Rumour control: GeForce 9800 GX2 pictures!

Toss in that NV can't make them on one PCB, duals are expensive, as are board cut-outs, and you have a huge price premium over the 3870X2. Add in that OEMs hate dual PCB boards, and you are looking at another losing streak in the making. Are we staring down the barrel of another 7950? NV could not show working boards at CES, so, like Hybrid, things are looking grim. So the 3870 X2 looks like it will hold the crown until maybe the forth quarter and about time ATI.. think NV neeed to get there Thumbs out of there bum's to challenge this card...

Comment by jaygoku22 at 10:15am 21st February 2008

It's probably the 7950gx2 Mk2. I mean two 8800m Laptop graphic chips in SLI on one card to keep the heat down. But if I remember the 7950gx was only any good running in SLI, not in single mode. Seeing that SLI still isn't really being supported, I have my doubts?!

Comment by marcus at 10:56pm 13th January 2008

Where's the single GPU that will wee all over DX10.......

Comment by alexmackie1 at 1:09pm 13th January 2008

DX 10, 10.1 and 11... is another consideration again but as regards the rest well... you drink your coffee and I'll drink my tea (...but tea is best)

Comment by technogiant at 6:47pm 11th January 2008

Because there is a card for every budget and system. So how do you know what the customer wants? As far as financial considerations, if one would buy this card, at a lower price or the same price as an Ultra then they got a deal! If they wanted to increase sales then they should make you buy 4 single cards instead of 2! Since nobody can produce benchmark scores yet for any games running on these systems, saying how they'll perform is premature. Besides, what card has uniform performance across all games? Name it please. This card is mainly for an SLI system. If you're not running SLI you'll not need such a card. But if you do get just one, you'll still have the fastest card on the market no matter what anybody says about it. At least until the GT200 gets released. The GT200 will be new architecture but won't be able to do DX10.1 (rumor) because Nvidia refuses to support it. DX11 is coming in '09 so why buy a card until then if you're waiting for the "next big thing". Nobody will be playing DX10.1 games this year or possibly next either since nobody is making games supporting it. You probably won't see a DX11 game until 2010 at the earliest. So why worry about a card that'll support a game that doesn't or won't even exist?!!!

Comment by Warrior24_7 at 10:30pm 10th January 2008

You should read this article - Both ATI and Nvidia are losing their mojo - on the Inquirer.net

Comment by technogiant at 7:15pm 10th January 2008

Sure both Nvidia and ATI are pushing SLI and CROSSFIRE as the way to go..what better way to increase their sales. But I dont agree that's what the customer wants either because of financial considerations or that multi gpu setups do not scale efficiently or even provide uniform advantage across all games. Most people are savy enough not to buy 2 or more of quite possibly the most expensive component in their system to obtained inconsistent performance results. The fact that only a minority of people run multi gpu setups confirms this and I am annoyed that Nvidia are offering this as the only upgrade option and holding back their new single card architecture till July?(even though as it is a year since their last architecture release it is almost certainly ready and they are just waiting for pressure from ATI to make them release it)

Comment by technogiant at 9:15am 10th January 2008

hi

Comment by Warrior24_7 at 9:03am 9th January 2008

Nvidia are just holding out on releasing their new architecture just because ATI aren't pressuring them. If you're happy to spend top dollar on year old architecture bolted together in a way that will provide advantage in some games and not others then carry on. I'm sure Nvidia will be happy to keep milking it as long as some mug is prepared to pay for it. personally I'm going to wait for the release of a genuinely new architecture

Comment by technogiant at 9:32pm 8th January 2008

I don't get it? Why all the complaining? The whole point here is "Quad" SLI is it not? So this makes sense then. This is EXACTLY what AMD/ATI were doing, so whats the problem? People complained about having to buy 3 cards for Tri-SLI, now they're complaining about having to buy 2? Yep 2, because it's one card for those who forgot how to count. Is the Core 2 Duo two chips? Is Skull Trail one motherboard or two? When it's released it'll be the best card on the market...PERIOD!!! It's simple, we all have choices. Just get in where you fit in with this hobby because lines are starting to be clearly drawn. It could be worse, you could be stuck with AMD/ATI who consistently over promises and under delivers with over hyped and under powered products. Alas, there is the "rumored" G100 that is a single chip and suppose to be faster then this thing coming in march...it-never-ends!!

