9800 GX2 Pictures and Specs

Wow. nVidia better have some seriously good drivers up their sleeve. I'm honestly thinking the Dual 3870 card (aka Rage Fury Maxx 2008) will get better support over time.

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will launch in late February or early March
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As I read this, it made me laugh at all the rumors that were posted about a "9800GTX" coming out in February. Let alone that other rumor that said March or April for the 9800GTX. The 9800GX2 would have a shelf life of three months at best if they did that.

Edit: I just read the other post, and saw the news of the 9800GTX just being a die shrink. Wow yet again.
 
Manny Calavera said:
Strong words for a card that claims only 30% better performance then an Ultra ! :)


I dont think Nvidia learned their lesson with the first one,and will repeat the bad customer support the original saw.I also think this will be a product with a very short shelf life.
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You may be right but I'd think that two 8800GTX GPU's or Ultra's shrunk to 65nm should be more than a match for a 3870 X2 card. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Let's hope they are close. I'd like to see the prices drop to something below $600.
 
The best we can hope for is a sooner release of this BS card, maybe first of Feb. That way the 9800GTX, or whatever it will be called, won't be that much further away.
 
I wonder why it's basically 2x8800 ultra's slapped together. Is there just not enough space to put 2xGPU's on 1 PCB? I'm sure if anyone can figure that out it would be nvidia since they got those old 3dfx employees :p
 
Oh wow. The next gen. is two of the previous gen. cards nailed together. ATI, it's your move, make the best of it.
 
Vegasr said:
The best we can hope for is a sooner release of this BS card, maybe first of Feb. That way the 9800GTX, or whatever it will be called, won't be that much further away.
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If you read the other [H] article it appears that the 9800GTX is just a 8800GTX refresh with a G92 chip. We will be waiting until mid year for G100 to be released :(
 
damn i would have went with 3 pcb's just to be safe

have you had the opportunity to crack open the outer shell and look at the hsf design it looks like the top 2/5ths of the card has an opening on both sides and alot of the heat is vented back into the case idk but i just dont trust trust it its to symmetrical it looks alot like a ps2 or something which probably meant they gave up some practical design to improve aesthetic design which i see some problems with
1. this must be damned hot
2. this must be one loud mother
3. how the hell do you clean the dust out of the damned thing hot+dusty=bad

but i do like how it doesnt really look like pcb on the outside maybe you will be able to adhesive some leds or cathodes onto it or paint it to match your case theme
 
Dan_D said:
You may be right but I'd think that two 8800GTX GPU's or Ultra's shrunk to 65nm should be more than a match for a 3870 X2 card. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Let's hope they are close. I'd like to see the prices drop to something below $600.
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Dan,do we not already have that in a sense,with the G92 GTS ? (128 SP,etc...).Adding a 384 bit memory bus wont make much of any difference.What it really needs is more SP's.
 
Personally I think the ATI design is much better with two gpu's on the same board. But then again ATI has used better/newer technology than Nvidia has, despite not winning all the benchmarks.

The Nvidia design looks like something they decided to slap together at the last minute to have something to match ATI.

As for crossfire/sli not working in all games, I would assume that is more of a problem with the game itself not being designed for it. Maybe more games will support it with cards like these.
 
Manny Calavera said:
Dan,do we not already have that in a sense,with the G92 GTS ? (128 SP,etc...).Adding a 384 bit memory bus wont make much of any difference.What it really needs is more SP's.
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8800 ultra > GTS 512 if I remember correctly, Its the memory bus that makes it outperform the GTS at high ass resolutions, not as much as the price difference reflects, but more bandwidth keeps the GPU fed.

Nvidia cards need the bandwidth more than ATi cards. With that being said, it costs more to make a larger memory bus, its not the fact that it CANT use more because obviously it can, to go from 256 to 384 bit memory bus, you need 2 more pieces of memory, you need 2 more spots to put that memory, you need circuits printed into PCBs to actuate the extra memory, and to do all of that you need to spend a bit more in R&D. It could be A, nvidia doesn't feel like pushing the envelope and it could be because the cost is high compared to a small benefit which it doesn't exactly need. These cards probably aren't going to be clocked up to 8800GTS 512 levels.
 
