The 9800 GTX Review Thread

Im thinking of hitting the buy button on a 512 GTS, to replace my 640. I only game at 1680x1050 or 1440x900 normally. I have a feeliing, well in fact it's obvious that nvidia will gimp 8 series drivers to force us to upgrade to 9 series..then riot in the streets.

There hasnt been a WHGL in months for 8 series, there will be maybe one last final driver or possibly two more..then they will be focused on 9 series..nothing new here they have done this for years..and it's getting old.

what to do what to do?

I only paid 289 early last year for my 640mb due to a wrong card in a 320mb box:X, so selling it off for a 100 bucks wont kill me, and the paulty 239 for a 512mb gts isnt bad

They can be had for less (of course, MIR requried). This is on it's way here now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143119

For $230 shipped all said and done after the rebate, that's hard to pass up. I'm still on a 7800GTX, so the upgrade for me was a no brainer. If the GTS was still like $275 with no rebate I'd wait and get the GTX, but when the GTX is going to be $300 to $350, it's just not worth it for the minor differences in core/shader clocks and somewhat notable bump in the memory. If the GTX manages to kick total ass somehow and surprise the :banana::banana::banana::banana: out of us all, I can sell the GTS for $200 easily and just buy a GTX, but I doubt that'll happen.

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Originally Posted by Vryada

$350 on zipzoomfly.

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1.5 yrs later we get the 8900GTX. SLI better bust up in full force if they're gonna be tossing duallies for the high end.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...dlist=celebros

Hmm...I wonder what will happen if you flash a 8800GTS (g92) with a 9800GTX BIOS....

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Originally Posted by gOJDO

Hmm...I wonder what will happen if you flash a 8800GTS (g92) with a 9800GTX BIOS....

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Totally different PCBs and different crystals. Won't work.

//Andreas

well just woke up, isnt 9800 out today?

not seein anything

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Originally Posted by strange|ife

well just woke up, isnt 9800 out today?

not seein anything

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thought it was delayed till the 1st

28th at first hand then April fools day or was that from an AMD/ATI blog ?

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Originally Posted by strange|ife

Im thinking of hitting the buy button on a 512 GTS, to replace my 640. I only game at 1680x1050 or 1440x900 normally. I have a feeliing, well in fact it's obvious that nvidia will gimp 8 series drivers to force us to upgrade to 9 series..then riot in the streets.

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You can always use modded infs for new drivers to support old cards.

Actually, i am running 174.70 on WinXP32 witn an 8800GT.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13...est/index.html

Review over at TweakTown.

This 9800GTX got some serious power there... I'm sure they added the new compression technology to this GTX, because it is able to compete with HD3870X2 and GX2 in a lot of situations... Driver problem on the dual GPUs or a real trick that Nvidia played us? I would tend for the second option :P And no GTS 512... sucks

why can't it have 1gb ram :(

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Originally Posted by Origin_Unknown

why can't it have 1gb ram :(

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why can't it have a 512-bit interface? :(

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Originally Posted by ghost_recon88

why can't it have a 512-bit interface? :(

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probably for the same reason its not got 1gb ram :D

9800GTX is looking much better than I think anyone expected. Will be interesting to see some more reviews on it but i can't believe just oc'ing a GTS would equate to 9800GTX performing on par with GX2. They must have pulled some tricks like with 9600GT.

why cant we have a 9800GTX vs 8800GTX vs 8800GTS G92 review, lol.
that is the only thing we really care about, what is the best

well; i trolled thru the tweaktown review...looks exactly as expected...find one for the same $ as an 8800gts 512 - would be a decent buy.

hmm I think they are out, zip zoom fly has them. but out of stock right away.

it's weird though, they did have the product listed, but NOWHERE else has it. Might of been a fluke

they need to just put the thing out, I wanna buy a new card this week before I blow my money this weekend on something like hookers and blow

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Originally Posted by Luka_Aveiro

You can always use modded infs for new drivers to support old cards.

