Tuesday 26th February 2008

Rumour control: GeForce 9800 GTX revealed

Posted at: 5:12am 26th February 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Specs, photos and benchmark results leaked, showing a very similar chip to the 512MB GeForce 8800 GTS

GeForce 9800 GTX photo

As with the worst kind of tequila, we usually take these kinds of rumours with a tight pinch of salt. However, a GPU-Z screenshot and a 3DMark06 score, all of which look pretty legitimate, back up the latest leaks concerning Nvidia's forthcoming GeForce 9800 GTX.

Expreview and VR-Zone have spilled the beans, revealing that the GeForce 9800 GTX is a very similar beast to the 512MB GeForce 8800 GTS. If the screenshots are to be believed, then the 9800 GTX has 128 stream processors, 512MB of GDDR3 memory and 16 ROPs, although it has slightly different clock speeds from the 512MB GeForce 8800 GTS.

According to the GPU-Z screenshot, the 9800 GTX has a very high shader clock of 1.69GHz, a core clock of 675MHz and a memory clock of 1.1GHz (2.2GHz effective). This isn't wildly different from the 8800 GTS in terms of clock speeds, but it may well be much quicker if the results from the GeForce 9600 GT are any indication.

The 9600 GT might have been overpriced in terms of performance, but it had an impressive amount of power for a GPU with just 64 stream processors. If the 9800 GTX uses the same streamlined architecture, then it may well prove to be much quicker than the 8800 GTS, despite having very similar specs on paper.

Expreview has demonstrated the potential speed of the card with a 3DMark06 score of 14,014 at 1,280 x 1,024 using a Core 2 QX9650, but this is the only benchmark we've seen so far. It's also worth noting that 3DMark06 only tests DirectX 9c features, and won't really challenge the DirectX 10 hardware.

As with the 9600 GT, it looks as though the 9800 GTX still doesn't support DirectX 10.1 either, although this is more of a marketing checkbox at the moment as DirectX 10.1 hasn't even been officially released yet.

More images for this article:

GeForce 9800 GTX GPU-Z screenshot

GeForce 9800 GTX GPU-Z screenshot

GeForce 9800 GTX 3DMark06 Score

GeForce 9800 GTX 3DMark06 Score

Submit to:  
Comments
What the hell are you playing at n,videa????

Haveing been stupid enuff to not get an 8800gtx sli solution when they appeared (A gpu that is still the top dog after a year!!!) I have been patiantly waiting for n'videa to release a true sucsesor. Rumours of a 9800 gtx (or D9E 20) with 1 gig of gdr5 memory and a realease date of mid march seemed to good to be true and from the sound of this article,, looks like I was right ,,sigh. I cant beleive i'm saying this but I'm really hopeing microsoft get there new gpu's out to give N,vid the kick up it's back side that It so obviosly needs. I just hope there not planning on saving them for the next console (following on from the x box 360)

Comment by ramos001 at 2:57pm 15th March 2008



9800 GX2

A review of the 9800 GX2 has stated it's basically 2 8800GT's stuck together so maybe this is true... But as said; 8900 seems more apt. We're all waiting for something that can rum Crysis as it's meant to be played at high resolutions - And this ain't it :( http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=12124

Comment by daknn at 12:48pm 13th March 2008



ship load

nvidia must have a sh t load of gpus to get rid of new name sorry old name trying to be new stuff but little or no punch

Comment by kingjohn721 at 2:18pm 1st March 2008



This is aload of S***

ok firstly the card looks totally fake and why would the 9800GTX have GDDR3 and only 256 of it in my eyes it looks like some one was after alot of hits on their website the 9800GTX should b on a G100 core don't give ur hopes up yet

Comment by FOXHOUND at 3:43pm 29th February 2008



bah

OH dear, i get 12k with a silghtly overclocked 8800gtx (using duo orb cooler) and a E6600 @ 3.2 458fsb... so an extra 2k would cost me QX9650 and a 9800GTX card ROFLMA get real and keep it nvidia... the only thing that would sway me is Direct10... not a good show really. Must be fun owning nvidia... give me your money and ill make you get an extra 2k on 3Dmark 06 lol.

Comment by ohdear at 6:19am 29th February 2008



Oh dear

I am really disappointed... I was hoping for something really spectacular. If that's G92 then it looks like a really big let down on paper. Same old same old.

Comment by RedHotsRule549 at 5:57pm 28th February 2008



maybe

i think that consumers may be part of the cause but i really think that almost everyone who can afford a 8800 has now got one and as soon as people want that little touch more performance they are gonna end up buying the 3870 X2... and that may kill off the Nvidia die hard fans and make way for some new ATI die hard fans... so come on Nvidia dont let that happen

Comment by smiler_16 at 12:02pm 28th February 2008



blah blah blah Mr Freeman...

8800GT still seems the best buy to me esp now there's a 1Gb version. Why NV are wasting their time with 512Mb on a 9800GTX is beyond me so if this is the card they're gonna bring out I won't be buying one. The whole market is becoming full of more-of-the-same products and I think something needs to be done give all the major companies (AMD/ATi/Intel/NV a good kick up the aars. In part, we the consumer are to blame becaus the companies know there are people out there who will go out and buy the latest kit just for the sake of benchmarks or just to say they've got 'it' (whatever that may be) and as long as that market sector is alive and well, nobody has to make any real effort or progress or try/offer anything really different

Comment by EdArch at 2:53am 28th February 2008



Stick with the program...

