than 8800GT. Not much to talk about here.
Lets move onto gaming tests.
[BREAK=Unreal Tournament 3]
Unreal Tournament 3
All in game settings were set to max. 4X AA, 16XAF was forced from NVIDIA control panel.
Game was ran at 1680x1050. This is one of the few games which is really using the multi core CPUs.
Here are the numbers.
As you can see, there is hardly any improvement over 8800GT. Just few FPS.
[BREAK=World In Conflict]
World In Conflict
This is one of the best looking RTS games out there. Beautiful graphics, very good gameplay and very good online action. This game has it all. The graphics on RTS were never this good before.
We used Very High settings from game options which forces 4XAA and 4XAF in the game. No manual adjustments were made and we used game’s inbuilt benchmark to test.
Lets have a look at the numbers.
In this game there is small improvement over 8800GT. Game was very smooth on 9800GTX.
[BREAK=Bioshock]
Bioshock
This was one of the first game that really made UT3 engine shine. The game environment is absolutely fantastic.
Benchmarking this game is little tough. There is no inbuilt benchmark. So we relied on FRAPS to do the work.
On the first level save point, we started the game on each card and moved around the level for a minute and tried to replicate same movement on the second card. 4XAA and 16X AF was used.
Here are the numbers.
In this game also there is 7FPS improvement over overclocked 8800GT. But game is perfectly playable on all cards tested with maxed out details.
[BREAK=Call of Duty 4]
Call of Duty 4
Arguably the best release of 2007. One of the most popular game with very intense action and very good gameplay. It looks great as well. And with the popularity of this game, it was impossible to emit this game from our tests.
The game was ran with everything maxed out 4xAA and 16xAF. Every single in game option was set to max.
Here are the numbers.
In this game with the level we tested, the 9800GTX performs much better than 8800GT. Remember its FPS and with shooters, usually more FPS the better.
[BREAK=Crysis]
Crysis
Ahh so finally the last test. I kept it last on purpose. This game has been named nemesis of the modern GPUs. This game is all about pushing the limits of the graphics, pure eye candy.
All the settings in game were set to max possible settings of HIGH. Then we forced fake VERY HIGH on XP with the system.cfg file. The AA in this game really looks bad. But this game allows you to force Edge AA using the cfg file which looks lot better than in game AA setting.
Here is the cfg file we used.
con_restricted=0
r_motionblur=0
r_UseEdgeAA=2
r_UsePOM=1
r_sunshafts=1
e_water_ocean_fft=1
q_Renderer=3
r_colorgrading=1
This gives best possible results in terms of eye candy on XP.
Lets have a look at the numbers.
In Crysis, performance of the 9800GTX is admirable. The most important thing is that the minimum FPS never dropped below 25 which is big plus in its favor over 8800GT.
[BREAK=Temperatures & Overclocking.]
Temperatures & Overclocking.
This is exciting part.
Temperatures were very much in control. The big bad cooler does its job very well.
It didn’t even touch 70°C at full load with auto fan control at both stock and overclocked speeds.
As I stated before, the card carries 0.8ns Samsung DDR3 memory. The power circuitry on the card is improved.
We had no problems clocking this card.
From 675 Mhz stock core, I was able to clock this as high as 830 / 2500 without breaking sweat out of box.
This resulted in significant performance increase. As you can see the 3Dmark score jumped to 16808.
In real world game tests, the Crysis performance went up by 5 FPS which is significant increase again with just GPU overclock.
This card will be bencher’s heaven.
[BREAK=Analysis and Conclusion.]
Analysis and Conclusion.
So what did NVIDIA really achieved with this launch?
Not much for existing users who already own 8800GTS (G92) or 8800GTX as far as performance goes.
But the card has great overclocking potential. It just keeps clocking. Unlike 8800GT, it uses quality RAM chips, clocks more than 8800GTS G92 and is lot cheaper than 8800GTX. And runs much cooler.
Those who are looking to purchase a new high end single GPU solution obviously don’t have to look anywhere else. This is the card for them.
Also those who really have money to fork out can even go for 2 or 3 of these for 2 way and 3 way SLI.
