The 9800 GTX Review Thread

[Eastcoasthandle]

Looks like the reviews of this card is coming in. Lets keep it all in one thread.

VR Zone has a review up from PCOnline.
(did I miss any others?)

8800 GTS 650/1625/1800
9800 GTX 675/1688/2200


source

Geforce 9800GTX specific parameters are as follows:

- 65nm Foundry TSMC 65nm process
- Transistors integrated over 1 billion
- The second generation unified shader architecture
- FP64） -- Support for double-precision (FP64)
- GPGPU -- Original GPGPU
- Coloring capacity of 1 trillion floating-point operations
- MADD+ADD（2+1 FLOPS=3 FLOPS per ALU） -- MADD + ADD configuration of a color unit (2 +1 = 3 FLOPS FLOPS per ALU)
- Full scalar design
- 256-bit -- 256-bit memory controller
- 1024MB GDDR3 -- 1024MB GDDR3 memory
- DirectX 10.1-- Support DirectX 10.1
- OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0 support
- Built-eDRAM embedded memory, providing "free 4 xAA"
- Built-in sound chip
- Built-in modules tesselation Embedded Pavement
- Improved antialiasing and anisotropic filtering AA-AF quality

^^

[mascaras]

Images with results Here

[AliG]

hey what are the 9800gts specs again?

That's going to be interesting to see what the difference between the 9800gts and 8800gts 512mb is

[stardust8750]

That 9800gtx... or is it 8900gtx, Is such a joke.

[grimREEFER]

yea, if they included dx10.1 support, they could at least get away with calling a 9 series off a technicality. they couldnt even get that right

[v_rr]

The items are all false:

- Transistors integrated over 1 billion
- DirectX 10.1-- Support DirectX 10.1
- OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0 support
- Built-eDRAM embedded memory, providing "free 4 xAA"
- Built-in sound chip
- Built-in modules tesselation Embedded Pavement
- Improved antialiasing and anisotropic filtering AA-AF quality

[Eastcoasthandle]

The items are all false:

- Transistors integrated over 1 billion
- DirectX 10.1-- Support DirectX 10.1
- OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0 support
- Built-eDRAM embedded memory, providing "free 4 xAA"
- Built-in sound chip
- Built-in modules tesselation Embedded Pavement
- Improved antialiasing and anisotropic filtering AA-AF quality

That's what I was wondering. But where in the world did they get this from? I recall this information way back when someone posted specs of this card. Anyone remember this?

[Leeghoofd]

Also do the cards have 512 or 1024 mb of ram ?

[mascaras]

Also do the cards have 512 or 1024 mb of ram ?

512mb








regards

[Decami]

Well, that settles that, me not no buy.

Horrible thing it turned out to be, this.

[Gen]

Well, that settles that, me not no buy.

Horrible thing it turned out to be, this.

QFT. now release this and bring SLI to Intel chipsets so i can buy another 8800gtx cheap and were golden

[Arkangyl]

Well, is it really that horrible though?

It [should] cost less than the 8800 GTX and it performs a bit better. The new GT and GTS line should REALLY have been 9800 cards and not 8800 cards, they were based on the new core and a new GTS vs. and old one does show a change. Now the GTX is to the GTS what the Ultra was to the GTX, merely a premium part.
As others have mentioned this is more a marketing thing than anything else. It's a shame nVidia didn't release something that was more of a jump (as the 8 series was over the 7) but considering a $220 graphics card CAN play most games out there on a 24" LCD (hell, my GTS-320mb from a year ago can handle my 24" just fine in everything thus far) I'd say it's still a pretty good market.

With those nVidia slides showing SLI performace (which seem a bit of a stretch / picked the best SLI games) it seems to suggest that nVidia's plan is to release single cards at affordable prices and rather than have one $600 part, suggest the user just get two $300 parts instead. Granted this sort of sucked for communities like this one, but overall it's probably a better plan for nVidia because it means they can provide a solution for far more people.

I'd think tri, and maybe quad sli are more the focus of the enthusiast crowd now. If those slides WERE true, then it would suggest nVidia has been focusing their time & money on SLI drivers rather than pure HW advances which isn't really the worst thing in the world.

just my $.02

[topaimz]

Time to buy some AMD/ATi stocks

[karateo]

Well, is it really that horrible though?

It [should] cost less than the 8800 GTX and it performs a bit better. The new GT and GTS line should REALLY have been 9800 cards and not 8800 cards, they were based on the new core and a new GTS vs. and old one does show a change. Now the GTX is to the GTS what the Ultra was to the GTX, merely a premium part.
As others have mentioned this is more a marketing thing than anything else. It's a shame nVidia didn't release something that was more of a jump (as the 8 series was over the 7) but considering a $220 graphics card CAN play most games out there on a 24" LCD (hell, my GTS-320mb from a year ago can handle my 24" just fine in everything thus far) I'd say it's still a pretty good market.

With those nVidia slides showing SLI performace (which seem a bit of a stretch / picked the best SLI games) it seems to suggest that nVidia's plan is to release single cards at affordable prices and rather than have one $600 part, suggest the user just get two $300 parts instead. Granted this sort of sucked for communities like this one, but overall it's probably a better plan for nVidia because it means they can provide a solution for far more people.

