9800GX2 eller 2x 9800GTX?

[Drunk_Panda]

Hvordan ligger det ann med 9800GX2 vs 2x 9800GTX i forhold til pris/ytelse?

 

9800GX2: 4095,-

 

2x 9800GTX: 5000,-

 

Frister!!

 

Firingsquad:

 

 

 

If you were expecting the GeForce 9800 GTX to shatter the performance of the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra, you’re no doubt pretty disappointed right now. Unfortunately despite the new name, the 9800 GTX doesn’t break any new ground for NVIDIA when it comes to performance – the board is essentially a slightly tweaked GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB with the addition of 3-Way SLI support being its primary advantage. In comparison to the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, the clocks on the 9800 GTX are just 4% higher on the GPU, and 12% on the memory.

 

The card performs basically on par with the GeForce 8800 GTX based on our testing. As a result, the 9800 GTX will replace the GeForce 8800 GTX in NVIDIA’s lineup, while the GeForce 9800 GX2 replaces the GeForce 8800 Ultra.

 

The way NVIDIA sees it, the GeForce 9800 GTX basically gives end users all the performance of an 8800 GTX card with all the benefits of G92; namely better power consumption thanks to the 9800’s smaller manufacturing process, and better video thanks to its new VP2 video processor. The GeForce 9800 GTX also supports HybridPower. It does all this while selling for around $350, which is considerably less than the GeForce 8800 GTX when it was launched back in November 2006. That’s their belief at least.

 

The problem though is that the graphics landscape has changed quite a bit in the past six months. As we stated before, the introduction of the GeForce 8800 GT and 8800 GTS 512MB were game changing products that really raised our expectations when it comes to performance. Because of its conservative clocks, the 9800 GTX adds so little over the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB that a factory OC’ed GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB card like the EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS SSC should be able to outrun it in games! Because of this, we’re really not sure why this GPU is needed at all. In our opinion, this card’s introduction is only going to confuse consumers more because it adds so little over the 8800s despite the new name.

 

If there’s one bright spot when it comes to this GPU, it may be overclocking. NVIDIA obviously bins the best G92 chips for use in GeForce 9800 GTX cards, and it definitely showed in our OC’ing results. We were able to hit speeds of 785MHz core/1229MHz memory! That’s much better scaling than we were expecting considering the rather conservative stock clocks.

 

In all honesty, the excellent scaling we saw just confuses us more. With NVIDIA locking all of their board partners down to the same (stock) clocks for today’s launch, you’d think it was because the GPU doesn’t OC very far, but apparently it does. If they’d clocked the GPU a little higher, or at least allowed the board manufacturers to OC, the 9800 GTX would fare a little better in comparison to the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. Instead our impression is that it’s just a mild performance upgrade over the GTS 512MB.

 

Fortunately we’re hearing that the first factory OC’ed boards should be announced in the coming weeks. Hopefully these boards will really push the envelope when it comes to clock speeds, because as it stands now, we think most of our readers should probably save a little money by picking up the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB and OC’ing it on your own.

 

 

 

Hardocp

 

 

The Bottom Line

 

The BFGTech GeForce 9800 GTX is a good product but it's not breaking any performance barriers or redefining our gaming experiences. The bundle is nothing to get excited about, but the video card itself is capable. The only problem we see is that the 9800 GTX isn't truly superior to the 8800 GTX it is intended to replace in terms of real world gaming performance. A “new” product that comes to market is usually considerably better performing than its predecessor, at least in the high end GPU space. That is not the case here. There is more fancy “green” technology in this 9800 GTX, which is of course a step in the right direction, but it does not shift any performance paradigms.

 

The 9800 GTX is ever-so-slightly faster than the GeForce 8800 GTX in most games and in at least one game, not. The GeForce 9800 GTX is showing up in stock this morning at Newegg for $329.99 from five add-in card partners. This seems to be a good value on this card and it is selling a bit lower than we expected on launch day. Comparing this directly to GeForce 8800 GTX stock we see the least expensive one of those selling for $289.99 after $50 MIR. That is simply a hell of a deal on an EVGA 8800 GTX. Get it while you can.