It was bad on series 7. If ATI was actually competing it would be bad this time around .
sonofwaffle.gif
 
defiant007 said:
If you read the other [H] article it appears that the 9800GTX is just a 8800GTX refresh with a G92 chip. We will be waiting until mid year for G100 to be released :(
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Their is G92, then theirs D9M, D9P, and D9E, then theirs G100. Theirs some speculation on D9M (looks like a new chip, but not new in terms of more efficient pipelines), not so much on the other two except it was thought D9E would be the feb/march high end launch that its now believed to be this GX2 card.
 
Simpson5774 said:
8800 ultra > GTS 512 if I remember correctly, Its the memory bus that makes it outperform the GTS at high ass resolutions, not as much as the price difference reflects, but more bandwidth keeps the GPU fed.
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I thought it was because the G80 8800GTX/Ultra has 24 ROPs and the G92 8800GTS/GT have only 16 ROPs, although it's probably both.
 
I haven't experienced, personally, with the previous GX2. I think we should see the benchmarks and have it field tested before we jump to conclusion. I would think, or like too, that NVIDIA is a smart company and would not make the same mistake again. Either way, you know NVIDIA will make money on the card and that is probably on top of their list. I am interested to see the out come of this and am giving NVIDIA the benefit of the doubt.
 
Dan_D said:
It may not be as elegant, but I can almost guarantee that two 8800GTX GPU's shrunk to 65nm will ASSRAPE a 3870 X2 card. I do hope that NVIDIA handles things better than they did with the 7950GX2. If they don't I'll be pissed off.
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Yes, that's what we want to see. Not this G92 dual chip.
 
A 30% pay raise would be nice.

I have never seen people complain so much about 30% better performance.

I won't buy any kind of sli until it works with all games and functions like a single card.
One that works with all motherboards that have compatible slots.
Too much $ to throw away on something that only works with a select games and is buggy.
What good is a card that can only use 1/2 the memory that it comes with?

I bet this thing has a msrp of over $700...
And plenty of people here will be buying one, or 2...
 
So...this is basically the 8800GX2, but because it's G92, it gets the 9. But that doesn't stop them from making the 8800GT and even an 8800GTS based on G92. Come the F on nVidia, can you stop fucking around, come up with a sensible product nomenclature and actually start innovating again? This is getting ridiculous.

Oh, and the fact that what is basically two 8800 Ultras is only 30% faster than a single GPU is a testament to how much money people waste when they invest in SLi or Crossfire.
 
I fear that Nvidia is trying to get us to go SLI with these minimal performance increases. Well actually 30 percent better than the 8800U isn't BAD but it's not good either, considering this card will cost at least $400. Nothing like the jump from high end 7xxx to high end 8xxx, which resulted in basically double the performance.
 
defiant007 said:
If you read the other [H] article it appears that the 9800GTX is just a 8800GTX refresh with a G92 chip. We will be waiting until mid year for G100 to be released :(
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Nvidia has a good thing going with the 8800 series, although the naming convention is somewhat confusing :confused: They are going to milk this chipset for all its worth. I may be mid-year or later before we see that generation shift.
 
I would be shocked if the 9800GT was 10% faster than a 8800GT.

So ... will the REAL series 9 be named series 9 ... or series 10 ?
sonofwaffle.jpg
 
MrMike said:
I thought it was because the G80 8800GTX/Ultra has 24 ROPs and the G92 8800GTS/GT have only 16 ROPs, although it's probably both.
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The number of ROPs is directly associated with the memory bus. 12 = 192bit 16 = 256 bit, 20 = 320 bit, 24 = 384bit.

Saying 8800GTX GPU is kind of moot, the G92 = G80 in every way + the video processing engine mumbo jumbo the 8600GTS and under have - 25nm, nothing more, nothing less. They can both do 384 bit, its just the the PCB it sits on and the amount of memory connected to it (and probably the bios) that make the differentiation.
 
Can I put three of these together on my 780i board? I want a 6 way gang bang of video cards.

Sexy Six
 
Kowan said:
Looks like summer or later before a real GTX/Ultra replacement is released.
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Glad, at this point, that I did not wait for this release, and bought the 8800GT.....it will hold me over another step nicely...
 
"30% faster than a 8800 Ultra"

Does that sound pathetic to anybody else, or just me? Whoop-de-do, 30%, wow (sarcasm), I think this is about the least enthused I've been about any video card release I've ever bothered to read! :rolleyes:

When they told us about the 8800GT, that was exciting.

I've been buying Nvidia cards for years, but this, is so dissapointing, I think I'll return my 8800GT and wait for whatever ATi is coming out with next that's faster than the 3870.
 
gibber said:
"30% faster than a 8800 Ultra"

Does that sound pathetic to anybody else, or just me? Whoop-de-do, 30%, wow (sarcasm), I think this is about the least enthused I've been about any video card release I've ever bothered to read! :rolleyes:

When they told us about the 8800GT, that was exciting.