Actually, i am running 174.70 on WinXP32 witn an 8800GT.

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yah runnin 174.53 here

I wish they'd do a comparison against the 8800Ultra cause while it beats the 3870x2 and gx2 at times, it doesnt beat the 8800GT OC and the 8800 Ultra can compete against those cards at high reso's fine

It's funny how people are really oversimplifying this card.
I see this thing as an overclockers DREAM COME TRUE.
Since it's only about 50 bucks more than a g92 gts, why not get one!?
512 bit baby, means your min fps will be much higher in those firefights in crysis, and massive troop movements in supcom.
In sli these will be practically unbeatable.
The mem can be oc'd to ~2400mhz and the shader above 2100mhz.
why is everyone talking about moving along!?

EDIT i was wrong. it's only 256 bit. Many of the earlier reviews where saying it would be 512 bit. i'm sorry

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Originally Posted by mcoffey

They don't have it because it's not released yet. It's more of a place holder than anything else, but usefull because of the auto notify.

andyc

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Today is the release date, there nostradomus.
:with: lol j/k

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Originally Posted by fragmasterMax

It's funny how people are really oversimplifying this card.
I see this thing as an overclockers DREAM COME TRUE.
Since it's only about 50 bucks more than a g92 gts, why not get one!?
512 bit baby, means your min fps will be much higher in those firefights in crysis, and massive troop movements in supcom.
In sli these will be practically unbeatable.
The mem can be oc'd to ~2400mhz and the shader above 2100mhz.
why is everyone talking about moving along!?

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thats exactly what i am thinking, and hopefully i get one free with step-up.
but since stupid nvidia postponed the launch date, i wont make it, unless they extend the step-up like they did with the GX2

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Originally Posted by fragmasterMax

512 bit baby, means your min fps will be much higher in those firefights in crysis, and massive troop movements in supcom.

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512bit? Since when?

Considering the GX2 now costs $549.99, I don't see why this card should start out at $500.

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Originally Posted by fragmasterMax

It's funny how people are really oversimplifying this card.
I see this thing as an overclockers DREAM COME TRUE.
Since it's only about 50 bucks more than a g92 gts, why not get one!?
512 bit baby, means your min fps will be much higher in those firefights in crysis, and massive troop movements in supcom.
In sli these will be practically unbeatable.
The mem can be oc'd to ~2400mhz and the shader above 2100mhz.
why is everyone talking about moving along!?

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It's 256-bit, not 512-bit.

you guys are right. I was misinformed, should have done more research. I guess making the transition from 256 to 512 bit is a pretty complicated process.
My point though still stands, if you can get one of these for 300 bucks in a month or two, (instead of a gts that costs 250, or even 220ish after rebate)
i think it is a good deal, just for the memory which default clocks are 2200 mhz. The default memory bandwidth is 128 gb/second. I have an 8800gts 640
with the mem overclocked to 2060mhz, and the mem bandwidth is only 84 gb/s (according to gpu-z).

I can definitely see how it's release is a bit underwhelming, but at it's price point i think it is a pretty good deal.

it should have been 512 bit..but yeah, nvidia going backwards

Why does the 9800GTX beat the 8800GTX clock for clock, when the 8800GTX has 24 ROPs?
:shrug:

it doesn't mean i won't jump whenever reading:

"512bit" and "Nvidia" in the same sentence. I'd like to see 1024MB and 256 3Ghz shaders too. :D Oh, and I'd like a nice video transcoding tool as well.

the 9800 is nothing more than an 8800GTS G92 overclocked, nVidia should have named the G92's as 9 series, they messed up naming then 8800GTS again..........

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Originally Posted by GAR

the 9800 is nothing more than an 8800GTS G92 overclocked,

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The 9800GTX's have a new PCB, so nVidia decided to release them as a new series. :rofl:

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nVidia should have named the G92's as 9 series, they messed up naming then 8800GTS again..........

