Nvidia 9800Gx2 Club!

[Illicit Tweakin]

Quote:Originally Posted by mitra-
I'm trying to choose between 9800GTX and 9800GX2. Is GX2 worth the extra €€€ (or $$$ :P)?
GX2 costs almost 2x GTX. Is it near 2x better/faster?

It depends what you want to do with the card. If you want to go extreme, GX2 is the path to extreme. it is currently the fastest card on the planet and you won't go under 60 fps under any circumstances other than crysis.

But even in crysis, at 1024x768 everything set to high, 2xaa I get 100fps average, lowest 55fps..that's pretty damn good!

You won't get that with a single card.

The 9800gx2 isn't twice as fast as an 8800gtx so figure it out from there.

If you play above 1024x768 many games will drop bellow 60fps with gx2. If you play dx10 basically all games will drop bellow probably even at 1024x768. dx10 is basically unplayable at 1920x1080 on quad sli. Age of conan dx9 choppy. Leaked assassins creed dx10 choppy at even 1024. Over doubled the frame rate in WOW vs 8800gtx with every setting maxed 1920x1080 over 110fps. Played Frontline fuels of war with single 9800gx2 it was choppy at max settings. Q6600 at 3.6Ghz striker extreme. 4gb ram. Cpu and ram is major bottleneck.

Drivers need to come a long way. But if you plan on playing dx10 you will need all you can get.

[Talonman]

If you play above 1024x768 many games will drop bellow 60fps with gx2.

And in thoes same games, a single 8800gtx would be much slower than a GX2...

Just think of the GX2 as 30% minimum, faster than an Ultra.

I would go for the GX2 if you can...

My GX2's official status is "6:35 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY "

Today is G-Day for me!!

I am locked up at work until 1:pm, then off for 3 1/2 days...
Quality gaming dead ahead!

[Gunslinger]

I voted "have it, feel ripped off."

With that said it is a great single card, if you can call it that.
I bought mine strictly for the power of quad sli, which is worthless
without functioning drivers. I personally have had nothing but
problems trying to run quad sli, so now my 2nd card is out of the
system gathering dust.

[RealTelstar]

If anybody else is playing Age of Conan, can privately (for the NDA) tell me if he measured better performance with an 8800GTX or G92 single or gx2 at 1920x1200.

I'm totally undecided wether to upgrade or not. I won't go sli until the next generation g200 is out.

[slugzkea]

Quote:Originally Posted by mitra-
I'm trying to choose between 9800GTX and 9800GX2. Is GX2 worth the extra €€€ (or $$$ :P)?
GX2 costs almost 2x GTX. Is it near 2x better/faster?


The 9800gx2 isn't twice as fast as an 8800gtx so figure it out from there.

If you play above 1024x768 many games will drop bellow 60fps with gx2. If you play dx10 basically all games will drop bellow probably even at 1024x768. dx10 is basically unplayable at 1920x1080 on quad sli. Age of conan dx9 choppy. Leaked assassins creed dx10 choppy at even 1024. Over doubled the frame rate in WOW vs 8800gtx with every setting maxed 1920x1080 over 110fps. Played Frontline fuels of war with single 9800gx2 it was choppy at max settings. Q6600 at 3.6Ghz striker extreme. 4gb ram. Cpu and ram is major bottleneck.

Drivers need to come a long way. But if you plan on playing dx10 you will need all you can get.

I dunno wut you're talking about, 1024x768 crysis everything high 2xaa i got 55-100fps, but that was on my e8400.

now that i have switched to q6600, i have lost 1000 points in sm2.0, and sm 3.0 and i have no idea why.

[Talonman]

Well my SSC GX2 is installed.

One odd thing is as soon as I plugged it in, my favorite stable 3.8GHz Q6600 BIOS settings would not boot withought getting a CPU Check on my Maximus LCD Poster.

I had to load in my saved OC profile and back er down to 3.3GHz. I need to go back to OCing my system to get my 3.8 back. I am guessing that it probably need more CPU voltage, but not sure what to think.

At 3.8GHz and my OCed 8600GT in 3DMark06 (default settings), I was getting a score of about 4,982




At only 3.3GHz, and my stock SSC GX2, I just received on my first run:

3DMark Score 16,976 3DMarks

SM 2.0 Score 6601
SM 3.0 Score 8182

CPU Score 4649

Test Results

Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon 53.49 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest 56.53 FPS

CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 1.52 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 2.28 FPS

HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 96.26 FPS
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 67.38 FPS



Thinks are looking up...

I am happy with the card. It installed fine...

Power plugs went right in...

The removal of the old drivers, and install of the new also went well.

