9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra

First of One wrote:
> 9800GX2 basically consists of two 8800GTS 512MB cards in SLI. Clock speed
> may have even been reduced to fit in a tighter thermal envelope. As you
> know, SLI scaling can vary greatly from game to game, and from OS to OS.
> "30%", or "at least 30%" as reported by some other websites like HardOCP, is
> a meaningless number.
>
> Is that an optical S/PDIF port I see on the back?
>

That's all very nice, but it doesn't answer the question of what that
30% increase is referring to, a single 8800 or two 8800's!
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra 

Remember the 9800GX2 is marketed as a single card, so they mean 30% faster
than a single 8800 Ultra. Don't be silly. Remember the nVidia engineers are
not magicians, even with guys like Tarolli working in the company.
--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


"Mr.E Solved!" <Iamsingle.RemoveThis@askme.out> wrote in message
news:eqadnd1-3depSB_anZ2dnUVZ_gidnZ2d@comcast.com...
> First of One wrote:
>> 9800GX2 basically consists of two 8800GTS 512MB cards in SLI. Clock speed
>> may have even been reduced to fit in a tighter thermal envelope. As you
>> know, SLI scaling can vary greatly from game to game, and from OS to OS.
>> "30%", or "at least 30%" as reported by some other websites like HardOCP,
>> is a meaningless number.
>>
>> Is that an optical S/PDIF port I see on the back?
>>
>
> That's all very nice, but it doesn't answer the question of what that 30%
> increase is referring to, a single 8800 or two 8800's!
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra 

First of One wrote:
> Remember the 9800GX2 is marketed as a single card, so they mean 30% faster
> than a single 8800 Ultra.

Then the 9800GX2, which is two cards, is only a third faster than a
single card. (But maybe the same price)

All the headaches of SLI, none of the advantages! Sounds like a very
uncompelling purchase.
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra 

"Mr.E Solved!" <Iamsingle.TakeThisOut@askme.out> wrote in message
news:aLWdnXvzGd6TOx7anZ2dnUVZ_vPinZ2d@comcast.com...
> First of One wrote:
>> Remember the 9800GX2 is marketed as a single card, so they mean 30%
>> faster than a single 8800 Ultra.
>
> Then the 9800GX2, which is two cards, is only a third faster than a single
> card. (But maybe the same price)
>
> All the headaches of SLI, none of the advantages! Sounds like a very
> uncompelling purchase.

Being an owner of a 7950GX2, I'd have to agree with that sentiment. I'm
definitely going to be staying away from the 9800GX2 and any subsequent
versions.

RF.
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra 

The Tomshardware article gave the 9800GX2 a pricetag of $449. It's cheaper
than a 8800Ultra ($660 at Newegg), and cheaper than buying two 8800GTS 512MB
cards. If street pricing can be kept at $449 (and that's nVidia's flagship
offering), then it's reasonable.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


"Mr.E Solved!" <Iamsingle DeleteThis @askme.out> wrote in message
news:aLWdnXvzGd6TOx7anZ2dnUVZ_vPinZ2d@comcast.com...
> First of One wrote:
>> Remember the 9800GX2 is marketed as a single card, so they mean 30%
>> faster than a single 8800 Ultra.
>
> Then the 9800GX2, which is two cards, is only a third faster than a single
> card. (But maybe the same price)
>
> All the headaches of SLI, none of the advantages! Sounds like a very
> uncompelling purchase.
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra 

>> All the headaches of SLI, none of the advantages! Sounds like a very >>
>> uncompelling purchase.
>
> Being an owner of a 7950GX2, I'd have to agree with that sentiment. > I'm
> definitely going to be staying away from the 9800GX2 and any subsequent
> versions.

Me too. Screw nvidia. If they want to sell us a oldgen card and make
us wait for a nextgen card, then I'll wait and see what AMD/ATI has to
offer. Still hoping ATI will pull it together and release something beyond
the 3870.

rms
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra 

Yeah, AMD has a 3870 X2 coming up soon...

What nVidia has done is giving the older G80-based cards a die-shrink to 65
nm. If the 9800GX2 at the rumored $449 is the flagship, then the single-GPU
cards like the 9800GTX will be cheaper. This means we'll see better
performance at each price point.

