GeForce 9800 GTX and 3-way SLI: May the nForce Be With You
by Derek Wilson on April 1, 2008 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Power Consumption
Final Words
So, now that we have the 9800 GTX in the mix, what has changed? Honestly, not as much in terms of performance stack as in price. Yes, the 8800 Ultra is better than the 9800 GTX where memory bandwidth is a factor, but other than that the relationship of the 9800 GTX to the 3870X2 is largely the same. Of course, NVIDIA would never sell 8800 Ultra below the 3870X2 price of $400 (the binned 90nm G80 glued on there didn’t come cheap).
The smaller die size of the G92 based 9800 GTX takes away one victory AMD had over NVIDIA: the more expensive 8800 Ultra was slower than AMD’s top of the line. Without significantly improving (and sometimes hurting) performance over the 8800 Ultra (because they didn’t really need to with the 9800 GX2 in their pocket), NVIDIA has brought more competition to AMD’s lineup, which is definitely not something they will be happy about.
It is nice to have this card come in at the $300 price point with decent performance, but the most exciting thing about it is the fact that picking up two of them will give you better performance than a single 9800 GX2 for the same amount of money. Two of them can even start to get by in Crysis with Very High settings (though it might offer a better experience with one or two features turned down a bit).
While our very limited and rocky experience with 3-way SLI may have been tainted by the engineering sample board we used, the fact that we can get near 9800 GX2 Quad SLI performance for 3/4 of the costs is definitely a good thing. The fact this set up MUST be run in an nForce board is a drawback, as we would love to test in a system that can run every configuration under the sun. We’re getting closer with Skulltrail, and we aren’t missing the fact that there are concerns among our readers over its use. But we’re confident that we can push performance up and turn it into our workhorse for graphics, especially now that the VSYNC issue has been cleared up.
While testing this group of cards has been difficult with all the problems we experienced, we are very happy to have a solid explanation for what was causing our decreased performance we were seeing. Now all we need is an explanation for why forcing VSYNC off in the driver causes such a huge performance hit.
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7Enigma - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
NM, the images now show up that include the 8800GT. Thanks! So it seems the 9800GTX in most situations is <20% faster than the 8800GT at 1280X1024 correct? Since I game on a 19" LCD I might be better off with an 8800GT for a year or so and then upgrading to the next round of cards.....decisions....decisions....For anyone that cares here's a direct comparison using the numbers from the table:
9800GTX compared to 8800GT at 1280X1024 resolution
Crysis.....19.5% faster
CoD4.......17.5-18.5% faster (depending on no/4X AA)
Oblivion...17.5-27% faster (depending on no/4X AA)
QuakeW.....10.5% faster
Stalker....13% faster
just4U - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
So it's roughly 2% faster then the GTS/512? :(7Enigma - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
Again I'm disappointed that this review completely fails to include the 8800GTS. I asked in the previous 9800GX2 review as did several others and there was no response to the questions. It definitely appears that they are purposely failing to include the most obvious competitor to the 9800GTX (and any future lower-end cards, GTS, GT, etc.).Looks like I'll be going to another site for a better comparison.
7Enigma - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
Hocp has a good comparison review (albeit with their odd way of benchmarking) of the 8800GTX/S against the 9800GTX. Pretty much shows what we thought, some slight improvements, but nothing to write home about. This quote from the conclusion sums up the release of the 9800GTX:"If you are a gamer and were hoping to upgrade, today is not the day if you already own pretty much any 8800 series card. Here’s hoping real next-gen technology will be seen in a “9900” series soon."
This pretty much solidifies my purchase of an 8800GT. I just can't see the advantage of shelling out closer to $300 for a slightly better card than a $200 8800GT, with the hopes that within a year SOMEONE comes to the rescue of actually releasing a next gen card that is better than the current/previous generation.
AggressorPrime - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
I'm pretty sure dual, tri, and quad Crossfire is not supposed to give the exact same results in Crysis. There must be something wrong with the chart.AggressorPrime - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
It looks like these tests are done with the 790i, yet there is no info on what RAM is used or motherboard for that matter in the chart.It is interesting that a 790i setup would beat Skulltrail in Crysis, but I guess fast RAM is more important.
Noya - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
...the best bang for the buck is a pair of 8800gt in SLI @ about $350.KingViper - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
Can we get a spell check in the house?jtleon - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
DittoDittoDittoIjusthateitwhenwebcontentisnotedited!!!!Regardsjtleon
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
Fixed.