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I agree. The 8800GT should have been named as 9700GTS, the 8800GTS (g92) should have been skipped, the 9800GTX should have been named as 9800GTS, the 9800GTX should have been released with gDDR4 @2.4GHz and core @700MHz/shader @1800MHz.

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review 9800GTX >> http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13...est/index.html


http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2048/nv98gtxg01ln8.jpg


http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3335/nv98gtxg09ht2.jpg

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/8...8gtxg08hi8.jpg

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:up:

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Originally Posted by mascaras

:up:

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Those benchmarks are really hard to believe.
I think UT3 is really a game which benefits from SLI, but the 8800 GT OC hits nearly the same score like the GX2. Something must be wrong there.

Here's a datapoint from my rig:
3 GHz Q6600
8800GTS G92 GPU: 760 MHz Memory: 972 MHz Shader: 1900 MHz
XP 3DMark06 1280x1024: 14,400
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=5934528

Tweaktown measured
3 GHz Q6600
9800GTX GPU: 675 MHz Memory: 1100 MHz Shader:1688 MHz
XP 3DMark06 1280x1024: 14,927
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13..._xp/index.html

It is obvious that the RAM is becoming a bottleneck for the 8800GTS 512, so the high shader and core clocks can't make it up for the lack of bandwidth.

I managed to squeeze 17645 3D Marks out of a Q6600 @4.1GHz and a 8800GTS 512 GPU: 820MHz Memory: 1100MHz Shader: 2000MHz:
http://service.futuremark.com/result...&resultType=14

8800GTS 512 MB vs. 9800GTX

^ deliberately botlnekked by 2.7G cpu.

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but the 8800 GT OC hits nearly the same score like the GX2. Something must be wrong there.

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???
http://images.tweaktown.com/imagebank/nv98gtx_g_19.gif
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13..._xp/index.html
126fps 9800gtx vs 58 fps 8800gt oc in UT3. @ 1920x1200 all settings maxed, according to the article.

notable absence of 8800gts512 in article comparisons :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by adamsleath

^ deliberately botlnekked by 2.7G cpu.

???
http://images.tweaktown.com/imagebank/nv98gtx_g_19.gif
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13..._xp/index.html
126fps 9800gtx vs 58 fps 8800gt oc in UT3. @ 1920x1200 all settings maxed, according to the article.

notable absence of 8800gts512 in article comparisons :rolleyes:

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That's due to higher clocks and also more shaders(128 from GTX vs 112 from GT)

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Originally Posted by adamsleath

^ deliberately botlnekked by 2.7G cpu.

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I think he has speedstep/eist or whatever enabled, because 3DMark shows it @ 3.6Ghz.

@ dsaraolu Can you downclock the 9800gtx to 8800gts clocks and bench?

adamsleath E6750@3600 MHz, 450x8 with C1E enable

Nicksterr printscreen, 9800GTX=8800GTS 512 MB with idem clocks.

Thanks dsaraolu, finally a direct comparison. 9800GTX = 8800GTS + more o/c headroom + 9 series HD features.

It's strange that Tweaktown has deleted their article about 9800 GTX.

Dsaraolu, thank you very much for these results.

I am hesitating between a 8800 GTX and a 9800 GTX and what I find strange is the weak gain when the 9800 GTX is overclocked : according to your results, the GPU is 7 % increased, RAM 16 % and shader 7 %.

And in 3D Mark 06, the gains are far weaker :
GT1 : + 2.2 %
GT2 : + 5 %
HDR1 : + 9%
HDR2 : + 6%

It looks like the 9800 GTX architecture is not well-balanced, something prevents it from showing gains roughly proportional to the clocks increases.

