# NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 Exclusive Pics and Specs



## malware (Jan 3, 2008)

If you want a sneak peek at the GeForce 9800 GX2, [H]ard|OCP has exclusive pictures, specs and this time the source cited is trustworthy. The GeForce 9800 GX2 card unites two 65nm GeForce 8800 GPUs working in SLI configuration under one hood, I mean PCB. The card will feature 1GB Frame Buffer and 256 stream processors. The GeForce 9800 GX2 will launch in late February or early March as it now stands and will replace the 8800 Ultra (single GPU) card in NVIDIA's high-end product line up. The 9800 GX2 is said to be 30% faster than a 8800 Ultra. Now I give you the pictures:



 



*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## tvdang7 (Jan 3, 2008)

let the war begin! man ati needs something diff now.


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## SK-1 (Jan 4, 2008)

30% faster than an Ultra with 2 new GPU's? I would hope for 50% at least. Or am I being unrealistic?


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## a111087 (Jan 4, 2008)

SK-1 said:


> 30% faster than an Ultra with 2 new GPU's? I would hope for 50% at least. Or am I being unrealistic?



its a die shrink = 8800 oc'ed, like a dual 3870


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## DOM (Jan 4, 2008)

SK-1 said:


> 30% faster than an Ultra with 2 new GPU's? I would hope for 50% at least. Or am I being unrealistic?


Im thinking the same I bet there going to be like $900+


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## erocker (Jan 4, 2008)

The only thing missing from those pictures are the rays of sunshine, beaming down from heaven!


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## Nex- (Jan 4, 2008)

256 stream processors and only 30% faster than the almost 2 years old Ultra? i think i'll just wait to see wat the HD3870X2 is going to do with that beast (8800 Ultra). If the HD3870 X2 is over 30% faster than the 8800 Ultra, then it's not worth to wait two months more for the 9800 X2 if the performence is almost the samen but i doubt so. I think that the 9800 X2 will be at least 15% faster than the HD3870 X2 that come's in januarie.


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## erocker (Jan 4, 2008)

The 30% gain makes sense, since that's about what you get with a dual card Sli setup.  I like this card a lot, but it's all up to Nvidia to get some really good drivers going for it.  Remember, Nvidia tried this before with the 7950GX2 and failed with driver support.  This card is Nvidia's top-end bridge to their next archetecture that will compete with ATi's R700.


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## trog100 (Jan 4, 2008)

so in essence there is no new 9xxx wonder chip.. just a die shrink and copy of what ati are up to.. 

it seems yet again ati are leading and nvdia reacting.. its all down to drivers and power consumption i recon..

trog


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## a111087 (Jan 4, 2008)

trog100 said:


> so in essence there is no new 9xxx wonder chip.. just a die shrink and copy of what ati are up to..
> 
> it seems yet again ati are leading and nvdia reacting.. its all down to drivers and power consumption i recon..
> 
> trog



yep, 30% out of dual oced card is kinda weak


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## trog100 (Jan 4, 2008)

these will have to come out at prices similar or lower than the ultra did.. so if its just looked at as 30% from a new top end card its okay..

its only at double the price it aint okay.. the ati x2 will be cheapish so that will force nvidia prices down..

trog


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## strick94u (Jan 4, 2008)

Wonder if it will run 3 cards at once 6 graphic cores damn that should play crysis with no lag on eye candy setting


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## tkpenalty (Jan 4, 2008)

30% more... not really what i'd want for such a high price.

Lets see which dual GPU will be faster >=D


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## reverze (Jan 4, 2008)

Ermm that shouldn't really be a question if the Ultra already beats the 3870 in single card setups.. should it?


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## pt (Jan 4, 2008)

but if 2x3870 is more efficient then nvidia solution then someone will get pwned


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## erocker (Jan 4, 2008)

It's all going to come down to who can make two chips on one board work the best.  Nvidia has the advantage with more powerful GPU's, but ATi has had better luck getting two GPU's (and cards) to work together more efficiently and with better results than Sli.


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## OnBoard (Jan 4, 2008)

You say 30% more is weak, what about 8800 Ultra versus 8800 GTX, was that 30%  Isn't this basically the same as 8800GTS 512MB in SLI.


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## Rob! (Jan 4, 2008)

Anyone else find something wrong that the 9800 is just dual 8800s?


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 4, 2008)

Hold up, I thought 65nm cores were much cheaper and faster to make then the larger dies???

So with that can we not expect it to be cheaper then the previous cards???

Just saying...


