Tweaktown 9800 GX2 Review

[derektm]

How could anyone take that review seriously? Just about the silliest pretence I've ever seen. Someone mysteriously delivers the card with that dumbass note, and the review site goes along with it.

I mean how more foulish could anyone be,

andyc

I lol'd

[Jakko]

In defense of Mr Tweak, he did use the drivers that will ship with these cards.

Also when ati hardware showed poor performance with early drivers, noone blamed the review website, everyone blamed ati.
In the end, nvidia had loads of time optimizing a driver for a sli card that is based on a generation that's been around for how long now? Nothing new about sli'ing these cores together...

Further more, I am sure this article on tweaktown will get a follow up if it turns out that with the driver that is about to be released the results are much different.

I think the article is nice. Some games work, some don't yet. It gives an impression of the potential in the few games where it does work well, and I am glad there are websites like tweaktown that don't cooperate with those ridiculous NDA's.

[Sr7]

In defense of Mr Tweak, he did use the drivers that will ship with these cards.

Also when ati hardware showed poor performance with early drivers, noone blamed the review website, everyone blamed ati.
In the end, nvidia had loads of time optimizing a driver for a sli card that is based on a generation that's been around for how long now? Nothing new about sli'ing these cores together...

Further more, I am sure this article on tweaktown will get a follow up if it turns out that with the driver that is about to be released the results are much different.

I think the article is nice. Some games work, some don't yet. It gives an impression of the potential in the few games where it does work well, and I am glad there are websites like tweaktown that don't cooperate with those ridiculous NDA's.

Are you kidding? The early drivers on the x2 didn't make the difference between the second GPU working in Vista or not..

[Warboy]

In defense of Mr Tweak, he did use the drivers that will ship with these cards.

Also when ati hardware showed poor performance with early drivers, noone blamed the review website, everyone blamed ati.
In the end, nvidia had loads of time optimizing a driver for a sli card that is based on a generation that's been around for how long now? Nothing new about sli'ing these cores together...

Further more, I am sure this article on tweaktown will get a follow up if it turns out that with the driver that is about to be released the results are much different.

I think the article is nice. Some games work, some don't yet. It gives an impression of the potential in the few games where it does work well, and I am glad there are websites like tweaktown that don't cooperate with those ridiculous NDA's.

Who are you trying to fool? Everyone knows, No matter really, The Install CD is the last thing that a Video card company adds. Till then, There is always updates, Company normally make their own CD with bonuses and such, and Include the Lastest Drivers that Work and are Beta or WHQL, No matter the reason. I can guarantee you the 173.67 drivers will not ship with this card. Thats why Nvidia has been so busy lately with driver updates FOR the 9 series (mainly the 9800GTX and the 9800GX2) then the 8 series.

[Jakko]

Are you kidding? The early drivers on the x2 didn't make the difference between the second GPU working in Vista or not..

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13...sea/index.html
At the highest resolution, it does much better than the 8800 GT OC.
The second GPU IS working.
Not working well yet, but it is being used, as also displayed by the HL2 benchmarks.

And warboy, OBR allready has an asus package of the card and drivers that will go with the first batch of these cards. (the ones that will be available at launch) The drivers used by tweaktown will be the drivers supplied with the first batch.

[OBR]

This is what i am talking about ... Review with some crappy drivers are not review and is useless ... Better TWO days later but with fully working setup .. dont you think?

[Sr7]

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13...sea/index.html
At the highest resolution, it does much better than the 8800 GT OC.
The second GPU IS working.
Not working well yet, but it is being used, as also displayed by the HL2 benchmarks.

And warboy, OBR allready has an asus package of the card and drivers that will go with the first batch of these cards. (the ones that will be available at launch) The drivers used by tweaktown will be the drivers supplied with the first batch.

Higher performance due to more SP's.. and not much higher at that. If you really think that's all you're going to get out of 2 gpu's you're gravely mistaken. Something is obviously drastically wrong with their review.

This whole situation reminds me a lot of OBR's simulation that got circulated and misrepresented on every site. This really does the product injustice which is a little bit sad. Some people will write the card off over trash like this.

