GeForce 9800GX2 / 8800Ultra Comparison - Is there REALLY Any Benefit?

[Jon]

*UPDATE*  Here are the first official preliminary testing results of the 9800GX2 against the 8800Ultra and 8800GTX:

http://www.hardware-aktuell.com/viewtest.php?article=42&seite=3




========================================================================

So here we have it, the complete detailed specs of the much anticipated GeForce 9800GX2 just hit Expreview.com this morning:

http://en.expreview.com/?p=261


From Fudzilla:
If these numbers are indeed correct, then this card might not be as fast as expected. The GPUs will be clocked at 600MHz, that's 50MHz slower than the 8800 GTS, or the same as the 8800 GT. The Shaders will apparently be clocked at 1,500MHz, again slower than the 8800 GTS which has its Shaders clocked to 1,625MHz.

The memory clock is somewhat higher at 1GHz or 2GHz effectivley for the GDDR3 chips, but this is a mere 60MHz faster than a stock clocked 8800 GTS and is unlikely to make a huge difference.

Not exactly spectacular numbers, but the cards are expected to run quite hot as it is, especially with the two GPU's facing each other, so the lower clock speeds might have been a safety precaution on Nvidia's behalf to make sure they don't end up with a lot of returns.


Here are the specs in comparison to my overclocked eVGA 8800Ultra:

9800GX2


8800Ultra




Specification:                        9800GX2                                                8800Ultra
Stream Processors:             256 (128 per GPU)                           128
Core Clock (MHz:)               600MHz                                         612MHz
Shader Clock (MHz:)           1500MHz                                        1500MHz
Memory Clock (MHz:)          1000MHz                                        1080MHz
Memory Amount:                1GB (512MB per GPU)                       768MB
Memory Interface:              512-bit (256-bit per GPU)                 384-bit
Memory Bandwidth:            128GB/sec                                      108GB/sec
Texture fill rate:                 76.8 GTexels/sec                             44.4 GTexels/sec

From what I've heard and researched, I can hope to expect a 30% performance increase going to the 9800GX2.  Wow, this means going from 18fps to a whopping 24fps (sarcasm) in GPU intensive Crysis environments.  Lmao!

[aznstriker92]

well man, it depends. The 9800GX2 is all about scaling. If the game scales well, you'll get more than 30% increase than the ultra.

[Majikka]

9800GX2 is just another product to keep some customer happy until 9800gtx is out.

[aznstriker92]

And the 9800GTX is another product to keep customers happy too. Its just another 8800GTS.

[rakuza]

I have a feeling the 9800GX2 is going to be the nvidia equvelent to the r600/2900xt of ati..... its hots and slow need i say more, and the owners of the it shop i work at are suggesting other solutions than a 9800GX2 like a ultra or two 8800gts(512)

[Jon]

9800GX2 is just another product to keep some customer happy until 9800gtx is out.

How could you say this?  The 9800GTX is inferior to the 9800GX2, even the 8800Ultra.  Proof:

My 8800Ultra:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/3wkes/

9800GTX:


In theory, the 9800GX2 is supposed to surpass the performance of the 8800Ultra.  Therefore, the 9800GTX will serve as a subsidiary to the 9800GX2.  Notice the 8 absent raster operators that have been exchanged for higher shader frequencies - this decision by Nvidia amounts to less complexity on the chip, and thus those higher shading speeds are attainable.  As you can clearly see, Nvidia is hardly making an effort to innovate and redesign what they achieved on the G80 architecture by going to G92 - it can now be confirmed that it is, after all, merely a die shrink and nothing else.  Nvidia is going to maintain the product line that they have created.  From highest to lowest:

1|    GX2 Series              (dual-chip / enthusiast class)          7950GX2  >  9800GX2  >  "GT200"
2|    Ultra Series             (enthusiast class)                          6800 Ultra  >  *7900GTX* >  8800Ultra  >  "GT200"
3|    GTX Series              (high performance class)                 7800GTX  >  7900GTX ^  >  8800GTX  >  9800GTX  >  "GT200"
4|    GTS 800 Series        (high performance class)                 8800GTS G92  >  9800GTS  >
5|    GT Series                (performance class)                       7800GT  >  7900GT  >  8800GT  >  9800GT  >
6|    GS 800 Series          (performance class)                        7800GS  >  7900GS  >  8800GS  >
7|    GTS 600 Series        (midrange class)                             7600GTS  >  8600GTS  >  9600GTS  >
8|    GT 600 Series          (midrange class)                             7600GT  >  8600GT  >  *9600GT*
9|    GT 500 Series          (consumer class)                            7500GT  >  8500GT  >
10|  GS 400 Series          (OEM class)                                    7400GT  >  8400GT  >  9400GT

[fudo]

I agree with AuDioFreaK39 as 8800Ultra is still a great card but GX2 will probably enable some higher settings in some games but only if the game scales good with SLI. If not GX2 will end up slower than Ultra and in some games this will happen.

