Published in Reviews

MSI's overclocked 9800 GTX tested

by on09 April 2008

Index

 

Testbed:

Motherboard:
EVGA 680i SLI (Supplied by EVGA)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme edition (Supplied by Intel)

Memory:
OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18  (Supplied by OCZ)
        during testing CL5-5-5-15-CR2T 1066MHz at 2.2V

PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black (Supplied by OCZ)

Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Supplied by Seagate)

CPU-Cooler:
Freezer 7 Pro (Supplied by Artic Cooling)

Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM


Futuremarks

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The card scored 12562 in 3DMark06, and it’s the best single GPU card result so far. It beat Gainward’s 9800 GTX (that we reviewed yesterday) running at reference speeds by 181 marks or 1.5%. MSI N9800 GTX’s result is slightly better than the one scored by 8800 Ultra, but the card is slower than Radeon HD 3870 X2 by 7%. Still, gaming should paint the picture better and we should see some serious competition.


Overclocking

MSI N9800 GTX runs at stock 720MHz, but we managed to push it up to 800MHz. The card ran stable and it seems that some extra effort might yield even better overclocking results. What struck us as odd is that we didn’t manage to overclock the memory by more than 30MHz. That’s nowhere near this memory’s potential and we think that the culprit for this is old Bios, because we received one of the first cards.



Gaming

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MSI N9800 GTX takes Radeon HD 3870 X2 head on, and it does quite well. It’s only at highest resolutions that it loses by 3.5%. At resolutions lower than 1920x1440, HD 3870 X2 loses to N9800 GTX, which is a great result since HD 3870 X2 costs some €50 more.

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MSI did well in World in Conflict, but still loses to Radeon HD 3870 X2 by up to 8%. Reference 9800 GTX card is slower, so HD 3870 X2 beats it by up to 15%. It seems that similarity to 8800 GTS has taken its toll and the faster memory found on the non-overclocked 9800 GTX didn’t make a difference. MSI overclocked the core and it resulted in a score that’s up to 7% better than Gainward 9800 GTX’s.

Certain games need more than just a GPU overclock, and significantly benefit from memory speed and bandwidth increase.

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In Crysis, MSI N9800 GTX beats Gainward 9800 GTX, but only by a slight margin (by up to 3.6%). It seems like overclocking the core without additional memory bandwidth doesn’t play a major role in Crysis.

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The last two games crave memory bandwidth, so the overclocked MSI N9800 GTX’s core can’t handle the demanding graphics algorithms.

Conclusion

MSI is one of the first companies with an overclocked 9800 GTX card and our hat is off to them. However, core overclock is not accompanied by adequate memory support that was left at reference speeds. The core runs at 720MHz, Shader processors at 1750MHz and the memory at 1100MHz.

T2D512 N9800 GTX is a card that will most definitely please gamers. It outperforms 8800 GTS (G92), and you can upgrade it to a Tri-SLI setup, which means that no matter what frame-rate you’re aiming at – this card will let you achieve it. This card’s potential is in overclocking and we managed to push it up to 800MHz. Nvidia’s G92 GPU is great for multi-media, too, and the card supports HDMI with HDCP through an adapter.

Priced at €260 it’s a great deal, but bear in mind that it's just slightly faster than 8800GTS card. We recommend it to anyone who wants to play all the current games, and might want to upgrade their system with one or two additional cards in the future. Still, once again - the price makes it a great deal.


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Last modified on 09 April 2008
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