GeForce 9800 GTX coverage round-up

I just bought two 9800GTX's to SLI replacing my single GPU 8800GTS, the only reason for my upgrade was because PNY stopped making the 320MB version of the 8800. I have to say that overall the performance gains of a single card probably wasn't worth the price increase, but it was there. I can now play Crysis at very high settings with a single card, not unfortunately at my prefered resolution but I'm hoping two cards will solve this. However I do not know now because one of the Asus cards I received was faulty on delivery. If the 9800GTX has a good overclocking headroom as many of you say then my outlay was not as painful as it felt when I did it, and I should get some value back because of this fact. I wouldn't repeat my purchase, I was just forced into the situation. I would advise 8800GTS/8800GTX owners give a little more time before making a new purchase of a new nVidia card. Hopefully ATI will by then also have something worth shelling out your hard earned for.

Comment by MR_Medicine at 7:01am 31st May 2008

Hey, the 9800gtx gives around the same perf as 8800gtx right? But it does it using quite a lot less power, makes less heat and does all that for about 2/3 if the price or even less. The 9800gtx will also OC a whole lot more......Damn those Nvidia people. I wanted it to perform magic tricks too! Anyway they can't kill the competition completely so ATI should be very happy to be given a little breathing space before the next big thing! Also for ATI fanboys - Don't forget the whole microsoft/Nvidia thing which crippled the 5xxx series performance, Nvidia bounced back though. Swings n roundabouts as someone else already said.

Comment by Bobthebuilder at 4:18pm 21st April 2008

fanboy? OSunds like you are...gonna go out and buy a Nvidia 780 board with 3 9800GTX's?:P j/king

Comment by DudQuitter at 5:30pm 15th April 2008

on nVidia's website, this card (and the GX2) support Hybrid SLI's Hybrid Power technology so I personally think nVidia are releasing this as a sort of save-user-running-costs product, as with HybridPower, the card would only be booted up when needed (ie when you're playing games or doing 3D work) with the 8200IGC doing the work at other times. So from that perspective it's good if you're looking to upgrade your mobo as well but on the other hand it's a shame nVidia couldn't put HybridPower in their 8800GT's or the newer GTS cards. I's a shame that the card is let down at higher resolution though, I'd expect it to be able to handle that kind of stress better than the 8800 cards. It seems like a good starting point but the card needs more refinement and the HybridPower needs more inclusivity (ie needs to be availble on more cards), for those resons I'd stick to underclocking my card/cpu when not doing 3D work/games via nTune.

Comment by EdArch at 11:01am 14th April 2008

Do not call me a fanboy, I am not that. If NVIDIA are wasting time then what are ATi doing? Rubbish drivers, boiling hot and unoptimised cards? **Cow excrement**, that's what it is and **you are possibly slightly incorrect** that ATi are even an alternative at the moment. They are NOT, sales show it, reviews show it. Let's put it in perspective, ATi were bought out by a company which was at the time, falling apart - AMD. **I very much disagree with your point.** I for one own a 9800GTX and it is an absolute stunning card. Performance on the whole is close to that of 8800GT's in SLI - whichw as my previous setup. Image quality is much improved and right up there with ATi's, the card is dead cool, virtually silent and overclocks like mad - if you are into that sorta thing. I have owned ATi's offerings - all the way upto the HD3870 - in Crossfire configuration and which to be quite honest was shocking. ATi lend **not much** support to their customers and release utter rubbish such as the 3870X2 - take a look at CustomPC's reviews. ***Moderated for coarse and overly strong language - please keep discussions clean and civil***

Comment by C7ouD at 4:44pm 9th April 2008

That comment is just proving more and more that i was right when i said you were a fanboy, lets face it, it is a well known fact that Nvidia are just wasting time, when instead they could release a card double the power of the 9800GTX, but i reckon they'll be doing that soon anyway because since they have no competition they can charge as much as they want.

Comment by NikoBellic at 6:11pm 8th April 2008

Thats the primary reason yes. Anyone with a slightly less powerful PSU can now have 8800GTX performance. The 9900GTX's and apparently GX2's are gonna be out over summer. Then who's gonna look foolish. It still shouldn't be called the 9 series though. Maybe just to shed the power hungry 8 series tag. And they haven't factory over clocked it yet. With lower heat production they will be more over clockable than the 8800GTX. Keep your pants on. Nvidia is just playing their green card. You wait and see.