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## EastCoasthandle (Jan 4, 2008)

Wow some of you are either gullible or easily fooled.  That's just 2 G92 renamed as part of the 9 series.  Which brings the question: How can a G92 be considered part of the 9 series? It should be part of the 8 series...


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## OnBoard (Jan 4, 2008)

EastCoasthandle said:


> Which brings the question: How can a G92 be considered part of the 9 series? It should be part of the 8 series...



Same way ATI can make HD 3800 series with a die shrink from HD 2900


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## EastCoasthandle (Jan 4, 2008)

OnBoard said:


> Same way ATI can make HD 3800 series with a die shrink from HD 2900



The example you provided is not on par to the subject at hand.  The 9800GTX2 is a dual G92s (with PCBs put together) nothing more. 
Gee, I wonder where that 30% increase will fall under, Doom3? Wait, look at the current G92 SLI scores!  We will see soon enough from this supposedly R680 killer, LOL!


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## Dia01 (Jan 4, 2008)

I personally think Nvidia is becoming ridiculous.  Its gonna cost ya an arm and a leg with probalbly a lack of functioning driver support again.:shadedshu


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## EastCoasthandle (Jan 4, 2008)

Didn't the 7950gtx2 reach end of line (EOL) in 3 months?


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## P.C.b!=P.C.P (Jan 4, 2008)

Wasn't the majority if the problem with the 7950 the bridge chip that Nv used. I think I remember reading that in allot of cases the 7950 had some serious bottleneck issues and is the reason the card failed?


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## trog100 (Jan 4, 2008)

AphexDreamer said:


> Hold up, I thought 65nm cores were much cheaper and faster to make then the larger dies???
> 
> So with that can we not expect it to be cheaper then the previous cards???
> 
> Just saying...



u can expect two for the price of one.. just like with cpus.. so if the dual gpu comes at the same price as the single gpu it will be okay.. assuming it works and dosnt need a power station to run it..

it replaces the ultra.. so the price has to be about the same.. to maintain its higher price thow it will have to outperform the ati x 2 by a decent amount.. 

trog


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## LonGun (Jan 4, 2008)

this card will burn the crap out of the laptop power  (if it ever available for laptop  )


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## Demos_sav (Jan 4, 2008)

I beleive the images are fake but that's just me. Where is the PCB? Think, Why wouldn't they want to show it to us. Also the dimensions don't look right to me and look at the place where the fan is supposed to be - the two sides don't match

EDIT: Plus I just noticed that the PCI Bracket (I don't know if I am naming it correctly) is different


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## imperialreign (Jan 4, 2008)

no, the PCB is there - nVidia has been on this kick recently of covering their cards completely with a cover - I guess it gives the cards a more aestheticly pleasing look.

one pick is looking down at the card from the slot side, the other is looking down from the retention side.


anyhow - personally, I don't really see nVidia pulling off a dual core PCB like ATI has been able to - they've run into a lot of different problems here and there with SLI, and I feel that there will be a lot of frustrated customers with this card.


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## LiveOrDie (Jan 4, 2008)

Will the 9800GTX still be faster than this card? what happend to 3times as fast as a 8800Ultra?


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## ShadowFold (Jan 4, 2008)

Wow what a waste of money. Why would you pay that much for a video card! My HD 3850 was 220$ with a 20$ rebate and I have a really slow cpu and I can max literally every game cept crysis. I just dont see the need for that much power.


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## LiveOrDie (Jan 4, 2008)

30% faster makes me think of 2 8800Ultra's in SLI 80nm, changed to one single card with 2 65nm GPUs for better cooling, they sould of called it a 8800 GX2


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## wolf (Jan 4, 2008)

ati made a really annoying move (in my opinion) calling the 38xx series what is is after being a simple shrink and revamp of the 2900 (2950 pro/xt anyone?), and i thought nvidia was above that, obviosly not, its a marketing ploy to make people think its a whole generation better, which its not...

8800GX2 would have been completely appropriate and called for, 9800gx2 sounds like 2x 9800GT, its misleading and its annoying.

dont get me wrong, i love nvidia, and ati to some lesser - middle child - sort of extent, but this time youve dissapointed me boys, just cos DAMMIT stooped that low, didnt mean you have to.

7800 to 7900 to 7950 was wise, not misleading, and appropriate, as was x1800-x1900-x1950.....why change a good thing?


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## ShadowFold (Jan 4, 2008)

Well imo ati did have a reason to change the name. The HD 3800's have alot more fetures, run cooler, smaller die, cheaper, etc.


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## wolf (Jan 4, 2008)

what im getting at is the performance is misleading, usually a generational jump means 2x performance boost or therabouts, sometimes more sometimes less.