[zodiac]

Killer talon. Sound awesoem, mine will finally be here Friday, but I won't get it until Monday cuz of a Trip to Phoenix. You gonna post up your bios?! : )

[Jon Boy Deluxe]

Voted 'feel ripped off'

In the UK the xfx is £380 ($760)... Anyway I got it today because my X2 died. It is faster than the X2 but I experience slow downs in games, Crysis for example averages high 30's @ 1680x1050 very high but dropped to as low as 7 iirc... Then back up to 40 odd. PLus it doesn't OC so well currently 710/1750/1050 and testing...

[lefy]

Well my SSC GX2 is installed.

One odd thing is as soon as I plugged it in, my favorite stable 3.8GHz Q6600 BIOS settings would not boot ...

I had to load in my saved OC profile and back er down to 3.3GHz. I need to go back to OCing my system to get my 3.8 back...

this is a bummer and has me concerned. Why would the cpu OC fail with this gx2? Is this the norm? should I expect the same results with my 3.8GHz Q6600?

Looking forward to more feedback from you.. hope you get your OC back!!

[Talonman]

I faught my way back to 3.4GHz, but after an unsuccessful 3.5 attempt, I ran into that Maximus CMOS error message, that only time heals. (The clear CMOS button did not help me out.)

I must have tried 10 times unsuccessfully to get around the CMOS ERROR on the LCD Poster.
INIT ROM to CMOS ERR to System lockes up...

I was real close to removing the battery, but that was under the GX2...
I didn't want to take it back out, so I chilled for 20 minutes with the power off to the PC. After some Captain Black, I was ready to try again...

Came back in, hit it with power, and it acted like it was fine again!!

Loaded the last successful OC profile back in that worked with some light OCCT testing, then backed that down a tad for saftey.

3.4GHz is where she currently sits.

I am now wondering if the connector I selected for powering my mobo, is pulling from my V4 rail or V3 rail. I need to give my PSU manual another look.
I could run my GX2 off of the V3 rail if need be.

My gut feeling is that I am so new at OCing CPU's, that it just needs a BIOS adjustment that I havent tried yet...

The CMOS error gave me pause for tonight!

Ran two more tests trying to match my CPU speed best I could, to re-produce my last 8600 runs...


At 640 x 480 No AA OCed 8600 GT, Q6600@3.8GHz:
8,842
SM2.0 Score: 2,988
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 3,673
CPU Score: 5,445

Return to Proxycon - 27.65fps
Firefly Forest - 22.16fps

CPU1 Red Valley - 1.83fps
CPU2 Red Valley - 2.59fps

Canyon Flight - 27.18fps
Deep Freeze - 46.28fps



At 640 x 480 No AA GX2 SSC Stock, Q6600@3.4GHz:
18,530
SM2.0 Score: 6,803
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 9,653
CPU Score: 4,746

Return to Proxycon - 54.93fps
Firefly Forest - 58.45fps

CPU1 Red Valley - 1.53fps
CPU2 Red Valley - 2.35fps

Canyon Flight - 122.81fps
Deep Freeze - 70.25fps



At 1920 x 1200 No AA OCed 8600 GT, Q6600@3.8GHz:
3,466
SM2.0 Score: 1,256
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 1,199
CPU Score: 5,196

Return to Proxycon - 10.79fps
Firefly Forest - 10.14fps

CPU1 Red Valley - 1.68fps
CPU2 Red Valley - 2.58fps

Canyon Flight - 10.29fps
Deep Freeze - 13.69fps



At 1920 x 1200 No AA GX2 SSC Stock, Q6600@3.4GHz:
16,402
SM2.0 Score: 6,632
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 7,458
CPU Score: 4,723

Return to Proxycon - 54.92fps
Firefly Forest - 55.61fps

CPU1 Red Valley - 1.55fps
CPU2 Red Valley - 2.3fps

Canyon Flight - 78.57fps
Deep Freeze - 70.58fps

She is a runner, and I have never seen my games look so good, or move so fast.

[lefy]

either way, you've got a crazy jump in performance from 8600 GT to GX2!!

[aussie-revhead]

I have a gx2 on the way and cant wait

[Buckeye]

Nice Talonman !!

[atomicvai]

I've actually been able to achieve higher overclocks since I put in my GX2... go figure.... I could never get through benches at 3.8 before, and now can complete at 3.9ghz.

The only other thing I've done is flash the board to a Rampage.

[slugzkea]

this is a bummer and has me concerned. Why would the cpu OC fail with this gx2? Is this the norm? should I expect the same results with my 3.8GHz Q6600?

Looking forward to more feedback from you.. hope you get your OC back!!

Power...the GX2 takes up almost 300w on load, and the q6600 oc'ed is close to 400w on load...