Overall a person like me will be happy to own this card. Same may not be case with person who recently bought 8800GT or 8800GTS. And I am sure those with 8800GTX will sit pretty with their cards.
The only probable buyers are those who are building new system and overclockers. If you have the money, buy it.
Hope you enjoyed this review.
Special thanks to myself for purchasing this card which made this review possible. :tongue:
Shripad aka Funky signing out.
I am back for the second time today with another review for you. This time around its another graphic card from NVIDIA’s stable the 9800GTX. 9800GTX release followed the 9800GX2 which we reviewed recently.
While 9800GX2 was obviously aimed at enthusiasts with extremely deep pockets, the 9800GTX is a different story. NVIDIA priced this card just right and with good reason.
Today we take a look at eVGA 9800GTX. In next few pages we will have a look at how this card performs and if it makes sense to buy this card in the first place.
Lets have a look.
9800GTX
This card again is G92 derivative. NVIDIA is getting all it can out of very successful G92 which debuted with 8800GT.
Like 8800GT and 9800GX2, this is again 65nm chip containing 754 million transistors. There are no surprises here. This is basically carbon copy of 8800GTS G92 as far as specifications are concerned.
Here is a quick look at the specifications of this card.
Lets take a look at the card.
The card shipped in traditional looking eVGA box but in green colour. And this time around the box is different. This card came in hardboard box unlike cardboard type boxes we are used to see from eVGA and most other manufacturers. It adds weight as well as sturdiness to the packaging.
Lets have a look at the card itself on the next page.
[BREAK=Card photos]
The card may be carrying same chip as 8800GT but similarity ends there. Once you open up the packaging sheer size of the card is surprising. Its much longer than 8800GT.
The entire front is covered with the plastic frame which conceals the 9800GTX heatsink. Only fan is visible.
We also get twin SLI connectors for 3 way SLI support.
On the backplate we have usual 2 dual link DVI ports and TV out.
And here is the photo of the backside of the card.
Now time for some fun. Lets see how this card looks naked
[BREAK=The card stripped down]
Removing all the screws on back side of the card plus 2 screws from the back plate and gently pulling the heatsink reveals the core. Here is the photo of naked card.
And here is the G92 chip up close and personal.
The card is also equipped with 0.8ns Samsung DDR3 ram which means it is rated at 2500Mhz. This should make this card a monster of an overclocker when it comes to memory speed. We will find out all about the same little later on.
The heatsink photo for you. The memory is in contact with the heatsink through the good old white thermal pads. The core contact area is copper but to my surprise the finish was very poor. It was not lapped properly but it did the job very well.
[BREAK=Software for the card.]
Software for the card.
As you must know, NVIDIA forceware driver suit is all you need for the card.
This page is here to show you something new I noticed in the control panel with GPU with Geforce 9 series cards with 174.74. Its additional video properties.
NVIDIA has added contrast adjustment and Dynamic contrast feature in forceware. Up on inquiring, it is confirmed that this feature will be available on GF8 series of cards. And it really works well.
Two thumbs up.
Enough of this talk. Let’s now move onto some real benchmark numbers.
Lets move on to the test system.
[BREAK=Test system and how we tested]
We used following test bed for this review
CPU : Intel C2D E8400
Motherboard : Abit IX38 Quad GT
RAM : Transcend AxeRam DDR2 800
Power Supply : OCZ GameXstream 700W SLI certified.
Operating System : Windows XP SP2
Drivers : 174.74 WHQL
Games Used : World In Conflict, Unreal Tournament 3, Bioshock, Call Of Duty 4, Crysis
How we tested.
This is high end gaming platform. So all tests were done in a way that will reflect high resolution gaming. With 20 and 22 inch monitors becoming mainstream, resolution selection of 1680x1050 made sense. And this being a high end GPU, we eliminated the lower resolutions.
Each test was ran multiple times to make sure results are consistent and an average of the results was taken. The settings used for each game will be mentioned on the page itself.
We pitted the card against 8800GT which was clocked to 600/1000 and 9800GX2.
[BREAK=3Dmark 2006 v1.1.0]
3Dmark 2006 v1.1.0
As everyone must be aware of, 3Dmark 2006 is very popular synthetic benchmark.
