|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
Verdict: The GeForce 9800 GTX is not the massive leap forward we were expecting.
Nvidia is on the offensive again; not content with kicking ATI’s Radeon HD 3870 X2 in the teeth with its GeForce 9800 GX2, it also has a new single-GPU card to thoroughly dissuade you from buying any Radeon card. The thing is, the new GeForce 9800 GTX looks far too much like the G92-based 512MB GeForce 8800 GTS for us to be totally convinced that it is a new card.
We'll focus on the performance of the new GPU and the costs of the cards we review here, but if you're curious as to what's under the large heatsink, read our article on GeForce 9800 GTX vs 512MB GeForce 8800 GTS.
PERFORMANCE
The cheapest 9800 GTX costs £210, around £45 more than the cheapest 512MB 8800 GTS. The 9800 GTX avoids direct comparison with the Radeon HD 3870 X2 (around £255), and the Radeon HD 3870 (around £115), but we’ll compare it to the former, as this is ATi’s current fastest card. With our concerns that the 9800 GTX might not merit its 9-series status, we also wanted to see if Nvidia has finally made a new GPU that can rival the speed of the aging GeForce 8800 Ultra.
Click here for GeForce 9800 GTX benchmark results
The 9800 GTX was 2fps faster than the 512MB 8800 GTS in Need for Speed: Pro Street at 1,920 x 1,200, with a minimum of 40fps compared to 38fps, but roughly equivalent to the 512MB GeForce 8800 GTS at all other resolutions. The 8800 Ultra delivered a lower minimum of 35fps at the same resolution, while the Radeon HD 3870 X2 struggled to run the game smoothly above 1,680 x 1,050.
We saw little performance difference between the 9800 GTX and the 512MB 8800 GTS in Call of Duty 4. The older card had slightly better minimum frame rates at every resolution, while the 9800 GTX had slightly superior averages. Both cards can comfortably play the game at 1,920 x 1,200, but the 9800 GTX failed to live up to Nvidia’s hype by only managing a stuttery minimum of 17fps and an average of 30fps at 2,560 x 1,600 with 4x AA. Perhaps more embarrassingly, the 8800 Ultra was slightly faster than the 9800 GTX. The less said about the terrible performance of the Radeon HD 38700 X2, the better.
The tropical dystopia of Crysis proved to be tricky for all four cards, even at 1,024 x 768. The 9800 GTX was 1fps quicker than the 512MB 8800 GTS, with a playable minimum of 25fps, but the 512MB 8800 GTS was slightly faster at every resolution above 1,024 x 768. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 was a touch slower than these two GeForce cards, with its 23fps minimum and 29fps average not holding much weight against the 25fps minimum and 34fps average of the 512MB 8800 GTS (which is £70 cheaper). The 8800 Ultra once again proved to be the fastest card of the lot, though not by much.
Overclocking did little to increase the appeal of the 9800 GTX. Using nTune, we could only squeeze an extra 15MHz out of the GPU, raising it to 690MHz, and another 75MHz from the memory, boosting it to 1.175GHz (2.35GHz effective). This provided an extra 2-3fps in Call of Duty 4, but the game was still unplayable at 2,560 x 1,600, with a minimum of 19fps and an average of 31fps.
WHICH GEFORCE 9800 GTX TO BUY?
With all the 9800 GTX cards running at stock speeds, the decision as to which to buy depends on the price and the accessory bundle. We had four cards in the Labs at time of writing: one from BFG, MSI, PNY and Zotac. Zotac includes Lost: The Video Game to entice you to part with £213.26 (it’s an odd decision, to say the least), but at least that makes this card the cheapest of the lot. Meanwhile, MSI packs in the more alluring Colin McRae: DiRT for its £223.23 price tag. The PNY includes Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts for its £226.40. However, while BFG doesn’t include a game in its box, it has a ten-year warranty (compared to the two and three years of cover offered by many other cards) to justify its £223.23.
The question of which GeForce 9800 GTX card is best is a toss-up between the Zotac and the PNY. If you want Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts then the extra £13 over the Zotac card is reasonable. If you're all about saving cash, get the Zotac (and chuck Lost: The Video Game, for Heaven's sake).
You can buy the Zotac GeForce 9800 GTX for £213.26 here.
And the PNY GeForce 9800 GTX for £226.40 here.
However, the GeForce 9800 GTX is an extremely underwhelming card given Nvidia's other offerings, so it's debateable whether you should buy a GeForce 9800 GTX at all.
**UPDATE - Zotac has just reminded us that its cards come with a five year warranty, making the Zotac's price look even better.**
CONCLUSION
We’re not sure how the new 9800 GTX card merits its GeForce 9-series status – it looks like it should be a GeForce 8900 GTS at best. With performance so close to that of the 512MB 8800 GTS, it would only be worth buying if it were cheaper. Even the cheapest 9800 GTX card costs around £45 more than a 512MB GeForce 8800 GTS, which is a scandal on Nvidia’s part. It looks suspiciously as though the company is cynically marketing a slightly updated 512MB 8800 GTS GPU as a next-generation 9-series GPU in order to fool you into upgrading. If you have a powerful GeForce 8800-series card (anything bar the old 320MB and 640MB GTS cards), stick with it for now; a 9800 GTX isn’t worth buying.