[cantankerous]

I am betting on imbalanced rails due to a high load from the cpu and now the GPU as well. That GX2 is like 5x more power hungry than your 8600 by far. The fact that the GX2 is probably dumping more heat into your case doesn't help.

[MrHydes]

[slugzkea]

That is a nice score, but your cpu score seems off....my e8400@4.5ghz reached 4100's for the cpu score, just letting you know

[MrHydes]

That is a nice score, but your cpu score seems off....my e8400@4.5ghz reached 4100's for the cpu score, just letting you know

well the 3Dmark made up some MHz because i was running at 4.275GHz and 3DMark turned it to 4.7GHz how come? lol
seems like my CPU is preety ON!!!



GX2 at 750MHz // mems 2088MHz

[slugzkea]

my GX2 just died....what the hell.

time to RMA, how the heck could they release such an expensive card taht dies in 10 days of operation!

[slugzkea]

Here is my latest message to XFX:


[Dan - 04/11/2008] Guess what guys, my GX2 just died. the LED`s turn on, the fan spins at 100% but i get a long beep and 3 short beeps from my mobo which means the vga card is bumed. My mobo is an asus rampage formula. I am very frusterated, how dare you people sell such an expensive product that only lasts 11 days in operation. You don`t pay half a grand for something that lasts as long as something you would buy in china town. I will be returning the card to my retailer, and i shall obtain a 2nd XFX 9800gx2. if this one dies again, i`ll never purchase your products ever again and i will also warn my clients and all my friends on forums and world wide that your products are low grade. your support seems fine, however your top of the line product has proven blasphemy. Unless this is a compatibility issue with the motherboard which i doubt, i apologize for my anger. however, my system wouldn`t post with my gigabyte board, which i returned because i thought it was teh board, when it souly turns out to be your 9800gx2. The fact that I have to roll back to my ATI 3870 because it still works, and modded at 1.62v is a slap in the face. I made no mods to the 9800gx2, i didn`t touch the pci-e voltage and i never opened the stock HSF. I demand an explanation.

[atomicvai]

Ummmm... bad luck? Things die, and these do run hot... I doubt you'll get much of a response from an email like that. I've heard people complain about every brand and about every model dying... that's why there's a warranty and a return policy... be glad it didn't die in 2 months when all you could do was RMA.

[slugzkea]

Ummmm... bad luck? Things die, and these do run hot... I doubt you'll get much of a response from an email like that. I've heard people complain about every brand and about every model dying... that's why there's a warranty and a return policy... be glad it didn't die in 2 months when all you could do was RMA.

It's an open ticket, i'll get a response and I have every right to be angry.

having a card working for 2 months is more impressive than 11 days

Also, the thermal threshold for the GX2's is somewhere near 120c and my card didn't come anywhere near that hot.

I'm just suprised that ATI use higher quality components, i just wish they'd boost the FPS and i'd go right back to ATI.

[atomicvai]

All I'm saying is that lemons exist, and unfortunately you got one... no, you really don't have a right to be angry (disappointed, frustrated, yes), that's why they will replace it etc... if they told you yer SOL, then you'd have a right to be angry... life's too short... and really if that's such an important part of it, you probably have deeper problems.

I've been ATI my whole life (well once NVIDIA screwed 3DFX), so I agree on your ATI point though... hopefully the 4000 series is everything it should be and I can make full use of crossfire... it really pains me to be supporting NVIDIA.

[Kenaida]

Here is my latest message to XFX:


[Dan - 04/11/2008] Guess what guys, my GX2 just died. the LED`s turn on, the fan spins at 100% but i get a long beep and 3 short beeps from my mobo which means the vga card is bumed. My mobo is an asus rampage formula. I am very frusterated, how dare you people sell such an expensive product that only lasts 11 days in operation. You don`t pay half a grand for something that lasts as long as something you would buy in china town. I will be returning the card to my retailer, and i shall obtain a 2nd XFX 9800gx2. if this one dies again, i`ll never purchase your products ever again and i will also warn my clients and all my friends on forums and world wide that your products are low grade. your support seems fine, however your top of the line product has proven blasphemy. Unless this is a compatibility issue with the motherboard which i doubt, i apologize for my anger. however, my system wouldn`t post with my gigabyte board, which i returned because i thought it was teh board, when it souly turns out to be your 9800gx2. The fact that I have to roll back to my ATI 3870 because it still works, and modded at 1.62v is a slap in the face. I made no mods to the 9800gx2, i didn`t touch the pci-e voltage and i never opened the stock HSF. I demand an explanation.

My 1st card was the same, I bought a gigabyte GX2, and the motherboard did not recognise the card. IE, it would power up ok, but fan stayed at %100 and that was it. Went back to the place of purchase and the DOA'd and I got a replacement which is working fine so far.