Comment by joeamnesiac at 12:54pm 7th April 2008

That last comment is exactly the reason why ATi are still going. Understand that this card is all about refinement. It's low power usage, low cost, silent running, HDMI, good clocker, cool running and the fastest single core solution.

Comment by C7ouD at 4:42pm 5th April 2008

Nvidia has **** out. They've sat on their fat **bottoms** milking the market too long. ATI will be back in the driving seat before the end of the year. The RV770 series will be blowing them out of the water pretty soon now. My last act as a Nvidia customer will be to buy another of their best cards - the 8800GT -to make a SLI setup that with a simple little overclock will match the 8800X2 and cost £120 less. After that as far as I'm concerned Nvidia and SLI will be dead until they do something really really clever. I'm not holding my breath though. Triple and quad SLI are just a bad joke and who needs nForce boards now that dual GPU's are becoming the new top-end standard? Don't be surprised if Nvidia **has trouble** in the chipset market too. ***MODERATED FOR COARSE LANGUAGE - please keep it clean***

Comment by Cybersciver at 1:38pm 4th April 2008

So, my initial hopes that this was an April fool prank have fallen flat. Gutted. I have a 8800GTS 320 and it looks like I'm keeping it for a while - I was hoping for the same kind of performance leap I saw between my old 7800GT and my 8800. Unfortunately, the 3870X2 is not a valid option unless I plan to buy a bigger PSU - which is adding £100 to the cost. Mind you I might splice a couple of PSUs together as per Big Adams guide.

Comment by Spreadie at 10:28am 4th April 2008

Lack of top end competition and this is what you get... nVidia dont need to push any boundaries as they have the fastest cards out there already. I hope when Intel enter the discrete graphics market it will give nVidia a right kick up the arse to start producing cards that people want to actually buy instead of the mediocre, half arsed updates they are bringing out just now.

Comment by prim8 at 7:47pm 3rd April 2008

erm have i got this right? 9800GTX 675MHz(G92)GPU+512MB(GDDR3@2200MHz)+3xSLi= £240 whereas the ASUS 8800GTS-TOP 740MHz(G92)GPU+512MB(GDDR3@2070)+2xSLi= £205 given that i dont have a 3xSli mobo and im unlikely to be able to afford 3 cards anyway, doesnt the ASUS TOP look the better card? after all the 740MHz oc'd G92 is under warrenty too right? and what about the 1GB versions of the GTS? if I intend to use blueray+HDTV through my PC, would these cards outperform the 9800GTX? the 3870x2 seems to beat it in high resolutions on crysis. Pathetic release, just adds even more confusion to what is a totally confused market.

Comment by hazed100 at 8:52am 3rd April 2008

I think I'll be waiting for the 10 series before I upgrade. I'm guessing that'll be another 18 months away.

Comment by l3v1ck at 8:53pm 2nd April 2008

If they'd called it an 8900GTX, chances are everybody would be happy(ish). But with the scope for a marketing coup given the iconic nature of the Raddy 9800, they've really cocked it up. I've actually owned a high end card from each Nvidia generation since the 4 series (4600TI, 5900Ultra, 6800GT, Gainward 7800GS+ (brilliant card that eventually died after 18 months running a 25% overclock), 8800GTX), but I have a feeling that I'll be missing the 9 series. On th plus side, it is a very good card and a good upgrade from an 6 or 7 series GF, and it is good to have a bit of balance back in the GPU market - now if only AMD can sort the Phenom out....

Comment by jjs113 at 4:31pm 2nd April 2008

For someone who is purchasing a new card, it is not a bad buy - the problem is the people who bought an 8800GT looking for an upgrade that was not going to cost them 9800GX2 territory, the 9800GTX does not supply the power. Most games it does perform better than the HD3870X2 and if I was honest, I would prefer this card over that any day - lower power consumption, cooler and quiter running with an overall performance leveling and even beating the 3870X2. King of the bunch is still the 9800GX2 by miles - though another thing to bear in mind with this card, for £700 you can have Tri SLi rigged up and this would perform ALOT faster than the previous £1200 8800 Ultra Tri SLi setup would. Swings and roundabouts, it's a fantastic card, but it's nothing new.

