NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB

Introduction

It seems that not a month passes by without NVIDIA announcing a new product in its growing range of graphics cards. For 2008 at least, we have already seen the debut of the mainstream GeForce 9600 GT along with the new flagship, the dual GPU powered GeForce 9800 GX2. If one includes the introduction of NVIDIA's new Hybrid SLI technology at the beginning of the year, it's a steady rate of an NVIDIA headline each month (and like addicts, we keep lapping it up).

Continuing this trend for April, we have the GeForce 9800 GTX making its appearance today. With that 'GTX' suffix, one should have a rough idea what this new graphics card is positioned at. Yes, it is the designated heir to the high-end GeForce 8800 GTX and while the GeForce 9800 GX2 is expected to retain its perch at the apex of NVIDIA's hierarchy, this new GTX is no pushover and could spring some surprises of its own.

Like the other members of the GeForce 9 family so far, the GeForce 9800 GTX makes use of the 65nm G92 core. An optimized core based on the groundbreaking unified shaders architecture on the GeForce 8, the G92 has now appeared in numerous NVIDIA products (GeForce 8 and 9 series) and going by the dominant market share of NVIDIA now, it may even turn out to be one of the bestselling cores ever. For the GeForce 9800 GTX, the full complement of 128 stream processors on the G92 are available, giving it the same quantity as the GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra and the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. The clock speeds are however pushed higher than ever, with the GeForce 9800 GTX clocked at 675MHz for the core and a whopping 2200MHz DDR for its standard 512MB GDDR3 memory. Compared to its predecessor however, it does have a smaller memory bandwidth and less memory. You can see how it stacks up against some of the other high-end graphics cards both old and new in the table below:

While our first instinct is to dub the GeForce 9800 GTX an extremely overclocked GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, there are some differences that distinguish it from its close relative. For one, like the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra, the new GeForce 9800 GTX is the only card from the G92 generation to support 3-way SLI (using NVIDIA's new AFR mode in Windows Vista). Of course, with the GeForce 9800 GX2 technically capable of Quad SLI, 3-way SLI may find its glamour much diminished. Obviously, there are pros and cons to both approaches, with power, heat and space, the urgent issues to consider besides raw performance.

The other difference is the support for Hybrid SLI technology on the GeForce 9800 GTX, notably the HybridPower component. In case you haven't been following NVIDIA's latest buzzword, this technology allows the GTX to be shut down completely in the presence of a HybridPower compatible motherboard and instead have the onboard graphics take over the rendering for less intensive tasks like surfing the net. More information about this can be found in our relevant links section at the bottom of this page. On paper, this feature may lead to some energy savings but it's still early days and getting our hands on such a motherboard isn't happening yet.

The NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB

With a length equal to the GeForce 9800 GX2, the new GeForce 9800 GTX is however much lighter than the dual GPU card. The cooler itself is hidden below the plastic shroud and while larger than the one on the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, it is quite similar. The fan is reasonably quiet by our reckoning even as it remained audible throughout.

NVIDIA recommends a PSU of at least 450W for a single GeForce 9800 GTX, with the power requirements climbing up to 750W for SLI and 1000W if you're inclined to go all the way with 3-way SLI. These are quite high if typical of requirements for high-end graphics cards nowadays and while it may seem ridiculous to you, there is apparently enough demand for these products.

Other features that have been added for the GeForce 9 series, like HDMI integration within the graphics card and PureVideo HD enhancements are present on this card. Audio headers for the S/PDIF cable are found at the top of the GeForce 9800 GTX and though there is no native HDMI port, DVI-to-HDMI adapters are found within some of the retail sets we received. Consumers can easily connect these adapters and the S/PDIF cable to the appropriate connector on the motherboard for the HDMI experience. Unlike ATI and its partners, it seems that DisplayPort is not on NVIDIA's to-do list for the year, so don't expect to find such a connector on the GeForce 9800 GTX.

The ASUS EN9800GTX 512MB

NVIDIA has had no problems with producing G92 cores ever since the supply woes encountered last year and with the number of products using this core or its variants, it's fortunate that there have been no more recurrence of those problems. Hence, we have seen quite a few retail units of the new GeForce 9800 GTX coming into our labs even before the official release date.

First up, we have the ASUS EN9800GTX, which is clocked at the default 675/2200MHz. Besides the company's usual, excellent three-year warranty, this is a relatively ordinary edition that should satisfy those eager to get their GeForce 9800 GTX fix.

The contents of the package include:

• DVI-to-VGA adapter
• 6-pin Molex power adapter
• 7-pin mini-DIN to Component dongle
• Driver CD
• User Manual (Multi-language, on CD)
• Quick installation guide
• Leather CD wallet

The Leadtek WinFast PX9800 GTX

Another brand that we received early is Leadtek, which offered us its WinFast PX9800 GTX. Like the ASUS, it is standard clocked, so there should be no performance difference here. However, Leadtek did include some extra accessories that we felt should have been in the ASUS package. This includes the S/PDIF cable and DVI-to-HDMI adapter.