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## ShadowFold (Jan 4, 2008)

Things are changing I guess. How can we go any faster than we have now? Might as well improve on old tech make it a little faster, shrink the dies, make it not use as much power add new features.


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## wolf (Jan 4, 2008)

oh of course no disagreement there at all, but personally i think it shouldhave gone like this.

hd3850  shouldhave been    hd 2950Pro
hd3870  shouldhave been    hd 2950XT

they couldhave still easily gotten their point across about it being more efficient, less hot etc...

i just think it misleads those out there who arent that tech savvy, anyway thats my 2 cents worth.

wolf


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## ShadowFold (Jan 4, 2008)

I see what your saying but tbh I would rather have a 3850 over a 2900XT any day just because it runs cooler, isnt as loud(my friend has a 2900PRO and its kinda loud) and has awsome HD suport(I hooked my computer up to my HDTV[HDMI to HDMI] and it was amazing) even tho the 2900 is faster.


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## wolf (Jan 4, 2008)

i get what you mean, in your position id rather the 3850 too, but id rather they had called it a 2950 is all. i was soo close to getting a 3870, but then i got xmas money and opted for the slightly more powerfull 8800GT, i guess in the end the name really means nothing, just how much you paid versus what you get out of it. and it seems the 38xx series is doing very well indeed


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## LiveOrDie (Jan 4, 2008)

ill still wait for the 9800GTX, i think future highend products will look same thing like this
9800Ultra   2x as faster as a 8800Ultra with more memory
9800GTX    1.5X faster as a 8800Ultra with more memory
9800GX2    30% Faster than a 8800Ultra with more memory
9800GTS    around the same speed as a 8800Ultra or GTX
9800GT      around the same speed as a 8800GTS G92
all we can do is hope


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## btarunr (Jan 4, 2008)

Two 8800 GT units definitely outperform a 8800 Ultra and are lower in price than one 8800 Ultra unit (2x ~$250 = ~$500 < ~$600) so for being 30% faster than an ultra, it better be 20% cheaper than it or it becomes pointless buying one, You'd rather buy two 8800 GT units. There's no big deal losing the magical Shader 10.*1* but for the 256 shaders the, the mere 30% performance increment over 8800 Ultra disappoints me, maybe the ROP count does the mess here.


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## LiveOrDie (Jan 4, 2008)

No two 8800GTs do not outperform a 8800 Ultra, i know i had 2 GTs and i had a Ultra, the GTs mite get a better beachmark but the Ultra is still a sigle card and no many games uses SLI and the ones that do don't work has they should,at the end of the day the 8800Ultra, still has more memory and still is clocked alot higher and handles high res game alot better 8800GT VS 8800Ultra


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## Xolair (Jan 4, 2008)

Hmm, 30% difference seems a bit low to me, those specs should give it more performance than this. Heh, if you'd put two of these into SLI...


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## btarunr (Jan 4, 2008)

Thanks, Live_or_die. A lot of similar benches prove yours correct. I wouldn't pay more than $600 for the 9800 GX2 whenever it comes.


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## Xaser04 (Jan 4, 2008)

Live OR Die said:


> No two 8800GTs do not outperform a 8800 Ultra, i know i had 2 GTs and i had a Ultra, the GTs mite get a better beachmark but the Ultra is still a sigle card and no many games uses SLI and the ones that do don't work has they should,at the end of the day the 8800Ultra, still has more memory and still is clocked alot higher and handles high res game alot better 8800GT VS 8800Ultra



In games that support SLI twin 8800GT's will outperform a single 8800Ultra. 

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/13772/4

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/13772/5

Unforntunately there is no Ultra in the graphs but considering its not that much quicker than a GTX (which is shown) it would still be slower than the GT SLI setup. (appologies as the link has numerous card setups so you really have to take a good look at the graphs to see which card is which.) 

In the second link Timeshift shows a GT SLI Setup to be considerably faster than the GTX (so again a Ultra would slot somewhere in the middle) however in Bioshock the gap would be small to non - existant.


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## HaZe303 (Jan 4, 2008)

I knew it, 2 g80 gpu´s. This sux.. I want a true g9 gfx card, not a rehash of old stuff!? 

I hate that they use the name 9800gx2, its totally misleading. It should be called 8800gx2 if the world would be fair and just. But im sad to break it to all you good ppl, the world is not.