Comment by Warrior24_7 at 7:00pm 8th January 2008

Comparing this to a single card does make sense... it takes up one socket...2 backplates...therefore as far as I am concerned it is one card. and people saying this is a frankenstein system...what about the current intel quad core processors...similar principle...bolt 2 together to double them up... as long as drivers improve im willing to look at this... my big query is why they have chosen to call the system "9800" and not 8950GX2, that would have made more sense

Comment by reashlin at 10:50am 7th January 2008

What driver problems with the 7950 gx2 ? I'm running a quad sli system with it and I have had no problems at all.

Comment by bluetuba at 11:26pm 6th January 2008

according to this report Nvidia is not going to release new architecture until mid 2008 http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ0MCwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

Comment by technogiant at 10:04pm 6th January 2008

the games industry isnt giving a shit about sli why waste your cash see what invidia or amd offers in a month or 2

Comment by j7dunwiddie at 12:44pm 6th January 2008

If Nvidia think that just because ATI aren't putting them under pressure at this time that they can pedal this kind of crap then it's time they learned of another sort of pressure, " Consumer Pressure".... DON'T BUY IT. Perhaps then they will stop holding back their new architecture.

Comment by technogiant at 9:08am 6th January 2008

To Aaronpcz- CPC didnt performance compare this to the ultra. They said it was the rumour that it was 30% quicker. They didnt do the comparing. They quoted. On the card, I think its good that this card is being made, but I agree with the general opinion that a single chip would be better than a dual pcb. If they made one chip that had 256 streams and similar other specs it would be better by far, unless this time nvidia have linked the chips in a much more efficient way. Its been said that everything is going in the direction of scalable cores etc, but this seems to me to be a confusing approach. Why not just make one chip, that is physically bigger, to house extra cores and stream processors, and then perhaps cool it in a more effective way. I think cooling technology is partly to blame. Look at the size of heatsinks now. These are what cause the huge size of graphics cards now, to some extent at least.

Comment by RedHotsRule549 at 2:50am 6th January 2008

Look at the bottom picture, you will need a forklift to move this about. Plus i want new tech, not old tech slapped together. http://www.tcmagazine.com/comments.php?shownews=17490&catid=2

Comment by urbanwarfare at 1:05am 6th January 2008

from the specs doesnt this just look like pair of new 8800GTS' stuck together? 65nm 128sp's 512MB of 256bit RAM... i bet each one has 16ROPs too. is there any word that it actually supports DX10.1?

Comment by soddit113 at 3:58pm 5th January 2008

I know the the price of 2 ultras will far exceed the 9800 GX2 but what i meant was. A dual PCB card is affectively 2 cards right! so why does the article above compare it to 1 card. It just doesn't make sense. To compare a dual PCB card you would have to rate how much quicker it is to the card most similar(in this case 1 = 8800 GT) and see the percentage increase not compare it to a different card. If nvidia make a 8800 ultra dual PCB it would whoop the 9800 GX2 to the floor no problem so i don't think its fair and custompc shouldn't performance compare dual PCB cards to single ones!

Comment by AaronPcz at 11:38am 5th January 2008

Due to Sli sucking you do only get around 30 percent extra from having a second ultra so aslong as it costs less than well a mere 850 for 2 ultras its going to be the best value out there for a supper graphics solution. And please guys Ati dont have a top end card so dont talk about crossfire being better than sli.(shame nvidia have to many top end cards that are all nearly the same except the price tags.)

Comment by Cool_CR at 10:46am 5th January 2008

As most enthusiasts have turned to intel processors and their chipsets that don't support SLI then unless Nvidia pull their finger out with a genuine new architecture they will be losing market share.