[aznstriker92]

I have a feeling the 9800GX2 is going to be the nvidia equvelent to the r600/2900xt of ati..... its hots and slow need i say more, and the owners of the it shop i work at are suggesting other solutions than a 9800GX2 like a ultra or two 8800gts(512)

Well if it was than I don't think they will release it do you?

[Jon]

I have a feeling the 9800GX2 is going to be the nvidia equvelent to the r600/2900xt of ati..... its hots and slow need i say more, and the owners of the it shop i work at are suggesting other solutions than a 9800GX2 like a ultra or two 8800gts(512)

Well if it was than I don't think they will release it do you?

They are most definitely releasing it because it's been delayed three times now.  The original scheduled date was the end of January, then it got moved to February 14th, and then March 11th, and now it's at March 18th.  They are considering the fact that the HD2900XT was a flop and they don't want to follow in the same footsteps as their "inferior" competitor.  The concept of the GX2 was reinforced to give the enthusiast class a new single-slot SLi solution to replace the 7950GX2.  I also have a reason to believe that they continued the GX2 model with the notion that they won't be making the same mistakes with lack of driver support as in the previous model (because as you can see, Nvidia has been consistently pushing out new drivers for the past few months now).  I believe that this will be the "fill-in" card that enthusiasts will need between the highly successful 8800Ultra / GTX and the upcoming "GT200" that is probably undergoing NUMEROUS improvements from the G92 architecture.

[aznstriker92]

I have a feeling the 9800GX2 is going to be the nvidia equvelent to the r600/2900xt of ati..... its hots and slow need i say more, and the owners of the it shop i work at are suggesting other solutions than a 9800GX2 like a ultra or two 8800gts(512)

Well if it was than I don't think they will release it do you?

They are most definitely releasing it because it's been delayed three times now.  The original scheduled date was the end of January, then it got moved to February 14th, and then March 11th, and now it's at March 18th.  They are considering the fact that the HD2900XT was a flop and they don't want to follow in the same footsteps as their "inferior" competitor.  The concept of the GX2 was reinforced to give the enthusiast class a new single-slot SLi solution to replace the 7950GX2.  I also have a reason to believe that they continued the GX2 model with the notion that they won't be making the same mistakes with lack of driver support as in the previous model (because as you can see, Nvidia has been consistently pushing out new drivers for the past few months now).  I believe that this will be the "fill-in" card that enthusiasts will need between the highly successful 8800Ultra / GTX and the upcoming "GT200" that is probably undergoing NUMEROUS improvements from the G92 architecture.

What I meant to say was Nvidia wouldn't release the card if the 9800GX2 was exactly like the R600. (slower than the 3870X2, or had problems like the 7950X2). But even though it was delayed several times, Im sure Nvidia has a good purpose for releasing it.

[Jon]

Update from Nvidia:

Nvidia has decided to launch the quad-SLI driver one week after the first single Geforce 9800 GX2 reviews. Although the card launches on the 18th, there won't be any drivers for quad-SLI until the 25th. Nvidia is working on the drivers and they need to wait for some of the top system integrators, such as Alienware and friends, to prepare quad-SLI systems. They will go live on the 25th and so will Nvidia.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...=6296&Itemid=1

Thanks for the heads up Fudo 

[fudo]

we should have some single and dual scores shortly eta this week

[Jon]

we should have some single and dual scores shortly eta this week

Are you guys going to post some official benchmarks on Monday night or Tuesday morning?  Monday would be great, but then again that's just me (and, oh..the majority  ).  Here is my favor to ask of you Fudo:  I need you to convince the world that the GX2 really is a top-notch and stellar performing card, as I believe it is based on the subtle hints you have posted on the internet.

[Nele]

we should have some single and dual scores shortly eta this week

Are you guys going to post some official benchmarks on Monday night or Tuesday morning?  Monday would be great, but then again that's just me (and, oh..the majority  ).  Here is my favor to ask of you Fudo:  I need you to convince the world that the GX2 really is a top-notch and stellar performing card, as I believe it is based on the subtle hints you have posted on the internet.

Personally, I think Nvidia is gonna need a miracle to convince the world that the GX2 is worth buying at the MSRP.

It just doesn't feel right...

[aznstriker92]

Apparently the 8800GT sli murders the 9800GX2.