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

[ebilcake]

Too much pompous playa-hating from you Tom and some others me thinks

I think some of the insults on here about people buying the 9800GX2 have been way out of line, quite simply we are enthusiasts with typically deeper pockets than most so if someone wants to spend £430 on a graphics card then fair play to them and I hope they enjoy it.

Agreed.

 

[Tom84]

Jeez, just spent 10 mins of my life that I won't get back reading this thread...

I was hoping for some reviews and benchies from owners as the thread title suggested, but all I see is arguing?!!

Really, I don't see why anybody should get so upset at somebody spending their own money on something they want and that they will enjoy. What is the problem with some people?

Enjoy your cards you 9800GX2 owners, and don't forget to tell us what they perform like!

It's like reading the GT and GTS 512mb threads all over again

 

[86JR]

Im buying an evga one when its out

I dont get this :

"gx2 falls flat on its face when AA enabled because of only 512mb of vram"

but the models i see on ocuk are 1024mb ????????????????????????????????

does it mean only 512mb per core ? so ideally it needs to be 2048mb in total to run games with AA on ?

What settings will i be able to play crysis @ 1680x1050 ?

thanks

 

[86JR]

As for the card, if i take some of your attitudes, i would never buy a card.

SO when gt200 comes out, you will say "wow, awesome card, but you would be a fool to buy one, wait for gt400" and so on and so on.

 

[helmutcheese]

Im buying an evga one when its out

I dont get this :

"gx2 falls flat on its face when AA enabled because of only 512mb of vram"

but the models i see on ocuk are 1024mb ????????????????????????????????

does it mean only 512mb per core ? so ideally it needs to be 2048mb in total to run games with AA on ?

What settings will i be able to play crysis @ 1680x1050 ?

thanks

SLI (basically what this card is) does not give you use of your 2x 512MB in the fact like 1024MB would be used on a Single Card.

 

[86JR]

oh.

Tis a real pity I think they didnt use 2 gtx cores and 768mb of ram each core.

Do they still make 8800 Ultras ? howcomes ocuk doesnt sell them ?

 

[shrek2]

It only the same price as what i payed for my 8800gtx a year ago,,and the same price as what i payed for my x1900xt-x on release about two years ago

If the 9600GT, 8800GT and 8800GTS 512mb existed when you bought your GTX, the price you paid for the GTX then would have looked silly. One thing people don't seem to want to understand is Nvidia have a solution for everyone. Top to bottom they have it covered.

 

[fornowagain]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3266&p=1
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1335/1/page_1_introduction/index.html
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3NSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/512/1/
http://sg.vr-zone.com/articles/Monster_Stack:_Inno3D_NVIDIA_GeForce_9800_GX2/5656.html
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_9800_gx2_performance_preview/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/03/18/nvidia_geforce_9800_gx2_review/
http://www.matbe.com/articles/lire/751/nvidia-geforce-9800-gx2/page1.php
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/geforce_9800_gx2/page_4.shtml
http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA_nForce_790i_SLI_Ultra_and_GeForce_9800_GX2/
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/679/1/
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=535
http://publish.it168.com/2008/0315/20080315000603.shtml
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_9800_GX2/
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=538
http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?id=592
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/xfx_9800gx2/
http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=12294
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/03/18/xfx_geforce_9800_gx2_600m_1gb_graphics_card/1
http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Gainward_Bliss_9800GX2_PCX_review
http://www.clubic.com/article-129512-1-nvidia-geforce-9800-gx2-nforce-790i-sli.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/xfx9800gx2/
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=2513
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1251
http://www.presence-pc.com/tests/GeForce-9800-GX2-22765/
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,636620/Test/Benchmark/PCGH-Test_Geforce_9800_GX2/&page=1
http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/4047/48/1/0/
http://www.hartware.de/review_799.html
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/2008/test_nvidia_geforce_9800_gx2/
http://en.expreview.com/2008/03/19/quad-crossfirex-smasher-geforce-9800gx2/#more-309
http://www.custompc.co.uk/reviews/602262/nvidia_geforce_9800_gx2.html
http://pctuning.tyden.cz/index.php?...=view&id=10416&Itemid=44&limit=1&limitstart=2
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=544&Itemid=27
http://www.extrahardware.cz/test-geforce-9800-gx2-sli-proti-osudu
http://www.rage3d.com/previews/video/nv9800gx2/index.php?p=3

Quad SLi
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=251194
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/681/9/
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3OCw4LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3271&p=1
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_9800_gx2_quad_sli_performance/
http://www.hothardware.com/News/NVIDIA_QuadSLI_with_the_ASUS_EN9800GX2/
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce9800-gx2.html
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=541

 

[straxusii]

[url]http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=12294

Whats this?