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## DOM (Jan 4, 2008)

malware you got it wrong on the PCB its the same as the 7950GTX2 :shadedshu

GeForce 9800 GX2

1. 1GB Frame Buffer


2. Two PCBs


3. Two 65nm GPUs Total


4. 256 Stream Processors Total


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## btarunr (Jan 4, 2008)

Two PCB's? Come on, not again.....imagine those heat issues. A single slot cooler itself wasn't very efficient in cooling a G92 in 8800 GT. Imagine this hot sandwich. :shadedshu

To avoid that, I'd still compliment the ATI R680 for its design. ATI has always shown superiority in design...if nothing else.


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## Xaser04 (Jan 4, 2008)

btarunr said:


> Two PCB's? Come on, not again.....imagine those heat issues. A single slot cooler itself wasn't very efficient in cooling a G92 in 8800 GT. Imagine this hot sandwich. :shadedshu
> 
> To avoid that, I'd still compliment the ATI R680 for its design. ATI has always shown superiority in design...if nothing else.



I have an issue with the HD3890 / R680 or whatever its called in the way that the cooler is laid out. From the shots shown so far it would appear that all the heat exhausted from the first chip is directly pushed onto the second chip (as they are in line). This *could* cause some instability issues if the heat isn't exhausted quickly enough from the second chip.


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## D.F. (Jan 4, 2008)

Any news on the price? I'm guessing it will not be more expensive than the 8800 ultra, maybe the same.


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## jydie (Jan 4, 2008)

Wow, what a BEAST!  It will be to expensive for me to ever consider... besides, I am sure my power supply would fail within a few days if I tried to use this video card in my system.  

I love reading about the high end cards and seeing what all they can do... but I only consider video cards at the $150 or less.  I am hoping the 8800GT or HD3850 will drop to this range soon.


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## Monkeywoman (Jan 4, 2008)

R680 Ftw!!!!!


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## zOaib (Jan 4, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> Wow what a waste of money. Why would you pay that much for a video card! My HD 3850 was 220$ with a 20$ rebate and I have a really slow cpu and I can max literally every game cept crysis. I just dont see the need for that much power.



this card is for enthusiasts ( crazy for the best ) and not for  mainstream ( intelligent money spending ppl ) .


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## MilkyWay (Jan 4, 2008)

im done with high expectations

i dont want a half baked tech that was thought of 15 years ago by 3dfx to keep a dying company going

i dont want them to just take last years tech decide that they can save money time and dupe people into buying it

if this is thier true next gen of cards a whole different jump like from 6000 series to 7000 series then i dont think it is enuf to just improve last year tech give it more amount of shaders and higher clock and presto new card

its like they said oh we cant be botherd making new cards this time

but if this is a step to the next level of tech then its just basicaly what ati done


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## btarunr (Jan 4, 2008)

Just like memory vendors sell matched dual-channel memory kits, board-vendors should sell matching video-cards customised to the Crossfire / SLI setup for a price less than that of two cards bought seperately. That would be a good idea. Remember ATI sold an "Uber Edition" matched Crossfire kit of two Radeon X1950 cards in a trendy beifcase? Wasn't that a sell-out?


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## ShadowFold (Jan 4, 2008)

zOaib said:


> this card is for enthusiasts ( crazy for the best ) and not for  mainstream ( intelligent money spending ppl ) .



Im a mainstream gamer and love it


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## craigwhiteside (Jan 4, 2008)

btarunr said:


> Just like memory vendors sell matched dual-channel memory kits, board-vendors should sell matching video-cards customised to the Crossfire / SLI setup for a price less than that of two cards bought seperately. That would be a good idea. Remember ATI sold an "Uber Edition" matched Crossfire kit of two Radeon X1950 cards in a trendy beifcase? Wasn't that a sell-out?



what an awesome idea, btarunr , that would make a lot of us happy, more performance and cheaper too


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## LiveOrDie (Jan 4, 2008)

Xaser04 said:


> In games that support SLI twin 8800GT's will outperform a single 8800Ultra.
> 
> http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/13772/4
> 
> ...


Yes thats what i said 2 8800GT will out outperform a 8800Ultra at low res but goin up in res the ultra still wins with the extra memory and fast clock speed, the 8800GT is made for low-med res gaming or high res gaming in DX9, but when it comes to the 8800GT and DX10 it can't handle the stran, and thats why the 8800GT is the cheapest 8800 out and the Ultra still at the top for now


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## hugz (Jan 4, 2008)

I wish it was a single GPU vid.card with 256sp 1gb/512bit, now I'm not that interested =/

My GTX gives me 29fp in Crysis, 9800GX2 will bring only 10fps more, buahhhh


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## HaZe303 (Jan 4, 2008)

hugz said:


> I wish it was a single GPU vid.card with 256sp 1gb/512bit, now I'm not that interested =/
> 
> My GTX gives me 29fp in Crysis, 9800GX2 will bring only 10fps more, buahhhh



Yeap.. Exactly what I was thinking. Im really dissapointed atm, I was looking forward to get a new gfx card in the near future. But as it seems now, my 8800GTX will do fine. I wont spend that much money for the low increase in performance I will get.