For example, my 2900 Pro 1 GB sees roughly proportinal gains when overclocked from 600 to 900 Mhz (GPU) and 925 to 1240 Mhz (RAM) :

GT1 : + 42 %
GT2 : + 44.9 %
HDR1 : + 43.2 %
HDR2 : + 45%

The CPU is a E6850@4140 Mhz. I don't want to show that the 2900 architecture is better than the 9800 one.

Would it be possible for a 8800 GTX owner to show 3DMark06 results at different GPU and RAM frequencies, wituout changing the CPU clock. I would like to check if the results are roughly proportional to the clocks increases. In this case, the weak 9800 GTX memory bandwidth would be the bottleneck in 3DMark06.

Which would mean that the 8800 GTX would be a better purchase today than the 9800 GTX.

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by oc_junkY

It's strange that Tweaktown has deleted their article about 9800 GTX.

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Probably NDA to end 1 april (not 25 march).

overclock 9800GTX default is 675/2200 MHz (13890 in 3DMark2006), overclock 830/2500 MHz (14960 in 3DMark2006), GPU and shader ~23%, memory ~13.6%
GT1: +11.9%
GT2: +10.8%
HDR1: +17.8%
HDR2: +11.2%

Yes, you are right but I am right too : I compared 3 D Mark06 posted just above :
14960 with 830/2075/1250 Mhz and 14365 with 775/19385/1075 Mhz.

Whatever the frequencies you choose - 775/19385/1075 Mhz or default clocks - the result is the same : the 3DMark06 gains are far weaker than the freqeuncies increases.

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Originally Posted by dsaraolu

adamsleath E6750@3600 MHz, 450x8 with C1E enable

Nicksterr printscreen, 9800GTX=8800GTS 512 MB with idem clocks.

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tks for the comparison, unless the GTX comes really cheap I'll go for the 8800 GTS :up:

Why are sites still using the canned benchmark for Crysis where the resolution on ATI cards is limited to below 1920x1200? With the Crysis benchmarking tool all you have to do is record a custom timedemo, select the proper resolution and voila...a real comparison of how an ATI card does against the Nvidia cards in Crysis high res.

If he used a q6600 anything over 3ghz and that score is in the 16's... That's pretty dag on good.

I just got my GTS 512 in today and I'm currently running 800 on the core, 1100 on the memory and 1998 on the shaders, and that's 100% stable no artifacts. Honestly, I'm not seeing any reason for the GTX if the GTS 512 has the same GPU headroom for $100 less. The memory will have more headroom, but that's about it (which is admittedly handy with the 256-bit interface). Sadly, my 3GHz Opteron 165 with 2x1GB DDR500 is my main bottleneck. :( I'm more concerned about 45nm Intel than I am the '9800'GTX.

one of the things I believe, when you crank the AA and AF, and make that memory bus really count, your going to see the G80 based 8800s outperform the 9800s consistently. 1 year late doesn't help.

pisses me right the F:banana::banana::banana: off.

You guys reckon it's worth it going from geforce 8800gts 640mb to geforce 9800gtx?? Consider I play at 1680x1050.

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Originally Posted by stefan9

You guys reckon it's worth it going from geforce 8800gts 640mb to geforce 9800gtx?? Consider I play at 1680x1050.

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Only if you really want Crysis to be as good as possible. 8800GT and GTS G92 can handle any game at 1680x1050 full settings except Crysis. Personally, I have Crysis all Very High DX10 and I can still play it, looks great, a little choppy but liveable. Save 120-150 and get a G92 instead of G94.

found a full article that contains details of the 9800GTX card and benchmarks

http://www.tbreak.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41212

:)

Really disappointing ! The 9800 GTX shows irregular results, depending on the game and whenever the resolution is increased and filters enabled, its performance collapses.

What a card 1 year and a half after the 8800 GTX launch !

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Originally Posted by overclock

Really disappointing ! The 9800 GTX shows irregular results, depending on the game and whenever the resolution is increased and filters enabled, its performance collapses.

What a card 1 year and a half after the 8800 GTX launch !