 

It is very much worth mentioning that the GeForce 9800 GTX is also compatible with the Hybrid SLI technology, which includes the well conceived HybridPower technology, allowing Windows Vista users to shut down their graphics card when not in use, saving energy and money. The HybridPower technology does not however support multiple displays or multiple video cards and that will render the feature useless for many enthusiast users that the card targets. Where NVIDIA’s Hybrid technology truly fails, for this launch at least, is that you cannot currently purchase any high end NVIDIA chipset based motherboards that support HybridPower. And if you are an Intel CPU user, it will likely be a good while before you can. NVIDIA has some good ideas here, but its execution is lacking.

 

If you were waiting for a monster gaming class “green” video card to support HD video decoding so you can finally make that living room HTPC into an HD gaming powerhouse: You have that in the GeForce 9800 GTX. Not only does it have PureVideo HD technology including HDCP and HDMI (with an adapter, not included), it produces relatively little heat, eats relatively little power, and has one of the quietest fans we’ve ever had the pleasure of not hearing.

 

The 9800 GTX is a not an upgrade for the gamer already using an 8800 GTX. There are a few reasons that the 9800 GTX is a better product than the 8800 GTX, but gaming is not one of them. If you are a gamer and were hoping to upgrade, today is not the day if you already own pretty much any 8800 series card. Here’s hoping real next-gen technology will be seen in a “9900” series soon. Considering the funky cloud this is likely to leave over the “9X00” moniker, NVIDIA will likely be better off moving a different direction with the next GeForce branding as this launch is likely to taint that somewhat.

 

The 9800 GTX is disappointing to the enthusiast and certainly confusing to those that are not in a position to understand the svelte changes that lie under the heatspreader.

 

 

 

Legion Hardware

 

 

There are a few ways to look at the GeForce 9800 GTX from a buyer’s perspective. Those already armed with a GeForce 8800 Ultra/GTX/GTS 512 or even GT graphics card are no doubt going to be very disappointed with the 9800 GTX, as it does not provide them with a viable upgrade solution. On paper the GeForce 9800 GTX looks like nothing more than a tweaked 8800 GTS 512 and for that reason we were not expecting much. Now having tested the 9800 GTX we know for a fact that it is nothing more than a tweaked 8800 GTS 512.

In fact, if you were to overclock a GeForce 8800 GTS 512 graphics card, you would end up with 9800 GTX performance and with the 8800 GTS 512 currently priced around $50 US less, this does make justifying the new 9800 GTX quite difficult. For the most part the GeForce 9800 GTX was faster than the much older 8800 GTX, though the performance margins were quite small. The GeForce 8800 GTX really has stood the test of time well, which has been made possible due to the amount of resources Nvidia pumped into making it.

 

Although we have been complaining about how expensive the GeForce 9800 GX2 is at $599 US, this was the MSRP of the 8800 GTX when it was released back in November of 2006, some 16 months ago. However, given the lifespan of the GeForce 8800 GTX, this graphics card has actually turned out to be a really great value solution. Even today the 8800 GTX is still in the mix and will be now till the real next generation of Nvidia GPU’s turn up.

 

Unfortunately those that did invest in the GeForce 8800 GTX over a year ago are still waiting for something worthwhile to come along and it seems this product is not exactly around the corner. The GeForce 8800 GTS 512 has also remained a good value buy, as it can take on the new 9800 GTX in single card form, and those that purchased two for SLI mode probably could not care less about the 9800 GX2 either. From a performance vs. price point of view the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 is still probably the best option from Nvidia for gamers.

 

With an average retail value of $249 US, two GeForce 8800 GTS 512 graphics cards are still cheaper than a single GeForce 9800 GX2, and the difference in performance is going to be very minimal. Although we feel that the 8800 GTS 512 is the best value high performance graphics card available right now, the GeForce 9800 GTX is still a very attractive option for those upgrading from anything slower than an 8800 GT. After all, the 9800 GTX is here to replace the 8800 GTX and the GeForce 9 series will eventually phase out the aging GeForce 8 series.

 

While the GeForce 9800 GTX may not be much of a step in the right direction, it is certainly not a step back, as we found the GeForce 8600 series to be when it was initially released. The 9800 GTX carries on the strong performance of the GeForce 8800 series and it does so with better efficiency, improving power consumption levels, and cooler operating temperatures.

 

Reviewed By Steven Walton

 

 

 

Endret 1. april 2008 av Drunk_Panda

[NilsiT]

ville nok ha kjøpt 2x 9800GTX om jeg hadde hatt råd....

[Nizzen]

3way sli 9800gtx

 

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3275&p=5