I've been buying Nvidia cards for years, but this, is so dissapointing, I think I'll return my 8800GT and wait for whatever ATi is coming out with next that's faster than the 3870.
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I'm also extremely disappointed, I've been a loyal Nvidia customer since my Geforce 2, and this crap really pisses me off. At the LEAST they could make the cards smaller and run cooler. If they made a version of my card that was single slot, half the size, with no external power required, than I would be ok with it! But the cards get bigger, the heat is still an issue, and they still require external power, it's just ridiculous.

I would like to also add that I have a huge case, I mean this thing is big, it's a chenming secc case and the only way I could fit a longer card in here is if I pull out one of the hd racks. That isn't an acceptable solution.
 
so i bought 2 gt's on day one, then sold them and bought 2 g92 gts's on its day one. so where do i sign up for 2 of these?
 
I hope this is a joke in the end.

I had 2 x 7950gx2 (quad sli) and it was a mistake since day one. :( :( :(
 
Not what I was hoping for, personally. Mostly because this sucker seems like it will inherit the 8800 Ultra's price, and I was hoping to step-up from my $300 8800GTS 640mb SSC and use the $225 from my old 8800GTS Superclocked I sold-off (I had the two in SLI for a bit and the performance difference was negligible- not 100% sure if it's b/c of my DDR and PCI-E 8x [only for SLI; 16x all other times] or just poor support, but I can say it wasn't worth the expense for only a 10-20% performance increase when I could get just a little less than that by going into single card mode and allowing all 112sp's on my SSC to be enabled)- I was really hoping for a 9800GTS but would have shelled-out another $75 for a 9800GTX. But this thing really doesn't seem to be worth doing that and seems like it may well clock in at $700, which is way more than I want to spend. Additionally, given my recent experience with my system and SLI, I'm not sure I really want anything that taps into SLI technology in the slightest until I'm dealing with a new mobo- which won't be for another two years.

Anyway, that die-shrunk 8800GTX sounds interesting though- if it's $450-500 I might jump on that just because it would give me some better performance for no additional cost. Still not happy because I'm sure that even a 9800GTS (a true G100 card) would have been better, but meh.
 
Manny Calavera said:
Dan,do we not already have that in a sense,with the G92 GTS ? (128 SP,etc...).Adding a 384 bit memory bus wont make much of any difference.What it really needs is more SP's.
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In a sense it is. However the 8800GTS (G92) is slower than the 8800GTX/Ultra (G80) at higher resolutions. Especially when AA and AF are used. As someone else already said NVIDIA cards thrive on memory bandwidth. So we'll see what happens.

Sadly I predict that this will go down the same way things went down with the transition from 7900GTX to 7950GX2. The 7950GX2 was faster than the 7900GTX but not always by large amounts and a single 7950GX2 couldn't beat two 7900GTX's in SLI. However Quad-SLI had nice gains when it worked but was a piece of shit most of the time. Internal SLI+External SLI=Shit sandwich. Hopefully NVIDIA doesn't pull the same stunt again.
 
What makes you assume that this card is going to cost 7-800 dollars?, 2 G92 chips, prob lower clocked then on the GTS, so 2 8800GTs, and the last GX2 didnt cost more than the 2 7900GTs...

The 8800GTX is prob going to drop to 350-400 or they just drop it with the ultra, this prob going to be 450ish, then its going to get gouged (by the E-tailers) to 600. It mite drop in price, but prob not much, the ATi competition will most certainly be lacking.

30% increase in what? I am sure thats just an average number, in the games that SLi scales properly in, its more than 30%, prob closer to 60%, some games just like the last GX2 this card will be useless in, you figure all in all, 30%.

You people bitch and moan and complain, but they will more than likely make their money back on this, because some of the people bitching are going to buy the card, Then bitch and moan about how it doesn't work in some games and what not, you laugh but it happens. But by then it won't matter that your bitching about it because nvidia will have their money, and will probably still be in the lead when both company's dual cards are out. What I want to see is them try to tripple SLi and quad crossfire them, just for a laugh.
 
Speaking of SLI scaling, is there any listing for what games work well in SLI and what ones don't?
 
