NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GX2 gets official courtesy of Albatron

Okay, so it's not like we were oblivious to the fact that NVIDIA's 8800-smashing GeForce 9800 GX2 was just around the bend, but we're getting that much closer to seeing it on store shelves judging by a finished product shown off at CeBIT. The Albatron card you see pictured above is most certainly proof that the mythical GPU is indeed a reality, and while no one in Germany will spill the beans on this thing's specifications, price or release date, feel free to check out a few more snapshots in the links below while clutching any spare change you can.

[Via PC Perspective]

[Mark F @ Mar 4th 2008 1:32PM]

Can't wait to buy one of these...wait...make that two over sli :)

[V3LOCIP3D3 @ Mar 4th 2008 1:34PM]

x2

[Ignatius @ Mar 4th 2008 1:44PM]

What, are you high? Tri SLI FTW.

[rv @ Mar 4th 2008 2:17PM]

Please.

I use a 64 gpu setup. Still, though, I can't play crysis on very high.

[Bob Delani @ Mar 4th 2008 2:46PM]

@Ignatius... My understanding is that the 9800 GX2 is similar to the 7800 GX2, so...

Tri-SLI is impossible with the 9800 GX2. The GX2 by itself is an SLI system with two chips on one board. You can run these in SLIx2 (Quad SLI) or SLIx3(HeptaSLI).

[Bob Delani @ Mar 4th 2008 2:49PM]

hex*

[How much is that fish? @ Mar 17th 2008 10:34PM]

I should be able to match or better one of these cards with a second GTX OC2 (now reduced)
so to really improve on that i'll need at least two of these? £? $? and a bigger PSU! $£$£$???

[boe @ Mar 4th 2008 1:33PM]

I heard a rumor that both AMD/ATI and nVidia are releasing their next gen GPU's early - let's hope!

[Maestro @ Mar 4th 2008 1:35PM]

I don't know much about cooling electronic components but I know the Dual Core CPU in my PC has a moderate size fan...the chipset on my motherboard has a fancy looking heatpipe...my ram has a heat spreader...
So why do the GPU's need these monstronsities to cool them?

[johnnychipface @ Mar 4th 2008 1:39PM]

Would you rather they use the same kind of fan as your cpu?

[DJZeratul @ Mar 4th 2008 1:42PM]

GPUs are multi-threaded processors that generate a lot more heat due to the different kinds of data that GPUs perform processes on. GPUs like the 9800 GX2 has two 65nm process GPUs, with 256 total Stream Processors (128 per PCB). You can think of a stream processor as its own threaded pipeline. So even though the GPU only runs at 600 MHz core and 1500MHz Shader clock speeds, the sheer amount of stream processors causes it to generate a lot more heat than a traditional CPU. A GPU can handle extreme heat compared to a CPU as well. Say for example the COre 2 Quad, with 4 CPU Threads, has a maximum die temp of ~71.5C before throttling (according to intel)... The G92 series chips can handle up to 85-90C without throttling (although at these extreme temperatures, you will start to see video artifacts)

[Hung @ Mar 4th 2008 5:13PM]

DJZeratul, why would you even take the time to explain the actual reason?

@ Maestro

Why do smart cars need engines the size of buckets, and dump trucks needs engines the size of smart cars?

[Organic_Shadow @ Mar 4th 2008 1:40PM]

Hmmm, 9800gt with my birthday upgrade in April? Plz? With waffle fries?

[will @ Mar 4th 2008 1:41PM]

doubles as a car amp

[Rene @ Mar 4th 2008 1:41PM]

I can't wait... looks like I'm finally going to upgrade to a pci-express board =-)

[Organic_Shadow @ Mar 4th 2008 3:29PM]

Dude, I thought I was the only AGP person still in existence...

[Matt @ Mar 4th 2008 1:46PM]

I guess I was right after all in purchasing a PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW after all....

Overkill my ass...

:)

[pyro @ Mar 4th 2008 3:36PM]

no, you were still wrong. Your computer won't use half that.

[crys @ Mar 4th 2008 1:46PM]

holy mother of pearl in a side car going 80 that card is BIG!! What the hell is the 10800 gonna look like?

maybe they'll use and external casing like some of the Tesla units :(

[Chris @ Mar 4th 2008 1:47PM]

For anyone that needs even more proof, look in the back of this month's EGM (GTA on the cover) on the last page look for ibuypower Paladin 850XZ and it lists an 9800GX2 as the gpu.(it also lists the new core 2 quad Q9300 as a cpu option for even more pre-release fun)

[phanbouy @ Mar 4th 2008 2:02PM]

good lord! albatron is an albatross!

