Graphic Cards NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GX2 full review with benchmark

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PhOeNiX said:
Not much of a breakthrough , a lil bit of disappointment i must say , but had expected this.
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Not exactly. There is a raging debate going on over this review. Subsequently, Tweak Town has done another review but with overclocked CPU and Overclocked 9800GX2 where the cards performs slightly better.

Check it here: GeForce 9800 GX2 Overclocked and Tested :: TweakTown

But then that too had some strange ways to test the card. So people are not convinced.

Now Tweak Town has updated the review further using updated drivers. The card in its latest review blows trade with 3870X2. While ATI's monster win some benchies, 9800GX2 scores victories in other

Link here: GeForce 9800 GX2 with ForceWare 174.51 :: TweakTown

Of course, tonight the NDA will be lifted. So by tomorrow we will know for sure where GX2 really stands :)
 
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Soory guy for bad news frm my side..
 
lol who cares. They have the card, and this card is not difficult to acquire for quiet some while now. Its even present in india for that matter along with 9800GTX :P

I am sure TT got their hands on the card by their own efforts heh.
 
TT might have faked the note, but card and testing was for real. You may not agree with the way TT carried out the review but you can't deny that they were the first one to give insight into a real 9800GX2 ~ of course barring PCOnline.
 
March 18... almost over but no proper reviews of 9800GX2. Is Nvidia shying away or has it sent the test units to media too late?
In case of 9600GT, on the first day itself there were tens of reviews

For 9800GX2, apart from tweak town i could find only one review
 
The sun just came up in the US ;)

Almost all of the top review sites have the sample. Even re/etailers have the stock. Expect them to hit market tomorrow. Same to the reviews.
 
The most noticeable thing about the card is the fact that it looks like a single PCB with a dual slot HSF solution. Appearances are quite deceiving though, as on further inspection, it is clear that their are really two PCBs hidden inside the black box that is the 9800 GX2. This is quite unlike the 3870 X2 which puts two GPUs on the same PCB, but it isn't quite the same as the 7950 GX2 either.



The special sauce on this card is the fact that the cooling solution is sandwiched between the GPUs. Having the GPUs actually face each other is definitely interesting, as it helps make the look of the solution quite a bit more polished than the 7950 GX2 (and let's face it, for $600+ you expect the thing to at least look like it has some value).



NVIDIA also opted not to put both display outputs on one PCB as they did with their previous design. The word on why: it is easier for layout and cooling. This adds an unexpected twist in that the DVI connectors are oriented in opposite directions. Not really a plus or a minus, but its just a bit different. Moving from ISA to PCI was a bit awkward with everything turned upside down, and now we've got one of each on the same piece of hardware.

On the inside, the GPUs are connected via PCIe 1.0 lanes in spite of the fact that the GPUs support PCIe 2.0. This is likely another case where cost benefit analysis lead the way and upgrading to PCIe 2.0 didn't offer any real benefit.

Because the 9800 GX2 is G9x based, it also features all the PureVideo enhancements contained in the 9600 GT and the 8800 GT. We've already talked about these features, but the short list is the inclusion of some dynamic image enhancement techniques (dynamic contrast and color enhancement), and the ability to hardware accelerate the decode of multiple video streams in order to assist in playing movies with picture in picture features.

Quad SLI. Yes, the beast has reared its ugly head once again. And this time around, under Vista (Windows XP is still limited by a 3 frame render ahead), Quad SLI will be able to implement a 4 frame AFR mode for some blazing fast speed in certain games. Unfortunately, we can't bring you numbers today, but we when we can we will absolutely pit it against AMD's CrossFireX. We do expect to see similarities with CrossFireX in that it won't scale quite as well when we move from 3 to 4 GPUs.

Once again, we are fortunate to have access to an Intel D5400XS board in which we can compare SLI to CrossFire on the same platform. While 4-way solutions are novel, they certainly are not for everyone. Especially when the pair of cards costs between 12 and 13 hundred dollars. But we are certainly interested in discovering just how much worse price / performance gets when you plug two 9800 GX2 cards into the same box.