Comment by technogiant at 9:16pm 4th January 2008

Have been holding out for a new architecture not a composite Frankensteins monster. If thats all Nvidia have to offer well quite frankly ATI's crossfire scales more efficiently than SLI and they already have quad crossfire x. STOP MILKING IT NVIDIA WE WANT FRESH MEAT.

Comment by technogiant at 8:48pm 4th January 2008

What are the possibility's of getting 3 of these in 3way Sli on a 680i? *Imagine* that 6 way sli :) Ow the fun and expense, although iam pretty sure it would eat cyrisis! 02coled

Comment by 02coled at 5:07pm 4th January 2008

the issue of heat realy shouldnt be a problem, the 8800gt only has a single slot cooler (i.e. dosnt vent the hot air) and its based on a desktop chip. notebook chips generally run cooler than their desktop counterparts, so with a dual slot cooler, they should run resonably cool. BTW (DLEproductions) ALL modern gfx cards are nearly the full length of an ATX mobo, the 8800 ultra even overhangs, so it cannoth realy be that big. even my x1950xt sits right above my NB, (it caused some interesting problems when the fan had to be replaced) so im sure it will be no different. (p.s. the price of the 8800 ultra is never likely to drop, just look at the price of the 2900xt)

Comment by ohtari at 4:18pm 4th January 2008

I liked SLi, my first pre built computer was SLi...ok it was by mesh and based on two 7300GS's which didnt even have an sli connector on them, but i upgraded to one 7950GT and then bought a second one - and the differnece in the games i was playing (mianly FEAR, Doom 3 and Supreme Commander) was really noticable. As for the GX2 idea...I'm still unsure about Quad SLi as most of the benchmarks back when the GX2 was realesed showed that 2 7900GTX's were generally faster...Could be good but I'll have to wait and see.

Comment by PyrO_PrOfessOr at 2:48pm 4th January 2008

Sli performance is a lottery - and i've been there so I know - I'm not really interested in any dual GPU solution that's based on SLI.....

Comment by philheckler at 2:21pm 4th January 2008

well i was waiting for the 8900's before a gfx upgrade, but now i am going to have to wait. Also look at the size of it on that picture, i have a perspex case thats massive, but i dnt thing it has the room to house that!!! plus it is going to cover the northbrigde on most motherboard, or crowd them, imagine the heat !!! Either way, the ultra prices should drop, so maybe they would be worth buying instead of the new gfx cards, after all they are still capable at playin all the games out at this moment in time, and are still future proof for what i can see to be a few months

Comment by DLEProductions at 1:40pm 4th January 2008

Is this simply SLI for a single slot then? Didn't take much notice of the previous GX2 cards. How did it fare?

Comment by mctcpc at 12:52pm 4th January 2008

I have heard and I really really hope that they have a single card in the works too. A new architecture and DX10.1 support has to come from somewhere so I'm hoping that will be in the shape of a brand new single core, high end card. The SLI in one slot solution didn't prove particularly successful with the 7950GX2 - yes it was the most powerful DX9 card ever made, but it was and still is plagued with driver issues and very few games could utilise both cores effectively (we still have the odd forum member with issues!). I hope they get it right this time but a dual PCB SLI card isn’t what I had in mind when I think of parallel GPU computing mirroring that which we see with dual and quad CPUs.

Comment by combatus at 12:50pm 4th January 2008

I doubt very much if it'll cost as much as two Ultras. The GeForce 7950 GX2 came in very competitively priced, as it used two cheaper mobile GPUs to outperform a single 7900 GTX GPU. I'd imagine that Nvidia will be doing something similar with this card.

Comment by hardwidge at 1:04pm 4th January 2008

Itll probably cost the same as 2 Ultras too...

Comment by gavin_maw at 12:16pm 4th January 2008

what he said . . . . .

Comment by 1337_h3nd3rs0n at 12:13pm 4th January 2008

"30 percent faster than a ultra" because there TWO CARDS. Stick 2 ultras together image what speeds you could get. I think its unfair to compare a dual PCB gfx against a single one. Jeez i hate it when i read stuff like that.

Comment by AaronPcz at 12:13pm 4th January 2008

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