Comment by C7ouD at 11:55am 2nd April 2008

So the ultra and 9800 gx2 are still the fastest cards money can buy?

Comment by erratum1 at 8:33am 2nd April 2008

how does this card compare for power-consumption to the 8800GTX? I think the point of this card is to offer 8800GTX performance for cheaper unit costs and cheaper running costs. I'm assuming this card is using the 'new' 65nm wafers so it would use less electricity and costs less to run. Don't get me wrong, I've not long spent money on a 1Gb 8800GT and it does what I want it to brilliantly so I'm in no rush to go out and buy one of these - anyway for everyone who's wondering what the point in these cards are (and that seems to be everyone!), I reckon it's lower running costs for the same performance.

Comment by EdArch at 12:59am 2nd April 2008

April fools?......

Comment by brown811 at 12:23am 2nd April 2008

I hate to say it but I did tell you so ages ago.... You all spammed me and laughed at me and told me I spoke utter crap and well - here you go... ¬_¬

Comment by Elemental_Dragon at 12:04am 2nd April 2008

4 months research resulted in 1fps increase? you must be kidding. I've been waiting for something to rid myself of my 8800GT, 2 whole years since 8800gtx and they throw these kinda excuse of a pile of circuits are us? At this rate I won't even be touching nvidia's new 790i chipset with a 10 inch pole. X48 + 8800GTS all the way!

Comment by Wolfinton at 11:29pm 1st April 2008

it looks to be more of a 8800gts overclock edition, i dont see the point of this card

Comment by heirflick at 9:30pm 1st April 2008

Pulled their finger out .... They suck at the moment even against ye older 8800Ultra for crying out loud.. .....

Comment by Lightning_Pete at 9:24pm 1st April 2008

I'm a little concerned about the drivers used in these tests. Between the tests at CPC, Firing Squad, Legit Reviews, Toms Hardware, no less than 5 different driver versions were used for the Nvidia cards and what's even more worrying is that different drivers were used for the 9800 compared to the 8800's yet they are being directly compared? Looking at the Toms review, the 9800GTX looks like it's a good card, soundly beating the 8800ultra in every test. Elsewhere it's 9800GTX that's getting stomped on. Interestingly Toms are using an older 8800 driver (169.44) where as Legit are using 174.12. It's a shame no one used the same drivers for the Nvidia cards.

Comment by combatus at 8:00pm 1st April 2008

LOL - reminds me of an old school teacher who had us doing ever increasingly stupid research because it was international Olaf Pliors day, celebrating the life of a famous viking. Ok, I was 9yrs old and not very good at anagrams. Come on Alex, fess up!

Comment by Spreadie at 7:52pm 1st April 2008

Given what is a very disparaging review, and from what I can tell rightly so, how have they then given it 81% as a score? This seem really high for a card that is so mediocre.

Comment by jonlumb at 5:35pm 1st April 2008

pointless card. buy an 8800gtx if you're gonna spend £200+. shouldn't have the gtx title. should be GS/GT, given previous series upgrades... ill not be buying this at any rate.

Comment by roboy at 4:15pm 1st April 2008

Tell me this is a nvidia April fools joke

Comment by pcn00b at 3:32pm 1st April 2008

Is 3-way SLi the only reason to buy this card? I have the very good 8800 GTX which has kicked ass for over 18 months now. Would just adding another or 2 to my system be better than buying 2 or 3 of the 9800 GTX?

Comment by crazyceo at 3:08pm 1st April 2008

Seems like Nvidia are employing the old IBM approach, just give the consumers "just enough". Well a few of us have had Just enough too long, what we need is a resurgence of research from ATI/AMD, to bring something new and exciting to the fray. As a wise man once said "complacency will be our downfall".

Comment by typhoon1377 at 3:12pm 1st April 2008

Good luck selling any of these Mr Nvidia. Rubbish.

Comment by toobigtohide at 2:35pm 1st April 2008

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