It is also important to note that these cards come with hefty power requirements and using a PCIe 2.0 powersupply is a must. Unlike the AMD solutions, it is not possible to run the 9800 GX2 with a 6 pin PCIe power connector in the 8 pin PCIe 2.0 socket. NVIDIA recommends a 580W PSU with PCIe 2.0 support for a system with a single 9800 GX2. For Quad, they recommend 850W PSUs.

NVIDIA notes that some PSU makers have built their connectors a little out of spec on so the fit is tight. They say that some card makers or PSU vendors will be offering adapters but that future power supply revisions should meet the specifications better.

As this is a power hungry beast, NVIDIA is including its HybridPower support for 9800 GX2 when paired with a motherboard that features NVIDIA integrated graphics. This will allow normal usage of the system to run on relatively low power by turning of the 9800 GX2 (or both if you have Quad set up), and should save quite a bit on your power bill. We don't have a platform to test the power savings on in our graphics lab right now, but it should be interesting to see just how big an impact this has.
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Final Words
And once again NVIDIA sets its self on top of the graphics card performance pile.

AMD is able to keep up with 3x (or more) 3870 cards in Oblivion, but everywhere else it's the 9800 GX2 on top. As far as single card solutions, the 9800 GX2 is currently the alpha dog.

Like the 3870 X2, we didn't have any trouble installing the driver and getting things rolling. The experience was smooth and clean as far as that was concerned. We did run into some problems that seem like they might be Skulltrail specific at this point. The latest BIOS and 174.53 driver from NVIDIA solve a graphics driver failure when playing Crysis, and we saw some strange scaling at lower resolutions, but we don't expect most users to run into those problems.

Despite the fact that this card does lead the rest of the field counts for something, but its price tag will be a limiting factor. There are advantages to having the fastest card around of course, and we expect that NVIDIA will use this card to position itself as the best option in computer graphics. Certainly they are the best option when you have deep pockets, but savvy gamers will still pay close attention to price / performance and overall value. It can be fun to explore what is possible with the best of the best, but at the end of the day you have to come home to what ever is in your own box.

AMD has been fighting back, first with strong offerings in the midrange and then with stronger price cuts. While it is clear AMD can't compete at the high end, they are still capable of competing for gamer's dollars. Just because another company has the top card out there doesn't mean that all of their other parts gain some mystic value. While it still isn't relevant for games yet and we can't even test the performance of it, AMD's hardware supports DX10.1 while NVIDIA is still lacking in that area. The built-in HD audio device that outputs sound over the DVI port when the AMD HDMI adapter is attached is incredibly convenient (though both vendors are lacking in how well the support audio over HDMI).

The point is that you can't judge a book by its cover or a graphics card by some other part that is much faster. Take each case as it comes and make a decision based on what is best at that price point at that time. If your price point happens to be $600 to $650, by all means, pick up a 9800 GX2. If not, make sure you do your homework.
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Link_>AnandTech: More Single Card Dual GPU Madness: NVIDIA's Flagship 9800 GX2
 
Just read the AnandTech review, the 9800GX2 nicely beats the ATI 3870X2, nice! Now I hope the ATI 3870 X2 price will drop by a good margin coz I am eyeing that instead of an 8800GT/512 :D
 
vishalrao said:
Just read the AnandTech review, the 9800GX2 nicely beats the ATI 3870X2, nice! Now I hope the ATI 3870 X2 price will drop by a good margin coz I am eyeing that instead of an 8800GT/512 :D
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i don't think there will be a price drop on the 3870x2 unless the 9800gx2 beats it by a huge margin or comes down in price.
 
Right, I just read the "GX2 Indian price" thread :( Priced at 40+k !!! No way ATI will think about dropping the X2's price now... so I guess it's an 8800GT/512 for me...
 
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