[Warboy]

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13...sea/index.html
At the highest resolution, it does much better than the 8800 GT OC.
The second GPU IS working.
Not working well yet, but it is being used, as also displayed by the HL2 benchmarks.

And warboy, OBR allready has an asus package of the card and drivers that will go with the first batch of these cards. (the ones that will be available at launch) The drivers used by tweaktown will be the drivers supplied with the first batch.

And Jakko, If the 2nd GPU is working (dur dur dur) then why is ORB getting 19,000 when its not overclocked. Plus ORB never said what drivers were on the CD, ORB just said "They are older drivers then whats on the web".

So do me a Favor, and please. Just use Common sense before jumping to conclusions.

[Jakko]

And Jakko, If the 2nd GPU is working (dur dur dur) then why is ORB getting 19,000 when its not overclocked. Plus ORB never said what drivers were on the CD, ORB just said "They are older drivers then whats on the web".

So do me a Favor, and please. Just use Common sense before jumping to conclusions.

And the only drivers that are older than the ones on the web and work with the card according to tweaktown are the drivers used by tweaktown.
Yes?

[Warboy]

And the only drivers that are older than the ones on the web and work with the card according to tweaktown are the drivers used by tweaktown.
Yes?

I'm pretty sure You can just mod the inf to add the card. Just like people do on 8800GTX Drivers to make them work on a 7600GT.

Anyways, There are 2 other drivers out there, 174.40(For XP and Vista) and 174.51(Vista Only)

**UPDATE**
Driver Version so far
174.13
174.20
174.40
174.51

[RPGWiZaRD]

Which drivers were used in the review then? VictorWang had bad results with anything pre 174.40 with his 9800GTX too remember? http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=180366

[Warboy]

Which drivers were used in the review then? VictorWang had bad results with anything pre 174.40 with his 9800GTX too remember? http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=180366

I know, But some people here blame Nvidia.

The Ones used in the review are very old. 173.67. Which, Never got on the web. Even in my sources.

[RPGWiZaRD]

I know, But some people here blame Nvidia.

The Ones used in the review are very old. 173.67. Which, Never got on the web. Even in my sources.

Well even if you could blame driver issue then I wouldn't have that high hopes 9800GX2 will ever get a very good driver, just look back at 7950GX2.

And thinking of how relatively short lived card this GX2 is going to be yet again I don't think NVIDIA will put much effort into it either, GT200 is already in their mind. I wouldn't buy a GX2 at least, I would much rather wait for the new offerings from ATI or NVIDIA, I bet these are going to finally up the performance bar quite a bit.

[Warboy]

Well even if you could blame driver issue then I wouldn't have that high hopes 9800GX2 will ever get a very good driver, just look back at 7950GX2.

Indeed, But Heres hoping Nvidia learned some type of lesson from the 7950GX2, and Anyway. Nvidia is focusing on the Development of the 9800GX2/GTX drivers lately

[v_rr]

Yes i know your results and are crappy ... sorry but i have this card and now working on own review and my results are diametrical different ... In your test are GX2 scores +/- like oced 88GT ... and in my measuring are many better ... i am sure SLI was disabled or not working properly in your setup!

3dmark 06 at 1280x1024 - with Quad at 3.6GHz = 19600 points on my setup...

You also said that HD 3870X2 suck and suck and 80% of the games was slower then HD 3870. And the reviews said the oposite.
So what you say = Zero.Zero
And now that we are talking about Nvidia GX2 you say that everything is cool and reviews are false and drivers are old, etc etc. Why don´t you say that drivers still suck and is realy slower then HD 3870X2 in many games as you said about HD 3870X2?
And you also said that HD 4000 series suck and ATI will never be better then Nvidia despite don´t know anything about future realeases

So we dispensate your Fud arround here
How can anyone be waiting for the review of someone that herself states as Nvidia fanboy?

[Leeghoofd]

Both cards have issues with drivers and prolly it will never be resolved 100% to support all games that support dual or more GPU's...

OBR also will test the cards with a CPU that has a bit more power then the current 3ghz reviews out there...
It would be nice to see if someone could do a CPU scaling from 2.4-4ghz or such... ( maybe you may Tsjech friend ? )

If you continu posting like this v_rr you will be in the 1000's comments when the cards are released lol... and if I am allowed to mention this : if you call OBR a Nvidia fanboy you must be clearly on the red team

I just buy the fastests bang for the buck hardware let it be AMD or Intel , ATI or Nvidia...

