NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Performance Preview April 01, 2008 Brandon Sandman Bell

Introduction

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These cards, as well as the GeForce 9600 GT and Radeon HD 3850, have revolutionized the amount of performance gamers can get from a mainstream graphics card. Thanks to their 256-bit memory interface and high clock speeds, these cards are capable of delivering over two times the performance of prior mainstream graphics cards, and under the right circumstances can give high-end GPUs costing over $400 a run for their money at significantly lower price tags.

With these mainstream GPUs delivering such incredible price/performance ratios, gamers and hardware enthusiasts with bigger budgets have been eagerly awaiting the debut of new high-end graphics cards: after all, if AMD and NVIDIA can rewrite the rules when it comes to mainstream performance, they should be able to do the same at the high-end of the market right?

Unfortunately this assumption has so far proven to be incorrect.

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GeForce GPU Comparison
	GeForce 9800 GX2	GeForce 9800 GTX	GeForce 8800 Ultra	GeForce 8800 GTX	GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB	GeForce 8800 GT	GeForce 9600 GT
# of Stream Processors	256	128	128	128	128	112	64
Core Clock Speed	600MHz	675MHz	612MHz	575MHz	650MHz	600MHz	650MHz
Shader Clock Speed	1500MHz	1688 MHz	1500MHz	1350MHz	1625MHz	1500MHz	1625MHz
Memory Clock Speed	1000MHz	1100MHz	1080MHz	900MHz	970MHz	900MHz	900MHz
Memory Size	2 x 512MB	512MB	768MB	768MB	512MB	512MB	512MB
Memory Interface	256-bit	256-bit	384-bit	384-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	128GB/sec	70.4GB/sec	103.7GB/sec	86.4GB/sec	62.1GB/sec	57.6GB/sec	57.6GB/sec
Texture Fill Rate	76.8 Gigatexels/sec	43.2 Gigatexels/sec	39.2 Gigatexels/sec	36.8 Gigatexels/sec	41.6 Gigatexels/sec	33.6 Gigatexels/sec	20.8 Gigatexels/sec
MSRP	$599-$649	$299-$349	EOL	EOL	$299-$349	$199-$249	$169-$189

Notes

As you can see, NVIDIA configures the GeForce 9800 GTX with 128 stream processors and a 256-bit memory interface, just like the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. The key difference is that the core clock speed on the 9800 GTX is 675MHz, 25MHz higher than the 8800 GTS 512MB. Like previous GeForce GPUs, the stream processors run 2.5 times faster than the core clock, resulting in a shader clock speed of 1688MHz, a figure which is 63MHz higher than the 8800 GTS 512MB.

To say we’re disappointed by these clocks is an understatement. There are GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB cards with higher clocks than the 9800 GTX! Fortunately the GPU’s memory is clocked at 1100MHz, an improvement of 130MHz over the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, but this is still a slimmer improvement than we expected.

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9800 GTX board analysis

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Despite its similarities with the 8800 GTS 512MB, the GeForce 9800 GTX brings with it yet another board design and cooler for NVIDIA.

The most obvious change is the addition of a second SLI connector. This extra SLI connector is required for running 3-Way SLI. The other big change you’ll notice is the additional 6-pin PCIe power connector located on the right edge of the board.

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The retail GeForce 9800 GTX cards

So far we’ve received retail GeForce 9800 GTX cards from BFG, EVGA, and XFX. All GeForce 9800 GTX manufacturers are being required to stick with NVIDIA’s reference 9800 GTX board design, cooling, and clock speeds, so there’s no differentiation between the various GeForce 9800 GTX cards from a hardware perspective.

Physically, the only difference separating the three manufacturers represented here today is the sticker used on the card’s cooling. EVGA uses a sticker that encircles the entire fan shroud. BFG and XFX use stickers that cover the front of the cooler. That’s really the only difference you’ll find between the cards themselves. This means that other traits such as price, game bundle, availability, and tech support/warranty will play the most important role.

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System Setup

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Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650

EVGA nForce 780i SLI motherboard

4GB OCZ DDR2-8500 Platinum

GeForce 8800 GTX
GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB
GeForce 8800 Ultra
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
ForceWare 169.44

GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB
ForceWare 174.74

300GB Western Digital Caviar SE

Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit w/Service Pack 1

Benchmarks

Company of Heroes 1.71
F.E.A.R. 1.08
Call of Duty 4 1.4
Half-Life 2 Episode Two
Crysis 1.21

F.E.A.R. Performance

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Company Of Heroes DX10

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HL2 Episode 2

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Call Of Duty 4

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Crysis DX10 2xAA

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Crysis High – Direct3D

Overclocking

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Conclusion

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The card performs basically on par with the GeForce 8800 GTX based on our testing. As a result, the 9800 GTX will replace the GeForce 8800 GTX in NVIDIA’s lineup, while the GeForce 9800 GX2 replaces the GeForce 8800 Ultra.

The way NVIDIA sees it, the GeForce 9800 GTX basically gives end users all the performance of an 8800 GTX card with all the benefits of G92; namely better power consumption thanks to the 9800’s smaller manufacturing process, and better video thanks to its new VP2 video processor. The GeForce 9800 GTX also supports HybridPower. It does all this while selling for around $350, which is considerably less than the GeForce 8800 GTX when it was launched back in November 2006. That’s their belief at least.

The problem though is that the graphics landscape has changed quite a bit in the past six months. As we stated before, the introduction of the GeForce 8800 GT and 8800 GTS 512MB were game changing products that really raised our expectations when it comes to performance. Because of its conservative clocks, the 9800 GTX adds so little over the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB that a factory OC’ed GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB card like the EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS SSC should be able to outrun it in games! Because of this, we’re really not sure why this GPU is needed at all. In our opinion, this card’s introduction is only going to confuse consumers more because it adds so little over the 8800s despite the new name.

If there’s one bright spot when it comes to this GPU, it may be overclocking. NVIDIA obviously bins the best G92 chips for use in GeForce 9800 GTX cards, and it definitely showed in our OC’ing results. We were able to hit speeds of 785MHz core/1229MHz memory! That’s much better scaling than we were expecting considering the rather conservative stock clocks.

In all honesty, the excellent scaling we saw just confuses us more. With NVIDIA locking all of their board partners down to the same (stock) clocks for today’s launch, you’d think it was because the GPU doesn’t OC very far, but apparently it does. If they’d clocked the GPU a little higher, or at least allowed the board manufacturers to OC, the 9800 GTX would fare a little better in comparison to the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. Instead our impression is that it’s just a mild performance upgrade over the GTS 512MB.

Fortunately we’re hearing that the first factory OC’ed boards should be announced in the coming weeks. Hopefully these boards will really push the envelope when it comes to clock speeds, because as it stands now, we think most of our readers should probably save a little money by picking up the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB and OC’ing it on your own.