EVGA 9800GX2 Unboxing and Benchmarks

[AuDioFreaK39]

My EVGA 9800GX2 just arrived on my doorstep this morning. Here is a little walkthrough of the unboxing routine as well as some pictures of it in my rig.

10:22AM - UPS delivery to front doorstep.


3:05PM - Unboxing begins.


The back of the packaging is very similar to EVGA's previous box-art designs. The "24/7 Tech Support" logo is the only new image I can notice.


The card was placed in a black foam container rather than the typical plastic mold used on previously produced models.


Included in the package underneath the foam containing the card was a large white box. The only items inside of it however were two typical DVI-to-VGA adapters and an SPDIF connector (which is used to connect a discrete sound card to the 9800GX2 to allow for audio passthrough via HDMI, in case any of you were wondering )


Here is a close-up of the connectors on the SPDIF cable for those interested.


And here you have it, the EVGA 9800GX2 01G-P3-N891-AR in all its sexyness The fan art was coated with clear removable plastic protection as usual, however there seems to be a problem with this (next picture)


So what the hell happened here? EVGA decided to place the Warranty Void if Removed sticker on the removable plastic protection! Quite ironic in my opinion.


My solution? Scotch tape I placed the sticker on the very bottom of the card with all the others so that its out of sight.


The SLi bridge connector now features a removable plastic cover for protection against damage.




EVGA decided to "Step-Up" their included stickers. The new design features a red Є and says "Powered by ЄVGA." A very aesthetic design in my opinion that I will be adding to my collection of stickers



Here is the rig it will be installed into. Note the absence of a rear 120mm panel. I'm going to be adding a new ESA-compliant water cooling system next month or so


Installed:


Quoted from [H]ard|OCP: "Another interesting thing about this video card, it lights up! This will be true for all GeForce 9800 GX2s; they have several LEDs placed throughout the video card for various purposes to indicate problems. The first ones you will notice are around the power connectors. If you have power properly plugged in the connectors will light up green. If you do not, they will light up red. There are also LEDs right inside the exhaust slights, 3 LEDs on both sides, that light up the back with glowing green light. Then there is another green and blue light right on the bracket itself, and when it is dark you can see the blue light shining through the top of the video card."







And finally, a complete setup with the 9800GX2 installed. Keep it \M/ETAL.



*UPDATE* Initial Benchmark results
Here's my promise to all you guys:


http://service.futuremark.com/result...eResultType=14

18,518 ain't bad for an initial run right?

[darkorb]

Very nice dude. Looking forward

[Rattle]

sweet, man i want one of these, if it was $500 i would be all over it.

[Gl@re]

so what about benchmarks? lol

mine were supposed to be here today but the plane got grounded in Tennessee because of a storm...

[Fujimitsu]

Nice!

Need to get that upgrade over with, seeing a celeron w/ stock HSF paired with that card is a bit saddening :P:

[Waymon3X6]

Ahh, audiofreak from incrysis!

I see you got one of these monsters,

CRYSIS BENCHES PLEASE!!!

[AuDioFreaK39]

Here's just a quick preview of what's new in the Nvidia Control Panel while I run my benchies. I'm sure some of you have seen this before, but it gave me a good laugh to see it ask me this question on my own screen.



Anyways *runs 3DMark*

[dinos22]

hahah as Beavis and Butthead would say

Bathe her and bring her to me :

good luck man
loooooooooooooooooove the smell of fresh silicone even if it's not mine

[Tortel]

I really want to see what this looks like without its shiny stock heatsink

[AuDioFreaK39]

hahah as Beavis and Butthead would say

Bathe her and bring her to me :

good luck man
loooooooooooooooooove the smell of fresh silicone even if it's not mine

Haha I know what you mean, especially when you're helping a friend build a rig with fresh new hardware and that sweet new smell of silicone. It makes you psychologically feel like you "own their rig" even though it's not yours. Don't worry, you can "share"

[Sly Fox]

Looking forward to your benchmarks.

It's a nice card, just too pricey for my tastes.

[AuDioFreaK39]

update*

Ahh I'm seeming to have issues with these drivers or something. RivaTuner doesn't even detect my card anymore, and taking a screenshot of my desktop yields a weird artifacting problem like so:



Any ideas?

[Waymon3X6]

uninstall those drivers and revert back to older ones...

What did you run 3dmark?

[AuDioFreaK39]

uninstall those drivers and revert back to older ones...

What did you run 3dmark?

I just realized that those are week-old drivers and I updated to ForceWare 174.53 immediately, but I'm still having the same issues. Taking a screenshot of my desktop still yields artifacting, and the 9800GX2 isn't even recognized in RivaTuner.

[speedfreak86]

Rivatuner 2.08?

[AuDioFreaK39]

Rivatuner 2.08?

Yessir.

[speedfreak86]

Give me a bit and I will get back to you. I have been playin exclusively in xp so far. I'll boot back and see what happens to me in Vista.

[Kryckter]

I get the same screens when trying to do screenshots, and pasting them in MSPaint....

[speedfreak86]

I get the same type of screenshots in vista too, not in xp. Rivatuner recognizes the card in both xp and vista, but in vista SLi shows being disabled in GPU-Z despite being activated in the Nvidia console. I am about to install SP1 to see if it changes anything.

[AuDioFreaK39]

Oh my God lol. A simple RivaTuner 2.08 reinstall and now it's working just fine, ugh..

benchmarking time!!

[YukonTrooper]

Haha, that made me crack up.

As I was scrolling down the page and looking at the pictures: "Nice, nice, nice, ohhh noes, shoulda bought a PS3 instead."

[AuDioFreaK39]

Haha, that made me crack up.

As I was scrolling down the page and looking at the pictures: "Nice, nice, nice, ohhh noes, shoulda bought a PS3 instead."

Lol, off topic, but I got my PS3 on launch day And yes, I went through the riot and the fights and I ended up buying 2 and selling one on eBay.

*UPDATE*

Lmao, okay here they are you guys, first results...and you guessed it, they suck! Thanks to my Celeron.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=5834016

[speedfreak86]

That only happens when the image is placed into paint. The screen never looks like that. But...update...GPU-Z still doesn't show SLi enabled. But come to think of it i think that there is a thread about it not showing it enabled when it is. So everything seems to be working okay. Maybe sometime early next week I'll run some benchmarks in Vista to check everything is working and enabled.

EDIT: Found it-->http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...41#post2853541 this gpu-z shows SLi enabled in vista.

[speedfreak86]

Lol, off topic, but I got my PS3 on launch day And yes, I went through the riot and the fights and I ended up buying 2 and selling one on eBay.

*UPDATE*

Lmao, okay here they are you guys, first results...and you guessed it, they suck! Thanks to my Celeron.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=5834016

Wow! That processor really kills the score...here was mine from the other thread: http://service.futuremark.com/result...eResultType=14

Still having overclocking problems...here is mine overclocked to 730/1825/1100-->http://service.futuremark.com/result...eResultType=14

As you can see, not much better than the first.

[AuDioFreaK39]

Wow! That processor really kills the score...here was mine from the other thread: http://service.futuremark.com/result...eResultType=14

Still having overclocking problems...here is mine overclocked to 730/1825/1100-->http://service.futuremark.com/result...eResultType=14

As you can see, not much better than the first.

Interesting to see that your SM 2.0 score took a drop when you overclocked the card. I'm guessing this is still a driver issue.