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Yeah, looks like my investment in the 8800 GTX is really paying off. I'd rather have something improving performance by 50 percent or more though.

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Originally Posted by SNIPoR

found a full article that contains details of the 9800GTX card and benchmarks

http://www.tbreak.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41212

:)

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game results seems Ok , but 3dmark 2005 & 2006 are very strange , 9800GTX beating 9800GX2 and HD3870X2............................

>> http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/articl...5&pagenumber=3

regards

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Originally Posted by overclock

Really disappointing ! The 9800 GTX shows irregular results, depending on the game and whenever the resolution is increased and filters enabled, its performance collapses.

What a card 1 year and a half after the 8800 GTX launch !

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the irregular results depending on resolution / applicaton / quality settings remind me of the 3870 and 3870x2:p:

I should have gone for the 8800 GTX as well... only got a GTS 640 because back then when it wasthe 8800 series was new I thought it woudnt last long anyway:rofl:

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Originally Posted by naokaji

the irregular results depending on resolution / applicaton / quality settings remind me of the 3870 and 3870x2:p:

I should have gone for the 8800 GTX as well... only got a GTS 640 because back then when it wasthe 8800 series was new I thought it woudnt last long anyway:rofl:

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lol yeah me too

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Originally Posted by Origin_Unknown

lol yeah me too

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Me as well. I wonder what would be the best option now 9800gtx,8800gtx or 8800gts 512mb.

8800GTS (g92) with Samsung 0.8ns memory chips.

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Originally Posted by DerekFSE

I feel like I am waiting for a punchline.

I mean, there has to be more to it than this.

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if we get lucky the 8800 cards will drop in price:p: I know, not really the punchline you've been waiting for but it free's up cash to upgrade other parts:yepp:

8800gtx for 270 at newegg
8800gts for 190

9600gt for 124
8800gt for 170

9xxxx crap GX CRAP GTX CRAP for 500 to 700....

LOL

Relax dude, the GTX has a MSRP of $349.99

Think he meant the 9800X2 maybe or he has been living under a bridge the last week slol

off topic : GAR I wanna date ya sister :)

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Originally Posted by Leeghoofd

Think he meant the 9800X2 maybe or he has been living under a bridge the last week slol

off topic : GAR I wanna date ya sister :)

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hehe, thats my soon to be wife, not my sister!!!!! ;)

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Originally Posted by GAR

hehe, thats my soon to be wife, not my sister!!!!! ;)

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lol, at least you know she's attractive when other people wanna date her right?

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Originally Posted by Swatrecon_

lol, at least you know she's attractive when other people wanna date her right?

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I know man, i take it as a compliment :up:

9800GTX in Triple SLi
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13...ted/index.html

hmmm over here the 8800gts 512 has a price of 250-270 euro's And the 9800gtx has a price of 281-319.
it's realy tempting, even with the 3870x2 showing up in the same price class.

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Originally Posted by tsuehpsyde

9800GTX in Triple SLi
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13...ted/index.html

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9800GTX SLi is faster than 9800GX2 Quad SLi LOL After looking through the benches it would seem 2 x 9800GTX will be the best setup until the next gen comes along. Tri and Quad SLi still suck. I bet alot of folks that bought 2 9800GX2's are going to be a little upset about this. 600 dollars faster than 1200 dollars eeeks!

well, i only looked at the crysis bench, and it seemed that performance scaled with teh number of gpu's, 2x9800gx2's>3x9800gtx's>2x9800gtx's>9800gx2

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Originally Posted by gOJDO

8800GTS (g92) with Samsung 0.8ns memory chips.

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which brands use samsung memory?

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Originally Posted by grimREEFER

well, i only looked at the crysis bench, and it seemed that performance scaled with teh number of gpu's, 2x9800gx2's>3x9800gtx's>2x9800gtx's>9800gx2

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Crysis Medium and High @ 1920x1200 is faster with 2x9800GTX than with Quad SLi 9800GX2. And Tri-SLi only adds a couple frames to the 9800GTX so it seems like the whole Quad/Tri SLi thing is a waste of money. 9800GTX SLi does look pretty sweet though.

