Official 9800GX2 thread (reviews and benches inside)

MR.B · 20 Mar 2008 at 23:08

Chronictank said:
ouch, you tried to see what happens if you disable one of the cores? maybe its not load balancing properly so is a sli problem

Well i tried running some games without SLI enabled and i get the exact same thing...

Makunouchi · 20 Mar 2008 at 23:11

Those are some mad Crysis benches. Anyone notice how the GX2 whining has gone down since it has turned out to be actually pretty good?

fornowagain · 20 Mar 2008 at 23:23

MR.B said:
My theory is that because this card only has 512MB usable for games, it does not have enough memory for 2560x1600 with AA.

That sounds exactly what it is, try running Rivatuner and monitor the vram usage.

Makunouchi · 20 Mar 2008 at 23:35

Someone asked for a SS of a game with the GX2, heres Crysis, first level on the beach, all the important settings on high, at 1920X1200, no AA, fps as seen.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/1962/clipboard01oi8.jpg

Nothing amazing there, just thought id post it as im playing around trying to see what settings are best for the card. I didnt do an image paste as its too big for forums.

eyetrip · 21 Mar 2008 at 00:01

Makunouchi said:
Someone asked for a SS of a game with the GX2, heres Crysis, first level on the beach, all the important settings on high, at 1920X1200, no AA, fps as seen.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/1962/clipboard01oi8.jpg

Nothing amazing there, just thought id post it as im playing around trying to see what settings are best for the card. I didnt do an image paste as its too big for forums.

What do these cards get with 1680 x 1050 all very high? Perhaps one without AA and one with 2x or 4x AA?

MR.B · 21 Mar 2008 at 00:31

fornowagain said:
That sounds exactly what it is, try running Rivatuner and monitor the vram usage.

I tried that, but it wont display VRAM usage. The latest RT isn't compatible with the drivers... some things work, some dont. What are you using to overclock the GPU?

fornowagain · 21 Mar 2008 at 00:46

MR.B said:
I tried that, but it wont display VRAM usage. The latest RT isn't compatible with the drivers... some things work, some dont. What are you using to overclock the GPU?

Rivatuner 2.08

For anyone wondering on higher res and Crysis. 1920x1200 with/without AA on 24/7 speeds.

Looks like this one has to go back, one of the DVI's (#2) isn't working. Shame this one clocked quite well.

WesleyBurns · 21 Mar 2008 at 09:39

fornowagain said:
Rivatuner 2.08

For anyone wondering on higher res and Crysis. 1920x1200 with/without AA on 24/7 speeds.

Looks like this one has to go back, one of the DVI's (#2) isn't working. Shame this one clocked quite well.

fornowagain, My dvi #2 only works if i switch it to Dual Monitor instead of Dual GPU (but then the cards dont SLI), i dont think there is a problem with your card, although it should work.

chaparral · 21 Mar 2008 at 09:57

fornowagain said:
Looks like this one has to go back, one of the DVI's (#2) isn't working. Shame this one clocked quite well.

The second DVI-I connector is only activated once in Windows (software activated)

chaparral said:
All about using dual screen on the 9800gx2 here http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/03/18/xfx_geforce_9800_gx2_600m_1gb_graphics_card/7

First of all, you can only boot from either the HDMI or DVI-I connectors that are next to each other – the second DVI-I connector is only activated once in Windows. Secondly, that second DVI-I connector cannot be used if the card is in performance mode (i.e. when SLI is enabled) and in order to activate it, you have to go into the driver and disable multi-GPU mode.

MR.B · 21 Mar 2008 at 11:20

fornowagain said:
Rivatuner 2.08

For anyone wondering on higher res and Crysis. 1920x1200 with/without AA on 24/7 speeds.

Looks like this one has to go back, one of the DVI's (#2) isn't working. Shame this one clocked quite well.

Really? i tried that version of Riva Tuner and it had no effect at all on my 3Dmark scores. Hmmm.

And you have to disable SLI in the Nvidia control panel for the other DVI to work. Then also the HDMI will work. So you can connect 3 displays at once.

I'd laugh sooo much if you sent it back and didn't know that

thepigf@rmer · 21 Mar 2008 at 11:53

Tested on 3DMark 06

8800 GTS 640MB - Overclocked

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=2371531

9800 GX2 - Standard Clock

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=5854190

9800 GX - 724/1810/1123 Overclocked via Rivatuner v2.08, although i'm not 100% convinced it worked, not much of an increase if it did :confused:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=5854642

I've got a E6420 btw, not E6850 as quoted in 3DMark specs, maybe time to bin that and go Quad

willhub · 21 Mar 2008 at 11:57

An E8400 @ 4Ghz+ would be better than a quad for games.

GregI · 21 Mar 2008 at 12:09

Crazy money really.

easyrider · 21 Mar 2008 at 12:19

Makunouchi said:
Those are some mad Crysis benches. Anyone notice how the GX2 whining has gone down since it has turned out to be actually pretty good?

I'm far frim impressed.

easyrider · 21 Mar 2008 at 12:19

willhub said:
An E8400 @ 4Ghz+ would be better than a quad for games.

A 4ghz Q6600 would be better than a E8400 for games.

fornowagain · 21 Mar 2008 at 13:28

chaparral said:
The second DVI-I connector is only activated once in Windows (software activated)

I wondered, so only DVI number 1 works in dos. I couldn't find any reference in the manual. I've tried multi display mode and it still didn't come one, so I'm at a loss, maybe it needs two monitors. I'll try again, man that would be dumb to send it back.

EDIT: I had to uninstall the drivers and use older ones, I can now select either monitor output. Only problem is if you slect the slave #2 and reboot you can't see anything. Obviously a driver issue, but it kinda sucks. The X2 you could do what you liked with the outputs.

willhub · 21 Mar 2008 at 13:52

easyrider said:
A 4ghz Q6600 would be better than a E8400 for games.

How would it? 15% faster the penryns are aint they than previous CPU's and most games dont use more than 2 cores.

easyrider · 21 Mar 2008 at 13:55

willhub said:
How would it? 15% faster the penryns are aint they than previous CPU's and most games dont use more than 2 cores.

For starters modern games are GPU limited not CPU limited.

Plenty of games use multiple cores.

Unreal Tornament and SUP Com for instance.

willhub · 21 Mar 2008 at 13:57

easyrider said:
For starters modern games are GPU limited not CPU limited.

Plenty of games use multiple cores.

Unreal Tornament and SUP Com for instance.

So if most games are GPU limited I dont see a quad core been better than a dual core penryn, UT3 runs smooth as on my rig all maxed.

easyrider · 21 Mar 2008 at 14:03

willhub said:
So if most games are GPU limited I dont see a quad core been better than a dual core penryn, UT3 runs smooth as on my rig all maxed.

You would see an increase in FPS with a Quad in that game.

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***Official*** 9800GX2 thread (reviews and benches inside)

Official 9800GX2 thread (reviews and benches inside)