I'd think tri, and maybe quad sli are more the focus of the enthusiast crowd now. If those slides WERE true, then it would suggest nVidia has been focusing their time & money on SLI drivers rather than pure HW advances which isn't really the worst thing in the world.

just my $.02

great post
i believe it's all true, which makes me happy! I can finally buy a top-end gpu!!!

[cegras]

It's horrible in the sense that this is a refresh just to generate more "oh new stuff, must buy!" sort of sales.

Something about the forum icons always pisses me off. They're so .. arrogant. Then again, that sentence probably was arrogant too.

[cajer]

It's horrible in the sense that this is a refresh just to generate more "oh new stuff, must buy!" sort of sales..

This refresh is not that bad for people like me with a 7800GTX. It provides a chance for use to buy a new top end card at reasonable prices. Also it dosn't perform as badly as I have feared.

[squilliam]

Stupid card. Nothing to see here people. Move along.

[Anemone]

Completely unexciting...

[Envydia007]

Not a worthy upgrade from 8800GTX.

[jaredpace]

this performs like an overclocked 8800gts and sometimes an overclocked 8800gt. wonder what the 512bit/1024mb/1ghz/48ROP/gddr4 model is called?

[DShankar]

Although it's not worthy of an upgrade to G80 (GTX/Ultra) users, isn't this a GREAT buy for users who did not buy an 8-series or need a new non-SLI card?

Think about it..
$300 = 8800 GTX / close to Ultra-level power. But the 8800 GTX costs around $360-450.

In terms of price/performance, this is pretty damn good, no?

[mAJORD]

great post
i believe it's all true, which makes me happy! I can finally buy a top-end (in late 2006) gpu!!!

fixed

It's good value, but fact remains, due to lack of competition from Ati, or whatever, there IS NO TOP END SINGLE GPU anymore. it's all what should be midrange by this time..

And stop saying we don't need higher end cards.. Crysis runs like at high detail on a GTX

[adamsleath]

Although it's not worthy of an upgrade to G80 (GTX/Ultra) users, isn't this a GREAT buy for users who did not buy an 8-series or need a new non-SLI card?

Think about it..
$300 = 8800 GTX / close to Ultra-level power. But the 8800 GTX costs around $360-450.

In terms of price/performance, this is pretty damn good, no?

yeah, well that's the point isnt it.
it is close to a 2year old top end card in performance...but then the gtx is now cheaper...i just dont get it(i feel like im taking crazy pills????????????)

from the card/chip maker's perspective i suppose it is cheaper to produce than the older g80's (i assume..) and so producers make more profit.

gotta really see it from the "i am not a high end enthusiast segment of the market point of view"

i still think there is little here to justify, when a 8800gt is half the price...
and a 3870x2 is a tad more $$ for significantly more performance.
but at the right price this thing does tantalise if you are coming from a lesser / last gen card...
there will be a niche in the consumer market for this card without a doubt.

for those who already own top end cards there is nothing to see sure.

it's yet another tease

tease tease
tease

and all market arrows now point to multigpu...if you really want a new "top end"

that is until the vapourware becomes reality;
and vapourware is the ultimate tease, and also the ultimate wet blanket for sales....nothing hurts sales more than lots of people waiting for something newer and better to arrive.

impatient people just have to go multigpu

sales people dont care whether they sell ice to the eskimos so long as they make a comission

[DShankar]

yeah, well that's the point isnt it.
it is close to a 2year old top end card in performance...but then the gtx is now cheaper...i just dont get it(i feel like im taking crazy pills????????????)

from the card/chip maker's perspective i suppose it is cheaper to produce than the older g80's (i assume..) and so producers make more profit.

gotta really see it from the "i am not a high end enthusiast segment of the market point of view"

i still think there is little here to justify, when a 8800gt is half the price...
and a 3870x2 is a tad more $$ for significantly more performance.
but at the right price this thing does tantalise if you are coming from a lesser / last gen card...
there will be a niche in the consumer market for this card without a doubt.

for those who already own top end cards there is nothing to see sure.

it's yet another tease

tease tease
tease

and all market arrows now point to multigpu...if you really want a new "top end"

that is until the vapourware becomes reality;
and vapourware is the ultimate tease, and also the ultimate wet blanket for sales....nothing hurts sales more than lots of people waiting for something newer and better to arrive.

impatient people just have to go multigpu

sales people dont care whether they sell ice to the eskimos so long as they make a comission

Well I'm coming from an ATI Radeon 9250 128MB AGP.

I need a multi-GPU solution (not just for gaming but for CUDA purposes) and I'm trying to see if the 9800 GTX is worth it over something like the 8800 GT.

[ceevee]

Heh, I have not posted here in a while but my X6850 and 8800 ULTRA that are a YEAR OLD remain pretty much the fastest thing going.

I usually build a new PC every year, but I am not going to do it this year.

Seriously what is going on? Microprocessor performance improvements have slowed to a crawl.

Hopefully there will be something out by 4Q 08 to 1Q 09 to finally make it worth replacing my current rig.

the 9800gtx is a joke.