Zotac GeForce 9800 GTX

[eidairaman1]

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce9.html

from the Mouth of themselves for minor specs

 

[newtekie1]

might aswell wait for the 9900 newtechie

I can't, I only have about 30 days left on the step-up.

 

[btarunr]

Yeah I wanted to know too, if the PCI-E base frequency affected clocks.

Either case, I'm disappointed in NV. This didn't tun out to be the "30% faster, 256 SP, GDDR5" I was hoping, it's just 4 % faster to the 8800 GTS 512M :shadedshu

 

[eidairaman1]

GDDR5 is not ready for release to market, look at GDDR3 and 4.

Yeah I wanted to know too, if the PCI-E base frequency affected clocks.

Either case, I'm disappointed in NV. This didn't tun out to be the "30% faster, 256 SP, GDDR5" I was hoping, it's just 4 % faster to the 8800 GTS 512M :shadedshu

 

[theonetruewill]

This looks about as good value as the HD 2900XT- and no, I was not a fan of that card... Disappointing- but it shows how bloody good the 8800GTX really is and was.

 

[btarunr]

GDDR5 is not ready for release to market, look at GDDR3 and 4.

I know, but about two months ago that's what was doing rounds, of the 9800 GTX being an 'absolute monstrosity'. Right.

 

[candle_86]

you speak of the GT200, but its 384sp with 1024mb and 512bit bus

 

[W1zzard]

i'm not even sure if nvidia will use gddr5 any time soon. afaik gddr5 is an ati invention like gddr4

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

I know, but about two months ago that's what was doing rounds, of the 9800 GTX being an 'absolute monstrosity'. Right.

the rumor mill, dont trust it.

 

[Gzero]

*Cough*
Price of 8800gtx

Alot cheaper than the new card ^^
Zotac from the same shop

 

[Wester547]

It's a good review in full, though I'd say the best value on the market period would be the 9600 GT, but the 9800 GTX performs well for the price nontheless.

Slightly OT, and I'm not sure if this matters to anyone, but those Quake 4 frame-rate results for the 512MB GeForce 8600 GTS seem WAY too stupefyingly low... it should be getting at least double that. Not sure if anything went askew during the testing or something, since the card does much better in Prey (which uses the DOOM 3 engine as well). Every review I've seen has the 512MB version scoring a little higher than the 256MB one, not losing performance. But, again, to return to the original topic of discussion, the 9800 GTX doesn't seem like a half-lamentable board, though I was hoping for nVidia to give us something even greater than the 8800 GTX (something that would surmount to more than a refresher chip), but I'm sure that'll happen soon enough.

 

[cdawall]

*Cough*
Price of 8800gtx

Alot cheaper than the new card ^^
Zotac from the same shop

30£ isn't exactly a huge amount of money

 

[Ragheed]

A belated thanks for the review.

Regarding the benchmarks, it's not just the Quake 4 numbers for 8600 GTS that seem out of whack. The 8800 GTS FPS dropped in both Quake 4 and UT3. I know you guys have changed your platform slightly, but it seems the only difference is a faster processor.

I have an EVGA 8800 GTS 512 I got for $300. I'm seriously considering step-up, but still have about 18 days left so I'm hoping the price drops a bit on their website (currently it's $350) before I have to act. You do have to factor in ~$7 shipping from them (if you waive the signature confirmation) and shipping the old card to them, so for me it'll add up to almost $65 for the upgrade. They clock their GTS at 670 GPU, so the memory is where the real difference will be with stock specs. But I'm sure the GTX will have plenty more overclocking headroom (my GTS struggles at around 740-750 unless I really crank the fan up).

Also keep in mind that you get the option to do tri-SLI in the future (who knows? If I can pick up a couple for cheap once Vista's woes are sorted out, Crysis on Very High becomes a possibility--I game on a 22" at 1680 x 1050). Not to mention Hybridpower once those chipsets come out (who said you can't be indulgent and environmentally conscious at the same time? )

And don't forget that the 9-series will soon be the primary focus of Nvidia's driver releases, so the performance gap between 8800 GTS and 9800 GTX may widen with newer games.

If I didn't have the Step-up option, I wouldn't pay $330 for a 9800GTX now that the 8800 GTS can be had for about $220 AR, but I'm sure those GTX prices will come down in a couple of weeks, at least on Newegg and such.

 

[tkpenalty]

Yeah I wanted to know too, if the PCI-E base frequency affected clocks.

Either case, I'm disappointed in NV. This didn't tun out to be the "30% faster, 256 SP, GDDR5" I was hoping, it's just 4 % faster to the 8800 GTS 512M :shadedshu

It IS a 8800GTS 512MB except with more power phases (which is pretty useless for such low power consumption; logical with something like a G80 core but wasted on a G92) and a longer PCB and a larger cooler as a result. The extra power connector is also not needed, but supplied :shadedshu, totally just to exploit the weak minded consumer (which seems to have grown in TPU, from like 10% to like 90% of TPU)


Why do people get tricked so easily? G92 is a G92, you can not add more stream processors and use memory that the core cannot understand how to use.