9800gx2 Power usage

H

HomerRulez

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
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Im thinking of just getting two of these and going sli. I have someone offering me both for $300.

Now how much power does this card use when maxed to its fullest? How much when just browsing the net or watching a video in 480p. Now what about 1080p?

What I have now is the Crosair 620hx. From what i gather the 12v Rail get up to 45a?

anyways if anyone can help me out that would be great. Other parts in my system are

780i board
bluray drive
dvdrw drive
e8400
zalman 9700
2gb 800mhz ram
250 and 500gb hd
 
just sell one of them. two of those cards in SLI are useless since they only have 512mb of usable ram.
 
The Corsair 620HX has 50A on the +12V rail.

If you check here, 9800GX2 SLI took up a whopping 594W of power at full load:
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3OCw3LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Granted they were using a quad-core CPU that uses roughly 30 to 40W more power, but that's still pretty close. You don't want to load a PSU all the way like that for long periods of time.

Just spend your $300 on a GTX260 Core 216 or GTX 280 if there's a deal on it.
 
This article will be of great interest to the OP:

http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=23084&pid=182722&st=0&#entry182722

There, you will see the GTX260 in SLI competing very well with 9800GX2 QuadSLI, winning some, losing some. And using a hell of a lot less power doing it, and having a lot more texture memory which prevents stuttering seen in 9800GX2 QuadSLI.

The GTX260 192 cards go for as little as $200 on newegg (grab them while they last, they aren't making any more 192 cards, and the GTX260 216 is only 2 or 3 fps faster). So two of those will cost $400.

While the Corsair 620HX is a great PSU, it doesn't have enough to do 9800GX2 QuadSLI safely, so you'd have to spend at least $100 on a bigger PSU. However, the Corsair 620HX will do GTX260 in SLI just fine.

I think your choice is clear here.
 
so should I just buy one and take the $150 and buy a new psu?

I would go ati but I need a good warranty. One that will cross ship like evga is priceless to me. So thats why im going with this. Also with evga they alowed me to step up twice without proof of purchase. So thats a plus too. I can alwasy step up down the line.
 
HomerRulez said:
so should I just buy one and take the $150 and buy a new psu?
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what? if you just use one then you wont need a new psu. also two of those cards are basically useless anyway for most modern games because even one runs into memory limitations with only 512mb.
 
TBH I'd wait for the next die shrink of the 280...

My 9800GX2 runs insanely hot, can't wait for the 280 revision so I can get something cooler :\ raises my computer temps about 5-7 degrees (the GPU idles at 71C).
 
HomerRulez said:
so should I just buy one and take the $150 and buy a new psu?
Click to expand...

No, buy the GTX260 and keep your current PSU. Save the money for a rainy day or something. The Corsair 620HX is more than enough power for the GTX260.
 
Starcrossed said:
People at this board pretty much hate the 9800GX2, btw. They are totally biased against it. Many of the above facts could be stated about other video card set-ups, too. I really liked my 9800GX2. HardOCP is not the place to bring up the GX2, though, like I said, and get an objective reaction from its users. It's part of the "groupthink" that unfortunately goes on here.
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its becasue there are other viable options for gaming. the 9800GX2 does come with its own issues that single gpu cards dont. also having just 512mb of usable memory does not cut it in many modern games.

that being said if he can get them for 300 bucks he would be better served to keep one and sell the other or just get a GTX260 216SP with the 300 bucks in the first place.
 
ok he said he would give me the 9800gx2 for $120. now granted many are saying that 2 of these wont scale well but one should be petty powerful, correct? Will it be stronger than my his 3870x2 that doesnt seem to work anymore?

Plus the yummy factor of being able to step up from a 9800gx2 to a gtx 260 216 or gtx 280 down the road for a lot less over all then just buying the 260/280 outright.

Unless of course I do need a new psu to have it work in my system.