The complete list is as follows:

• DVI-to-VGA adapter
• 2 x 6-pin Molex power adapter
• 7-pin mini-DIN to Component dongle
• S/PDIF cable
• DVI-to-HDMI adapter
• Driver CD
• Quick installation guide
• Neverwinter Nights 2 (full game)

The Zotac GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB

Finally, the last of the trio, the Zotac GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB is also a reference card at the standard clock speeds. Of course, since all three cards came so early, we aren't expecting unique designs and other custom features. At least Zotac also bundled in a fair amount of cables and accessories, along with a new PC game based on the hit television series, Lost.

Our orange Zotac box held the following items:

• DVI-to-VGA adapter
• 2 x 6-pin Molex power adapter
• 7-pin mini-DIN to Component dongle
• S/PDIF cable
• DVI-to-HDMI adapter
• Driver CD
• Quick installation guide
• User manual
• Lost: the Video Game (full version)

Test Setup

The NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX was tested with the following system configuration:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66GHz)
• Intel D975XBX 'Bad Axe' motherboard
• 2 x 1GB DDR2-800 Kingston HyperX memory in dual channel mode
• Seagate 7200.7 80GB SATA hard drive
• Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 and DirectX 9.0c

The NVIDIA drivers used for the GeForce 9800 GTX is ForceWare 174.74 while the older GeForce 8 cards were on ForceWare 169.21. The dual GPU ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 was on Catalyst 8.3 and the single core Radeon HD 3870 was running Catalyst 8.2. Since we have three reference retail GeForce 9800 GTX in our hands presently that are clocked identically, we decided to show their benchmark figures only for their overclocking and temperature segment to give readers an idea of the outcome from a handful of similar samples. For the main performance test comparison, we chose only one of them to act as the reference since the results are identical for all three cards.

The following benchmarks were tested using their built-in time demo or benchmarking tools:

• Futuremark 3DMark06 (ver 110)
• Company of Heroes (ver 1.3)
• F.E.A.R (ver 1.0)
• World in Conflict (ver 1.05)
• Supreme Commander (patched to 3255)
• Crysis (ver 1.1)
• Unreal Tournament 3 (ver 1.1)

Results - 3DMark06 Pro (ver 110)

From NVIDIA's pre-briefing, we had a rough idea of how the GeForce 9800 GTX would perform compared to its predecessor and our 3DMark06 results seemed to confirm that. The newcomer was only slightly faster than the GeForce 8800 GTX and was quite comprehensively beaten by the GeForce 8800 Ultra when anti-aliasing was enabled. Despite the high memory clock on the GeForce 9800 GTX, it was not that much faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS, which is reasonable considering what really lies under the GTX. As seen in 3DMark06, at high resolutions with anti-aliasing, the old GeForce 8800 Ultra fares much better with more video memory and a larger memory bandwidth. In short, unlike the GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra which debuted as the top card from NVIDIA, the GeForce 9800 GTX does not have it easy.

Results - Company of Heroes & F.E.A.R

Things looked more promising in Company of Heroes, with the GeForce 9800 GTX edging the GeForce 8800 Ultra. Both dual GPU cards from ATI and NVIDIA were able to beat the GeForce 9800 GTX comfortably. However, the win was short-lived, as the Ultra emerged faster again in F.E.A.R, though the GeForce 9800 GTX did improve on the scores of the GeForce 8800 GTX. Nevertheless, the narrow difference was a little disappointing.

Results - Supreme Commander & World in Conflict

We have been getting some anomalous results in Supreme Commander and World in Conflict for the new cards using ForceWare 174, especially the dual-GPU based cards and these issues meant that some cards are not represented here for the time being. In Supreme Commander, the GeForce 9800 GTX was marginally ahead of the GeForce 8800 GTX and there were a few occasions when it was level with the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. As for World in Conflict, most of the scores were too close to be significant and even ignoring the quirky scores returned by the dual GPU cards, the GeForce 9800 GTX did not really stand out either.

Results - Unreal Tournament 3 & Crysis

In Unreal Tournament 3, the GeForce 9800 GTX managed to hold off the older GeForce 8 cards until the higher resolutions, where the Ultra came from behind to take the lead. As usual, the GeForce 9800 GX2 and Radeon HD 3870 X2 were the top cards here and the GeForce 9800 GTX was left to compete with the GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS. Similarly in Crysis, the larger memory buffer and bandwidth on the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra helped them through the higher resolutions. This meant that the GeForce 9800 GTX had scores that were just fractionally higher than the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB.

Temperature

From the three retail GeForce 9800 GTX tested, the temperatures were quite similar, with the cores just under 70 degrees Celsius. Given the high clock speeds, we were rather surprised at these temperatures. While the performance of the GeForce 9800 GTX so far may not be too impressive, at least one could give a thumbs up for the decent temperatures for the kind of clock speeds the card runs.

