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NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB - Recouping Pole Position

By Vincent Chang - 18 Mar 2008

Conclusion

Conclusion

As a product that had been widely speculated and probably even dissected by certain enthusiasts before it even made its debut, the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 has pretty much lived up to expectations. We knew that it would feature two G92 cores, hence its performance shouldn't be too far from the GeForce 8800 GT/GTS ballpark. The scaling from having a second GPU has been consistent with what we have seen from the usual SLI setup. The GeForce 9800 GX2 just represents a convenient and hassle free way of having it on any system, sans an SLI compatible motherboard. Our benchmark numbers (those that seem to be working fine) gave it the advantage over ATI's competing Radeon HD 3870 X2 most of the time and that should be counted as a mission accomplished by NVIDIA since that restored them to the top of the graphics perch. However, performance wasn't great everywhere as we noted World in Conflict and Supreme Commander not responding to the expected performance gains. This is clearly a state of the driver's work-in-progress natures and we do hope it improves. For those interested in maximizing their performance, Quad SLI is not only possible with the GX2 but its new 4-way AFR rendering technology may result in better performance scaling in Windows Vista.

The GeForce 9800 GX2 may look sleek and polished on the outside but some work with drivers is highly recommended. Even then its unusually high price will probably be the first barrier.

NVIDIA has also done quite well in terms of packaging the two PCBs together and giving it the illusion of a 'single' card. Compared with its previous attempt, the unsightly GeForce 7950 GX2, this has been quite the improvement. Heat however continues to be an issue just like before, with the already warm G92 cores packed in such close proximity. The slightly higher memory clocks on the GX2 (against the GeForce 8800 GT) may also contribute to this. However from our testing, we're glad to say that the temperatures recoded were in the similar ballpark of a single GeForce 8800 GT graphics card - which just means that the GeForce 9800 GX2 handles heat output quite well for what it is. Finally, like any other such high-end dual GPU graphics product, power consumption is predictably high. We may eventually see lower average power consumption if the GeForce 9800 GX2 is paired with a HybridPower compatible motherboard but that is an ideal situation requiring further investment, unlike ATI's PowerPlay which is present on the Radeon HD 3870 X2.

So far, it does seem quite positive for the GeForce 9800 GX2, excluding the ever present heat and power issues that plague such high-end cards. Unfortunately, NVIDIA seems to be maintaining its high-end premium for this card, with the launch price slated to be between US$599 and 649. That places it on par with the debut price of the GeForce 8800 GTX. Now there's nothing wrong with that but in case you didn't know, NVIDIA themselves have been slashing prices for most of its recent G92-based products, with the affordable GeForce 9600 GT and the GeForce 8800 GT itself going for just over US$200 now. With such market conditions, the GeForce 9800 GX2 does seem vastly overpriced. After all, one could get two GeForce 8800 GT and link them in SLI for less than US$500 - provided that the user is already using an SLI board. By contrast, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 debuted at US$449. No doubt, some of the additional features like HybridPower may add some cost but it's still a relatively new and unproven technology. Going by performance alone, we find its retail price a bit too hard to swallow and we won't be the only ones. In a nutshell, it's a good product (though a tad unpolished at the moment, but holds potential) that's held back only by its unglamorous price point.

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