Oh and I thought on max load the 12v rail got 45a was mistaken. Thanks for pointing that out.
 
HomerRulez said:
ok he said he would give me the 9800gx2 for $120. now granted many are saying that 2 of these wont scale well but one should be petty powerful, correct? Will it be stronger than my his 3870x2 that doesnt seem to work anymore?

Plus the yummy factor of being able to step up from a 9800gx2 to a gtx 260 216 or gtx 280 down the road for a lot less over all then just buying the 260/280 outright.

Unless of course I do need a new psu to have it work in my system.

Oh and I thought on max load the 12v rail got 45a was mistaken. Thanks for pointing that out.
Click to expand...
basically all your questions have already been answered. there are dozens of reviews of the 9800gx2 on top of what has already been mentioned. yes its stronger than a 3870x2.

are these cards new? you need to review the stepup program because I think you are confused about how it actually works.
 
HomerRulez said:
ok he said he would give me the 9800gx2 for $120. now granted many are saying that 2 of these wont scale well but one should be petty powerful, correct? Will it be stronger than my his 3870x2 that doesnt seem to work anymore?

Plus the yummy factor of being able to step up from a 9800gx2 to a gtx 260 216 or gtx 280 down the road for a lot less over all then just buying the 260/280 outright.

Unless of course I do need a new psu to have it work in my system.

Oh and I thought on max load the 12v rail got 45a was mistaken. Thanks for pointing that out.
Click to expand...


Even with that incredible price I don't see it being worth it. SLI is SLI is SLI. Meaning - Have fun pulling your hair out every time a new game is released and you have to wait for a new beta driver. The 512mb of VRAM doesn't help either. For not much more you can get a GTX260 which will offer a much smoother experiance in games then the 9800gx2 - And in reality shows the same max. fps most of the time anyways in the benchmarks.
 
HomerRulez said:
ok he said he would give me the 9800gx2 for $120. now granted many are saying that 2 of these wont scale well but one should be petty powerful, correct? Will it be stronger than my his 3870x2 that doesnt seem to work anymore?
Click to expand...

For $120 that's a good enough price for me to consider the 9800GX2. Even if the second GPU is worthless, you still have the performance of roughly one 8800GTS 512MB, which is about 10% faster than the 9800GT/8800GT that can be had for $110 to $125 these days.

Read this review to see how the 9800GX2 performs against the HD3870X2:
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3NSwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

HomerRulez said:
Oh and I thought on max load the 12v rail got 45a was mistaken. Thanks for pointing that out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, just divide the total available on the +12V rail to get the max amperage on the +12V rail
 
9800gx2 is a piece of crap.
That being said I've run on my 620hx with my 3.6ghz overclock : 8800gtx, 9800gx2, gtx280, hd4870x2. No problems
 
cannondale06 said:
basically all your questions have already been answered. there are dozens of reviews of the 9800gx2 on top of what has already been mentioned. yes its stronger than a 3870x2.

are these cards new? you need to review the stepup program because I think you are confused about how it actually works.
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Ive purchased card here, craigslist and ebay. Most being evga and never once did I need to show proof of purchase. Works the same way with RMA. I never have to provide proof of purchase and they always have fixed my cards. Stemming allllll the waaaaay back to the 5900ultra which was my first ever top of the line card. Ti doesnt count.
 
quote I was looking for

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 gets utterly and properly owned, this is true “pwnage” on the highest level.


Referring to the gx2. Now since my current 3870x2 is dead and I need a new video card. That leaves the gx2 at 120 per to be not only a great value but a better gpu than what I had before.



As far as gx2 quad sli, im sure games will be able to scale well in them sooner rather than later. SLi hasnt been out for longer than 4 years. Quad sli even shorter. Sli isnt even up to 90% efficiency. Imagine quad sli. With some time Im sure the 4 GPU quad sli would be blazing fast.


Its good to know that a 620watt would work though.
 