In defence of tweaktown, I find their reviews always pretty enjoyable. The problem with reviewing new stuff before they are released can be immature drivers/biosses etc... but I liked the added note at the end that clearly indicates the card got a big benefit from a newer driver than what they got on the cd...
It's just some peeps that will never read a review fully and take too early conclusions by looking eg only at their fav game in the tests... but it would have been good to mention clearly in each review that the bios drivers are early releases and that the review does not necessarily reflect the full potential of the hardware... and testing hardware can be a very painfull slow experience and the crowd ( that's us folks) like it to be published asap... same with quality control , everything has to be pushed to be released even before the product is final... look at the numerous buggy games out there...

[Eastcoasthandle]

Here is a follow up to this article:
source

[v_rr]

If you continu posting like this v_rr you will be in the 1000's comments when the cards are released lol... and if I am allowed to mention this : if you call OBR a Nvidia fanboy you must be clearly on the red team

I never said something like that about Nvidia and I don´t write reviews and spread Fud arround being fanboy to one side and taking advantage of have the cards to be more credible.

So I will read every review except those that are partial and orb coments about ATI = always say that suck even about unrealeased produts and NVIDIA=very good and everything is fine (not).

When was about HD 3870X2 release he was all arround saying that the card was 80% times slower then HD 3870 and only stuf like that. (reviews proved the oposite)
Now in 9800GX2 reviews come out with bad results and he is all arround saying giving all the excuses that he didn´t give when was ATI.
And again taking advantage of being reviewer to be more credible.

[NH|Delph1]

Here is a follow up to this article:
source

“Don’t judge a book by its cover!” how about... “Don’t judge a review by its graphs!”.

So he was unaware that most readers don't read the text, but only the graphs? I thought this was a well established fact

Well, anyway, kudos for trying to reach out and explain the situation further, but maybe, instead, take one step back and pull the review since it's getting so much negative criticism, and re-post with better drivers, since this was the plan from the beginning, apparently.

//Andreas

[Leeghoofd]

I never said something like that about Nvidia and I don´t write reviews and spread Fud arround being fanboy to one side and taking advantage of have the cards to be more credible.

So I will read every review except those that are partial and orb coments about ATI = always say that suck even about unrealeased produts and NVIDIA=very good and everything is fine (not).

Why do you think I said this in my post :

Both cards have issues with drivers and prolly it will never be resolved 100% to support all games that support dual or more GPU's... you just get to wound up, very bad for ya heart mate !! no card is perfect, neither are we... and reviews have to remain objective at all times... if the hardware sucks ass at the moment I think the reviewer has to mention it, but as soon as a new driver is released he has to retest it... but mostly they don't have the card anymore... hance why they need to clearly mention for the big masses that the test was at that time with those drivers and that newer drivers could improve performance big time...

And at Tweaktown keep up the work lads and if you need a reviewer I'm here for you
Some peeps get way to excited bout stuff lol, pretty amusing to read hehehhe

[hipro5]

"Fully supported drivers" were ment to be out in 19th....BUT they will propably delay a bit and come out in 25th....We will see...

[massman]

This is what i am talking about ... Review with some crappy drivers are not review and is useless ... Better TWO days later but with fully working setup .. dont you think?

To be honnest, I hope your review kicks ass

[massman]

"Fully supported drivers" were ment to be out in 19th....BUT they will propably delay a bit and come out in 25th....We will see...

Another delay?

At cebit, Nvidia assured us the complete new high-end line-up would be ready the 18th of March.

790i + GX2 + QuadSli drivers ready for launch.

[hipro5]

Another delay?

At cebit, Nvidia assured us the complete new high-end line-up would be ready the 18th of March.

790i + GX2 + QuadSli drivers ready for launch.

I think that quad sli drivers will be late too....

[AliG]

anyone else notice that even though the gx2 was the product they were reviewing, they seemed slightly biased towards the card? When ever the gx2 would beat the x2 they'd say it would be a nice lead, but if the x2 would beat the gx2 they either would say the results were near identicle or just not really mention it as it a big deal