I'll keep my 8800 GT/SLI configuration for the remainder of this year. I'm using the Hanns.G 27.5 inch display at 1920X1200 and gaming has never been better. It sounds like nVidia is paying more attention to other product lines - perhaps their own CPU.

Comment by Bigal_USA at 11:11am 27th February 2008



Bad Nvidia. Just wrong. No

NNooooooooooooooooooo. No. Sticking feathers up your bum does not make you a chicken, Nooooooo. Bad Nvidia. Bad Bad Bad.

Comment by JBongo775 at 10:18am 27th February 2008



What puzzles me is that a lot of details released/leaked before now showed that the 9800GTX had a gig of GDDR4 RAM. That's my last hope to show that this info is a hoax.

Comment by l3v1ck at 9:41am 27th February 2008



Dissapointing, though its in line with all the leaked specs over the last 6 months. Its quite nice to see all the ludicrous speculation about 2gb ram, 512mb memory bus, and 256 streams (impossible for a single G92 chip, which we knew it would be based on) die with a clunk.

Comment by NotFred at 9:09am 27th February 2008



It seems like the day of the uber card is over!

I was saving for this card so I hope this is only a rumor. If true, I guess the Ultra remains the baddest card ever made.

Comment by Warrior24_7 at 9:44pm 26th February 2008



G92

Nvidia's codenames are now just as confusing as their product names. There are several variations of G92, which is the basis of the 8800 GT (G92-270), GS (G92-150) and 512MB GTS (G92-400). From what I can gather, although this is obviously completely unconfirmed, there will also be a further variation of G92 for the 9800 GTX (G92-420), and the 9800 GX2 may be codenamed with a variant of G92 as well. The 9600 is G94, though.

Comment by hardwidge at 11:14pm 26th February 2008



Almost wants you to hope Intel would enter the GPU market with such a bang Nvidia would stop playing marketing games and bring out the card I suspect they could. Can't help but feel Nvidia are holding out on us because their current product range is making them the cash, and they see no need to stop shaking this particular tree.

Comment by _Jargy at 10:16pm 26th February 2008



256bit Mem?

What a waste! A 384bit clock with those specs would have made playing at 1920x1200 and above feasible. This is just waste of time and space.

Comment by Faiakes at 10:00pm 26th February 2008



it is a dissapointing start for Nvidia because i was hoping this rumour of nvidia concentrating on intel would just mean more powerful GPU's coming out willy nilly but i guess not hey... maybe they are too busy designing a CPU to put in the competition against intel and AMD

Comment by smiler_16 at 8:16pm 26th February 2008



If that's true then it's a huge disappointment! 128 stream processors? It's just an overclocked 8800. They should have called it the 8900. And to think I've been looking forward to this for ages.

Comment by l3v1ck at 7:45pm 26th February 2008



I was beginning to wander if my 3870 and 3850 weren't clever purchases but seeing as I get nearly 16,000 in 3DM06 - 2000 points higher than the 9800GTX I might not be in the poo as much as I thought! I'm sure drivers will improve things and 3DMark is far from the be all and end all. I think the most interesting thing here though is an iminent price war between Nvidia and ATI.

Comment by combatus at 7:31pm 26th February 2008



Surely simply an overclocked GTS?

I thought the 9800\'s were a G94 chip?

Comment by bigfellla at 7:40pm 26th February 2008



Hmmm

My excitement just died. I hope the finished product with newer drivers and a newer form of benchmark (ie, not SM2.0) reveals something better.

Comment by CSQuake at 6:47pm 26th February 2008



what a waste

they just seem to have wasted the name 9800 after all we should be expecting better than the 8800 gtx but it looks as though with the gtx that Nvidia have set themselves a target too high to beat but maybe well see a 10,X00 series card in october that'll beat it if we're lucky hey... or maybe this is just another attempt at making a card that'll be faster and cheaper than the 3870 beacuase the 9600 failed at that...

Comment by smiler_16 at 6:27pm 26th February 2008



Wooooooo!

I haven't even read the story yet I'm just excited to see the words 9800 GTX !!!!!

Comment by CSQuake at 6:07pm 26th February 2008



hrm.

"3DMark06 score of 14,014 at 1,280 x 1,024" low? gpuz says its a g92?? isn't that what the 8800gt and gts are? ill believe it when its official.

Comment by TBallS at 5:35pm 26th February 2008



conect me up

what about the connections hdmi displayport dvi and will it bring the £$ down so other gt gts r cheaper

Comment by kingjohn721 at 5:32pm 26th February 2008



14k in 3dmark 2006? Yawntastic. I sincerely hope thats due to beta drivers etc.. Otherwise, we are not amused.

Comment by Spreadie at 5:32pm 26th February 2008



Sorry, Custom PC comments are now closed.

Mobile Broadband

Compare prices

Fastest, cheapest 3G mobile broadband dongles from 3, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange
from just £10/month

Button link to Mobile Broadbandgenie.co.uk
Powered by
Broadband Genie