Feel free to wait. I am just glad nVidia isn't going the way of Intel. Intel
is pulling away with its advanced 45 nm QX9650 CPUs: exciting, but quite
irrelevant at $1100 apiece.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


"rms" <rsquires.RemoveThis@REMOVEflashMOO.net> wrote in message
news:sHUgj.61461$eY.56452@newssvr13.news.prodigy.net...
>>> All the headaches of SLI, none of the advantages! Sounds like a very >>
>>> uncompelling purchase.
>>
>> Being an owner of a 7950GX2, I'd have to agree with that sentiment. >
>> I'm definitely going to be staying away from the 9800GX2 and any
>> subsequent versions.
>
> Me too. Screw nvidia. If they want to sell us a oldgen card and make
> us wait for a nextgen card, then I'll wait and see what AMD/ATI has to
> offer. Still hoping ATI will pull it together and release something
> beyond the 3870.
>
> rms
>
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra 

"First of One" <root DeleteThis @127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:aOidnUEhn5wtqxnanZ2dnUVZ_qygnZ2d@giganews.com...
> Yeah, AMD has a 3870 X2 coming up soon...
>
> What nVidia has done is giving the older G80-based cards a die-shrink to
> 65 nm. If the 9800GX2 at the rumored $449 is the flagship, then the
> single-GPU cards like the 9800GTX will be cheaper. This means we'll see
> better performance at each price point.
>
> Feel free to wait. I am just glad nVidia isn't going the way of Intel.
> Intel is pulling away with its advanced 45 nm QX9650 CPUs: exciting, but
> quite irrelevant at $1100 apiece.
>
> --
> "War is the continuation of politics by other means.
> It can therefore be said that politics is war without
> bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

The difference between the 3870X2 and the 9800GX2 is that the ATI offering
has both GPUs on one PCB. That'll make for a lot less heat, which
definitely is a limiting factor with the dual-PCB design of nVidia's
offerings. Which is why they had to underclock the cores on the 7950GX2 by
about 15% versus a normal 7900.

Crossfire also works differently than SLI, so you get benefits from it no
matter what the game, I think. At least, it's not as finicky.

I do agree that if the price is accurate, that bodes well for other
G92-based offerings.

RF.
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra 

"RF" <nobody.RemoveThis@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:T75hj.26965$Ft5.11734@newsfe15.lga...
> The difference between the 3870X2 and the 9800GX2 is that the ATI offering
> has both GPUs on one PCB. That'll make for a lot less heat, which
> definitely is a limiting factor with the dual-PCB design of nVidia's
> offerings. Which is why they had to underclock the cores on the 7950GX2
> by about 15% versus a normal 7900.

That was the case with the 7950GX2 - the 2nd fan breathes through a tiny PCB
cutout below the first fan.

On the 9800GX2 the cooling system is covered by the shroud, so it's hard to
see. There appears to be one double-width fan blowing across both PCBs, with
the hot air eventually exiting the top of each card. This should work very
well, possibly better than the 3870X2's (where we may see a temperature
difference between the two GPUs because one is farther from the fan).

> Crossfire also works differently than SLI, so you get benefits from it no
> matter what the game, I think. At least, it's not as finicky.

In my experience with two X1900XTs, Crossfire is even more finicky. The
biggest drawback to the 3870X2 is its lower performance. A single 8800GTX
(soon to be 9800GTX) is almost as fast in most games as 3870 Crossfire.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra 

On Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:38:42 -0500, "Mr.E Solved!"
<Iamsingle.RemoveThis@askme.out> wrote:

> From TH's:
>
>"We don't know yet if the GeForce 9800GX2, which is supposed to be 30%
>faster than the 8800 Ultra, will support Quad SLI configurations.
>
>The expected price: around $449 US. Expected announcement date: February
>14, 2008."
>
>Something isn't right: Is thee comment that the 9800GX2 is 30% faster
>than 8800 Ultra *SLI*, or a single 8800 Ultra? They do not mention SLI
>in the above comment and are unclear.
>
>If the 980GX2 is only 30% faster than a single 8800 Ultra, being two
>cards, that implies a single 9800 card is about 2/3rds as fast as a
>single 8000GTX. That can't be correct!


Move on. A placeholder to help maximize the sale of current
8800-series chips. Wait for the next-gen GPUs from nVidia. Expect
around mid-2008... and well worth waiting for if you are into
bleeding-edge graphics performance. Plus much expanded GPGPU
capability within the same silicon.... for those interested in such
capability for massive parallel number-crunching.

John Lewis
 >> Stay informed about: 9800GX2 30% faster than 8800 Ultra