Edit: It feels like both Ati/Nvidia are abandoning the highend market?? I mean (old) g92 gpu´s as generation 9??? C´mon this is outrages, even for nvidia. My/Our only hope is now that ATI will come back to its glory days and give us something worth waiting for with R7 or R800? Im beginning to tire of Nv and their lack of respect for their paying customers. No im not joking.


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## zCexVe (Jan 4, 2008)

I feel hot and smell driver errors .Two will heat a lot for that cooler.And SLi is age old from 3DFX ,will it keep to this?


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 5, 2008)

ONLY a 30% Increase from the 8800 Ultra, Man it seems like Nvidia is having manufacturing troubles now.


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 5, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> Wow what a waste of money. Why would you pay that much for a video card! My HD 3850 was 220$ with a 20$ rebate and I have a really slow cpu and I can max literally every game cept crysis. I just dont see the need for that much power.



You call your System Slow, Try My specs, If i had the 1950 Pro around i could say something, but with the 3850 in tow from Sapphire and Powercolor, im not sure if i should go with one or build a totally new system. Hopefully sapphire will put a PCI Express powerline on the board instead of a twin molex gimmick.


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## Krysonomous (Jan 15, 2008)

*Too pricey*

The price of the graphics cards are really not practical.  Way, too expensive to tell you the truth. They should lower the prices to the level that would be competitive with PS3s, WIIs and XBoxes.


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## a_ump (Jan 16, 2008)

*dissapointed, but unknown*

it says 30% better, but the GTS G92 was supposed to b better than the GTX and it is in some but mostly its slower. all this prediction and speculation is too annoying, as for the HD3870x2 (or w/e its called) y do people say i can't wait to see its benchmarks, all its supposed to b is 2 HD 3870's slapped together on one PCB, so crossfire on one PCB is how i c it. so i c it doin as good as the HD 3870 crossfire.and i thk it was said b4, the Ultra is almost 1 yr old and this 9800GX2 that's supposed to have "2 GPU's" and only 30% better. new tech and more gpu's come one at least like 50 or 60% better. and if it is only 30% better then that's goin to b about as good as GT's in SLI or GTS G92's in SLI, big dissapointment for me for next gen imo.good price for performance i guess, but i wish that this wasn't being said as the next flagship:-(


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jan 16, 2008)

SLI = Slow Lame Implementation


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## a_ump (Jan 16, 2008)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> SLI = Slow Lame Implementation



yea its inferior to cf, and even though cf does a better job of improving fps over their own cards single performance, nvidia's cards r good enough by themselves that SLI's poorer(dont' thk that's a word)job of multi-gpu implementation doesn't really matter,  but i certainly don't thinks its a bad idea or Slow Lame Implementation.though i would defiently rather have a single card solution, less heat, less pwr consumption(usually), but if there is no better card, which there isn't, and u got the money, then SLI is ur option.


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## Krysonomous (Jan 29, 2008)

I am talking in general ofcourse.  Relatively the prices are right but generally and in a practical sense it does not make sense. PS3 is also powered by NVidia.  You could use the money to buy new games rather than new graphics cards.  Imagine how much difference could there be between DX10 And DX10.1?  By the way, the new ATI 38750 X2 also came out with dual gpu with 1Terabyte and selling at $449. It is competitive in price to Nvidia but still too expensive for a graphics card.  I mean these should cost a lot lower than the computer itself.


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 29, 2008)

Krysonomous said:


> I am talking in general ofcourse.  Relatively the prices are right but generally and in a practical sense it does not make sense. PS3 is also powered by NVidia.  You could use the money to buy new games rather than new graphics cards.  Imagine how much difference could there be between DX10 And DX10.1?  By the way, the new ATI 38750 X2 also came out with dual gpu with 1Terabyte and selling at $449. It is competitive in price to Nvidia but still too expensive for a graphics card.  I mean these should cost a lot lower than the computer itself.



From a Starting Price Point is better than the GTX, Ultra is just overpriced for what you get.


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## KAMEHb (Sep 3, 2008)

Чё про видяхи разгоняете? Лохи тупые! Пидорасы блядь ебаные! Сжечь всех вас нахуй!


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## btarunr (Sep 3, 2008)

Use English.


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