Lets see how this card fares.
[BREAK=Unreal Tournament 3]
Unreal Tournament 3
All in game settings were set to max. 4X AA, 16XAF was forced from NVIDIA control panel.
Game was ran at 1680x1050. This is one of the few games which is really using the multi core CPUs.
Here are the numbers.
As you can see, there is hardly any improvement over 8800GT. Just few FPS.
[BREAK=World In Conflict]
World In Conflict
We used Very High settings from game options which forces 4XAA and 4XAF in the game. No manual adjustments were made and we used game’s inbuilt benchmark to test.
Lets have a look at the numbers.
In this game there is small improvement over 8800GT. Game was very smooth on 9800GTX.
[BREAK=Bioshock]
Bioshock
This was one of the first game that really made UT3 engine shine. The game environment is absolutely fantastic.
Benchmarking this game is little tough. There is no inbuilt benchmark. So we relied on FRAPS to do the work.
On the first level save point, we started the game on each card and moved around the level for a minute and tried to replicate same movement on the second card. 4XAA and 16X AF was used.
Here are the numbers.
In this game also there is 7FPS improvement over overclocked 8800GT. But game is perfectly playable on all cards tested with maxed out details.
[BREAK=Call of Duty 4]
Call of Duty 4
Arguably the best release of 2007. One of the most popular game with very intense action and very good gameplay. It looks great as well. And with the popularity of this game, it was impossible to emit this game from our tests.
The game was ran with everything maxed out 4xAA and 16xAF. Every single in game option was set to max.
Here are the numbers.
In this game with the level we tested, the 9800GTX performs much better than 8800GT. Remember its FPS and with shooters, usually more FPS the better.
[BREAK=Crysis]
Crysis
Ahh so finally the last test. I kept it last on purpose. This game has been named nemesis of the modern GPUs. This game is all about pushing the limits of the graphics, pure eye candy.
All the settings in game were set to max possible settings of HIGH. Then we forced fake VERY HIGH on XP with the system.cfg file. The AA in this game really looks bad. But this game allows you to force Edge AA using the cfg file which looks lot better than in game AA setting.
Here is the cfg file we used.
con_restricted=0
r_motionblur=0
r_UseEdgeAA=2
r_UsePOM=1
r_sunshafts=1
e_water_ocean_fft=1
q_Renderer=3
r_colorgrading=1
This gives best possible results in terms of eye candy on XP.
Lets have a look at the numbers.
[BREAK=Temperatures & Overclocking.]
Temperatures & Overclocking.
This is exciting part.
Temperatures were very much in control. The big bad cooler does its job very well.
It didn’t even touch 70°C at full load with auto fan control at both stock and overclocked speeds.
As I stated before, the card carries 0.8ns Samsung DDR3 memory. The power circuitry on the card is improved.
We had no problems clocking this card.
From 675 Mhz stock core, I was able to clock this as high as 830 / 2500 without breaking sweat out of box.
This resulted in significant performance increase. As you can see the 3Dmark score jumped to 16808.
In real world game tests, the Crysis performance went up by 5 FPS which is significant increase again with just GPU overclock.
This card will be bencher’s heaven.
[BREAK=Analysis and Conclusion.]
Analysis and Conclusion.
So what did NVIDIA really achieved with this launch?
Not much for existing users who already own 8800GTS (G92) or 8800GTX as far as performance goes.
But the card has great overclocking potential. It just keeps clocking. Unlike 8800GT, it uses quality RAM chips, clocks more than 8800GTS G92 and is lot cheaper than 8800GTX. And runs much cooler.
Those who are looking to purchase a new high end single GPU solution obviously don’t have to look anywhere else. This is the card for them.
Also those who really have money to fork out can even go for 2 or 3 of these for 2 way and 3 way SLI.
Overall a person like me will be happy to own this card. Same may not be case with person who recently bought 8800GT or 8800GTS. And I am sure those with 8800GTX will sit pretty with their cards.
The only probable buyers are those who are building new system and overclockers. If you have the money, buy it.
Hope you enjoyed this review.
Special thanks to myself for purchasing this card which made this review possible. :tongue:
Shripad aka Funky signing out.