 

[MattandJet]

Whats this?

Rhymes with a make of car, exchange the L for a H lol

 

[mike gunnz]

oh.

Tis a real pity I think they didnt use 2 gtx cores and 768mb of ram each core.

Do they still make 8800 Ultras ? howcomes ocuk doesnt sell them ?

Ultras have been discontinued as far as I know, and it looks like the GTX has as well judging by the falling prices and stock levels across the OCUK range.

 

[MeatLoaf]

Looks like this card is a lot longer than an 8800GTX as well, 295mm compared to 275mm.

Also the revieew that compared the card against SLI 9600GT was interesting and i will almost certainly be getting a 2nd 9600 now as its very close to the 9800s performance.

Pity they didnt compare SLI'd 8800GT/GTS as well tho.

 

[Dutch Guy]

Pity they didnt compare SLI'd 8800GT/GTS as well tho.

Here you go: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3NSwzLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

 

[melbourne720]

Here you go: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3NSwzLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

I wish hardocp would compare like with like, I don't understand what they think they're showing with 2 different cards with different settings, with different results. OMG they're... different

 

[fornowagain]

I wish hardocp would compare like with like, I don't understand what they think they're showing with 2 different cards with different settings, with different results. OMG they're... different

They do for a couple of games.

 

[perox]

LOL Hardocp's articles are totaly useless most of the time, why not bench all cards at the same settings and let me choose what is playable... I dont even bother reading any Hardocp stuff anymore.

 

[WesleyBurns]

Oooo, only 8 Asus and 8 Gigabyte 9800's left, you better hurry guys!

 

[OCdude]

I thought this card would have had a displayport?!

Ah well, maybe the G200

 

[willhub]

[H] Are the worst review site to have even been invented, they are awfull, cant even bench 2 cards with same settings, they would not even know what comparison meant even if it slapped them in the face!!

 

[Makunouchi]

Well it came this morning, never had any probs with CityLink despite their bad rep. Then i'd forgotten i'd lent my set of screwdrivers to a mate and had to wait till and hour ago to get them back. Heres some pictures of me fitting the GX2 into a Lian Li PC-7 Midtower.

Here it is in all its massive hulking £400 costing glory, with all the trimmings you get with it, including an HDMI cable:

Once my BFG 8800GTS 320 was taken out it left this hole, as you can see i had to move my raptor HDD down in the cage and slightly forward to make room for the new card:

Here it is installed, i had a bit of trouble getting it in but that was my own brains fault, and dont say anything about the cable management! I know its rubbish but Lian Li's are hardly designed well when it comes to cables:

Heres a shot of the 8 pin power cable adapter that comes with it. I want to say here that after the little spurt of histeria (sp?) surrounding the whole power cable thing, it was nice to see that the world hasnt in fact ended, and BFG had come through as expected. Very easy to install, decent quality connector:

Drivers installed fine, used Nasty File Remover, to clean out my old drivers.
First thing i did was check out Crysis. For some reason it didnt want to work on High settings, it was really sluggish and some textures were missing, ive no idea why. When set to Medium it was fine however and going from a 320 GTS to this was amazing. It was so smooth it makes me want to play it all the way through again, its like a totally new game. And the AA was sweet, i didnt really have the power to have it on before, but now the edges are so crisp and sharp, it makes the great graphics even more realistic. I had a peak of 60fps, a low of 25, and probably a medium of 45-50, which is absolutely fine for me.
Then i checked out TF2 and HL2, hardly the best games to test the GX2 out on, but both games saw 180+ fps average, it was mainly just to test that the card was working on a range of games.

Now to see how far it overclocks, ill do some playing about with Rivatuner and let you guys know how it went.

/putting fears to rest since five to five on a Wednesday afternoon.