"Moving to High paints a slightly different picture; we again see the big gains over the single card when moving to SLI, but this time almost 100% at 1920 x 1200. Tri SLI also manages to give us at the lower resolution about a 15% performance increase. We can see at the higher resolution the SLI GTX setup is actually the best, beating out three and four GPUs."

bla they can keep the 9800gtx, especialy with 8800gts out there, who are preoced higher than a stock 9800gtx. :ROTF:

just look at the ASUS EN8800 GTS 512MB TOP:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...12mb/page2.asp

everything is oced hihgher by default then a 9800gtx (exept memory, if that 65mhz give more than ~1-2% difference i would be surprised)

also look at the benches, they hardly surpass a 8800gtx at high res+AA/AF...

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Originally Posted by DerekFSE

I would assume though that since the 9800 is not OC, it has more headroom?

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Yes, ALOT more headroom, like 400mhz on the shaders alone. I don't know what folks are complaining about this card is an overclockers dream LOL

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Originally Posted by Hornet331

everything is oced hihgher by default then a 9800gtx (exept memory, if that 65mhz give more than ~1-2% difference i would be surprised)

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that's 130Mhz more in total, and if you can squeeze another 100 more it will be worth it. Surely if the prices of these 9800GTX will be around 300 euro's, only 70 euro's difference with stock GTS 512 cards... buy a pre OC'ed GTS 512 and the price difference will be even less... yet the 9800GTX will have more headroom... I kinda like this card as it will deliver very good performance for a fair amount of cash...

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Originally Posted by tbone8ty

which brands use samsung memory?

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I am not sure which exactly, but I know that there are not so many. Also some brands have versions with 1ns Crapmonda and 0.8ns Samsung. When I bought mine, there were cards only with 1ns Crapmonda. Before you purchase the card, make an investigation. There are people here (in the graphics section) who know which cards have Samsung video RAM and how to recognize these cards.

I hope the EVGA's got the better ram, I'm sticking with them just for their nice Step up possibilities and excellent customer service...

you can get it on overclockers.co.uk now...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1009

BFG GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Click image to enlarge


£214.99
£252.61 inc VAT


i might jump on it

I started a new thread with reviews from today on link here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=182748

Plz feel free to add review links...

price in Greece/euros
http://www.plaisio.gr/advancedproduc...or=PowerPhrase
it looks really cheap :D

Is it the first GTX model under 300euros the day of release?
Cause it may be my first GTX model :D
Coming from 6800(unlocked) -> 8600GTS ES (100euros) -> now what? :D

It's a good card for the buck and performs just slightly better as some pre Oc'ed GTS 512 card... benefits : you get better clocks out of the box, some more OC headroom, card runs cooler... so for under 300 euro's a good buy...

This card makes me wonder what the heck was the point of the 8800GTS 512?

I wonder how this card will respond to vmod and watercooling with the upgraded power and better PCB. 1ghz Core would be awesome :)

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Originally Posted by bluehaze

I wonder how this card will respond to vmod and watercooling with the upgraded power and better PCB. 1ghz Core would be awesome :)

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Seriously, all that card did was confuse people, i think that was the worse marketing decision even in the history of technology..........lame move by nvidia...........the 8800GTS should have been the 9800GT

Not to incite a flamewar here, but is Hardwarecanucks the ONLY site where the X2 actually comes out ahead? All the usual sites, especially Tweaktown and [H], love to write spiels about their graphs that show ATI's win as marginal, or they like to change the scales on their graphs so that ATI's wins are marginal when they do win.

We made one review too(single,SLI,3SLI setups)... but it is in Greek , but there are some images that are talking alone :)


http://www.hwbox.gr/showthread.php?t=1185