TerranUp16 said:
Speaking of SLI scaling, is there any listing for what games work well in SLI and what ones don't?
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I'm not sure but I can tell you that UT3, and COD4 work very well with SLI. The latter even scales well with 3-Way SLI while UT3 really doesn't seem to bennefit much if any from the third card.
 
This is my GPU migration pattern for the past 5 years. It's a puzzle. Find the one that doesn't make sense. Bonus, find the one that makes the most sense.

2004:
9800Pro to 6800GT
DooM3

2005:
6800GT to 7800GTX
BF2

2006:
X1900XT to 8800GTX
Oblivion

2007:
8800GTX to 8800GTS 512MB
Crysis

2008:
8800GTS 512 to Wii60
All of them
 
Jodiuh said:
This is my GPU migration pattern for the past 5 years. It's a puzzle. Find the one that doesn't make sense. Bonus, find the one that makes the most sense.

2004:
9800Pro to 6800GT
DooM3

2005:
6800GT to 7800GTX
BF2

2006:
X1900XT to 8800GTX
Oblivion

2007:
8800GTX to 8800GTS 512MB
Crysis

2008:
8800GTS 512 to Wii60
All of them
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I don't recall all the release dates but usually within the first week or two of release I almost always get the latest and greatest times two.

AGP (I was much poorer in these days.)
GeForce 4 Ti4600-Radeon 9600Pro (My second Ti 4600 died)
Radeon 9600Pro-X800Pro
X800Pro-6800GT AGP

PCI Express:
6800GT SLI-7800GTX SLI
7800GTX SLI-7900GTX SLI
7900GTX SLI-X1950XTX Crossfire
X1950XTX Crossfire-8800GTX SLI
8800GTX SLI-8800GTX 3-Way SLI

I skipped the 7950GX2 because originally they didn't support SLI and two 7900GTX's in SLI were faster than one 7950GX2. By the time they released official driver support for Quad-SLI three months later it was too close to the release of ATI's new card and the next generation of NVIDIA cards. So I waited on that. The 7950GX2's in Quad-SLI didn't scale worth a shit in most games anyway. So I stayed where I was. Tried the X1950XTX's in Crossfire once I got my Dell 3007WFP as I needed more graphics power for that than the 7900GTX's could provide even in SLI. After that I went to the 8800GTX's and never looked back.
 
Dan_D said:
I'm not sure but I can tell you that UT3, and COD4 work very well with SLI. The latter even scales well with 3-Way SLI while UT3 really doesn't seem to bennefit much if any from the third card.
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Didn't notice much of a difference in either of those games (not once SLIAA was out of the equation), so yeah I think that my mobo drops the PCI-E slots down to 8x when in SLI mode was killing performance- I'm sure it didn't hurt the cards of its time (6800's) much, but it's probably a killer these days, especially combined w/that DDR.
 
TerranUp16 said:
Didn't notice much of a difference in either of those games (not once SLIAA was out of the equation), so yeah I think that my mobo drops the PCI-E slots down to 8x when in SLI mode was killing performance- I'm sure it didn't hurt the cards of its time (6800's) much, but it's probably a killer these days, especially combined w/that DDR.
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I don't think the difference between x8 and x16 slots is very large. According to documentation from NVIDIA back in the GeForce 7 series days the biggest difference was seen when SLI-AA modes were used and under no other circumstances could a meaningful difference be seen in game and benchmark performance.

I just checked something and it shows that two of my cards have the bus operating at x16 speeds and the other at x8 speeds. I'll be interested to see if there is an improvement in performance when I switch to a 780i SLI board.
 
Dan_D said:
Tried the X1950XTX's in Crossfire once I got my Dell 3007WFP as I needed more graphics power for that than the 7900GTX's could provide even in SLI. After that I went to the 8800GTX's and never looked back.
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that doesnt make sense because the x1950xtx and 7900gtx were basically dead even.
 
cannondale06 said:
that doesnt make sense because the x1950xtx and 7900gtx were basically dead even.
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According to [H]'s review the X1950XTX is even faster than 7950GX2. :rolleyes:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTE0NCwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

From the review:
Overall, with very few exceptions, the ATI Radeon X1950 XTX provided a noticeable and tangible improvement in the gameplay experience over the Radeon X1900 XTX. Compared to the BFGTech GeForce 7950 GX2 it even performed better than that in some games, while in others they were even. Simply put, the ATI Radeon X1950 XTX won more games and scenarios than it lost them compared to the BFGTech GeForce 7950 GX2.

Any prove to show that the 7900GTX is as good as X1950XTX?
 
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