Crazy the amount of GX2 haters on this board. It's a perfectly good card that is still easily in the top5 list. Only the 4870X2 beats it in just about all games, other than that you'll often see it trade blows with the 280, and usually beat the 260 and the 4870, unless you're playing at the highest resolutions and AA levels( you really shouldn't use it for anything above 19*12 anyway, because of the limited memory, and even that is stretching it if you use much AA ).

And the whole "you have to wait for new drivers to run newly released games!" thing is just nonsense. Fact is, just about the only games, newly released or old, that really put a strain on the card is Crysis and Stalker:CS, but the other single cards stuggle with those games as well. In most games you'll have so high fps that even the much feared 'microstuttering' isn't a problem.

For that price it's easily the best price/performance ratio you can get, period. Don't bother with two of them though, the SLI scaling from 2x and upwards just suck.
 
Raap said:
Crazy the amount of GX2 haters on this board. It's a perfectly good card that is still easily in the top5 list. Only the 4870X2 beats it in just about all games, other than that you'll often see it trade blows with the 280, and usually beat the 260 and the 4870, unless you're playing at the highest resolutions and AA levels( you really shouldn't use it for anything above 19*12 anyway, because of the limited memory, and even that is stretching it if you use much AA ).

And the whole "you have to wait for new drivers to run newly released games!" thing is just nonsense. Fact is, just about the only games, newly released or old, that really put a strain on the card is Crysis and Stalker:CS, but the other single cards stuggle with those games as well. In most games you'll have so high fps that even the much feared 'microstuttering' isn't a problem.

For that price it's easily the best price/performance ratio you can get, period. Don't bother with two of them though, the SLI scaling from 2x and upwards just suck.
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you need to learn that benchmarks dont always tell the whole story. if you actually read through the complaints you would see that the 9800gx2 is not a smooth gameplay experience in many games. theres a video showing side by side comparisons with other cards and even though the 9800gx2 is getting high framerates there is clearly more stuttering.
 
spoke to an evga rep and he said the new drivers help with the microstuttering

not sure if thats true. Anyone try them out? I cant try them out yet as I didnt receive the card yet
 
There is nothing wrong with a GX2. Like previously stated your PSU will be stressed to run a pair of them in quad-SLI, I wouldn't recommend that. At $120 that is excellent price/performance.

Those cards work great for Folding@Home GPU2. Currently a GX2 is the highest production of any card out there including the 4870X2. If you don't want to fold with it I would bet you can sell them to someone that is planning on it and then buy a more efficient gaming card with the proceeds.
 
cannondale06 said:
you need to learn that benchmarks dont always tell the whole story. if you actually read through the complaints you would see that the 9800gx2 is not a smooth gameplay experience in many games. theres a video showing side by side comparisons with other cards and even though the 9800gx2 is getting high framerates there is clearly more stuttering.
Click to expand...

I'm not going by benchmarks, I'm going by my own experiences using the GX2 at 16*12 resolution, from when it came out until a couple of months ago. And as I mentioned, the only games that gave me any trouble was Crysis & Stalker:CS, but as we all know, just about all other single cards will struggle mightily with those games maxed out too. Heck, the GX2 even overclocked decently with stock cooling.

Saying he should spend 300$ to get a 260 when he can get the GX2 for 120$ is just absurd.
 
the cards im getting are like new (1 month of use he said). They come with box and accessories. Now if I get both, How much can I sell one for? For ex. How much might I get here on the [H] FST forum
 
$120 seems like the right price for a 9800GX2, because a single 9800GTX is $150 new. I think you should buy it.

Raap, have you run the 9800GX2 in QuadSLI? That is what the criticism is about - lots of GPU power but not enough texture memory. Having the power of four 8800GTXes but only 512MB of texture memory just doesn't cut it versus GTX260 in SLI - and the OP was going to have to pay about the same for either option. But the 9800GX2 is fine as a single card, and I think the OP should take the $120 offer.
 
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