Power Consumption

A fair and important concern with such high-end graphics cards is the power consumption. With its estimated 160W TDP, the GeForce 9800 GTX is among one of the more power hungry cards now, more so if consumers are planning SLI setups. In fact, as we found out in our testing, the GeForce 9800 GTX has higher idle and peak numbers than both the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra. However, going by what we recorded previously for the GeForce 8800 GTS, the new card is only slightly higher. Hence, for the performance boost from the GTS, the higher power is somewhat reasonable.

Overclocking

All three cards showed a similar allowance when it came to overclocking. For instance, 800MHz core clock seemed to be the upper limit for the cards we tested and while the memory clock could go up to rather alarming levels (e.g. 2560MHz DDR on the Leadtek), there wasn't much of an improvement in benchmark scores. In 3DMark06, the results improved by roughly 6% after our overclocking, hence as with most overclocking endeavors, the returns may not be as rosy as the clock speeds may indicate.

Conclusion

On learning the specifications for the GeForce 9800 GTX, our first impression was that this seems to be a glorified GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. With a similar core and stream processor count, this is probably something that comes to mind almost immediately. Unfortunately for the GeForce 9800 GTX, the benchmark results seem to bear that out, with the new card scoring only marginally better than the GeForce 8800 GTX. Despite much higher clock speeds than the GeForce 8800 GTS, the improvements are not as great as we have hoped and given that it inherits the 'GTX' name, we had expected more.

What colors our views on the GeForce 9800 GTX is that it debuts into a very different graphics landscape from its predecessor. Instead of being the anointed flagship, the newcomer has to play second fiddle to the recently launched GeForce 9800 GX2. Of course when it comes to single GPU, the GeForce 9800 GTX should be second to none, but unfortunately in our benchmarks, the GeForce 8800 GTX and the Ultra more than often spoils the party, especially in certain games and settings. The more modest memory bandwidth on the GeForce 9800 GTX is the main culprit for this while the nagging feeling that this is an overclocked GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB never went away - just as several other industry people voiced out as well.

This impression is reinforced by its temperature and power consumption figures. In fact, the power consumption numbers are so close to be equal among the two cards. Temperatures too are mostly similar, with the cooler on the GeForce 9800 GTX doing better in our opinion, since it has to cool a higher clocked card. In the end, what truly distinguishes the GeForce 9800 GTX from its G92 cousins is in the additional GeForce 9 features that NVIDIA has included. And by that, we mean the Hybrid SLI, 3-way SLI and lesser features like HDMI audio integration and PureVideo HD enhancements. However, the important HybridPower feature is not exactly widespread now when it comes to support, hence it's too early to tell if it would be practical or yet another underused feature. From what we have seen of the GeForce 9 cards out at the moment, NVIDIA has played its hand for the series. With no architectural revamp, the GeForce 9 is a repackaged G92 GeForce 8 in disguise, with some additional features thrown in. Certainly, the GeForce 9800 GTX is the fastest new single-GPU product out in the market, but with its predecessors like the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra still lingering around and offering better performance, the highlights of the GeForce 9800 GTX is easily masked in the noise.

Fortunately, the other part of this strategy is the more palatable price points for these cards. The GeForce 9800 GTX is set to launch with a price between US$299 and US$349, making it very affordable compared to the initial price tag of the GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra. Of course, with the performance that we are seeing, NVIDIA probably has no choice but to be competitive, what with the faster Radeon HD 3870 X2 at US$449 (or less). This also brings us to another point on the competitiveness of the GeForce 9800 GTX against the Radeon HD 3870 X2 which the green team likes to pit against. ATI's dual-GPU solution can be very much faster in certain games and scenarios, but it is also at the mercy of ATI's driver department to optimize its CrossFire support. Where this slips, and it does happen on a situational basis, the GeForce 9800 GTX can offer better consistent performance since it's a single GPU graphics card. Aside from all of these comparisons, the biggest issue for the GeForce 9800 GTX is that it hardly offers much more than the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB edition and yet it costs up to US$50 more. In fact some of the overclocked GeForce 8800 GTS cards can match up with the GeForce 9800 GTX in performance and price. So as far as product technology and SKU options go, we squarely rate the newcomer at 3.5 stars.

For those of you willing to go ahead to spend more for the latest in technology, want the fastest single new single GPU graphics card out there and don't mind venturing into 3-way SLI, the GeForce 9800 GTX is a reasonable choice. Thus we've also reviewed three retail GeForce 9800 GTX cards whose performance are all rather similar thanks to being reference cards, but that's to be expected. All of them had reasonable bundle packaging and we also expect their prices to be around the similar range, hence our ratings for them are the same at 4 stars. Though we don't expect custom/special edition cards on this high-end range, if you have the patience, you can hold out for a while to see if any news on them surfaces before making any decisions.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.