[Jon @ Mar 4th 2008 2:17PM]

Wheres the HDMI damn it ..I dont know it its upgrading my 8800gt

[carl @ Mar 4th 2008 2:43PM]

It's right there, in the pictures....

[Jon @ Mar 4th 2008 2:45PM]

lol .. Your right there is HDMI .. im a tool

[roflercopterer @ Mar 4th 2008 7:51PM]

Yes you are!

[AlphaTeam @ Mar 4th 2008 2:29PM]

Stop releasing these high end parts are start giving some low profile cards for my damn media center pc.

[MikeG @ Mar 4th 2008 2:47PM]

That only works propper in SLI games though right?

[wildtang3nt @ Mar 4th 2008 4:02PM]

My 7950GX2 degraded to single-GPU for games that didn't support SLI, I assume this one will too.

[MW @ Mar 4th 2008 3:03PM]

Mother of god. I want to game, I want to play new games, what I don't want is a fucking server case sitting next to my desk.

[James Cameron @ Mar 4th 2008 3:05PM]

If you already have a 8800GTX or an Ultra, don't even bother wasting your money on this. You better off waiting for a couple more months then they'll announce a card that will double the 8800 series.

[Abuzar @ Mar 4th 2008 3:15PM]

When will they release a PROPER update? Geez, this is a 8800GX2 not a 9800GX2. There isn't that big jump we had when upgrading from 7 to 8 series. These are repackaged 8800 G92 series cards with onboard SLI.

You don't see ATI calling the 3870X2 a 4870X2 do you?

/rant

[V3LOCIP3D3 @ Mar 4th 2008 4:55PM]

they definitely dumbed it down from the hype. each board is actually worse than an 8800 Ultra in all the specs . . so it's basically like they were lazy this season and slapped two stock 8800 GTXs together. though I'm stoked that they included an HDMI jack along with two DVIs . . but there's certainly no improvement that everyone was talking about.

[Michael @ Mar 4th 2008 4:11PM]

Sweet. I've always used an X600 version of nVidia's cards (6600gt, 7600gt OC).

When this one comes out, I'll definitely compare it to the new 9600GT that's already been released, but I doubt the high price premium over the 9600gt will be worthwhile for me. I don't game enough to pay $500 for a GPU, but I would like to play games like HL2 in higher resolutions than 1280x1024 on my 20" WS monitor.

[OneLove @ Mar 4th 2008 4:16PM]

manufacturers need to start rethinking motherboard design (again) to accommodate all those large heat sinks, dual slot eating cards and other things. Either move the graphics slots away from the other pci slots (and give extra) or create an external pci standard so we can stack pci cards outside the case. There isn't going to be enough room anymore for all these monster devices that need city power to run.

[Paul6 @ Mar 4th 2008 6:13PM]

I can feel the power....

...can you imagine? jeez!
AMD needs to step up their game.

Obama ~08
soundclick.com/theAdvocate

[Pancho @ Mar 7th 2008 11:29PM]

I can't wait to buy the Gamer Paladin 850XZ(It's a desktop).

It's came out with a GeForce 9800GX2 1GB Video Card-SLI.
It seems kickass.
The Gamer Paladin 850XZ comes with the following and components and extra info(reasons for purchase, really):
NVIDIA 780i SLI Chipset Dual PCI Express Motherboard
Genuine Window Vista Home Premium
Extreme Performance Overclocking Proof Certified Liquid Cooling System
NZXT Lexa Gaming Case + 800W SLI-Certified Power Supply
Corsair 4GB DDR2-800Memory
500GB SATA II(

[Pancho @ Mar 7th 2008 11:31PM]

I can't wait to buy the Gamer Paladin 850XZ(It's a desktop).

It's is coming out with a GeForce 9800GX2 1GB Video Card-SLI.
It's amazing.
The Gamer Paladin 850XZ comes with the following and components and extra info(reasons for purchase, really):
NVIDIA 780i SLI Chipset Dual PCI Express Motherboard
Genuine Window Vista Home Premium
Extreme Performance Overclocking Proof Certified Liquid Cooling System
NZXT Lexa Gaming Case + 800W SLI-Certified Power Supply
Corsair 4GB DDR2-800Memory
500GB SATA II(

[Pancho @ Mar 7th 2008 11:33PM]

I can't wait to buy the Gamer Paladin 850XZ(It's a desktop).

It's came out with a GeForce 9800GX2 1GB Video Card-SLI.
It seems kickass.
The Gamer Paladin 850XZ comes with the following and components and extra info(reasons for purchase, really):
NVIDIA 780i SLI Chipset Dual PCI Express Motherboard
Genuine Window Vista Home Premium
Extreme Performance Overclocking Proof Certified Liquid Cooling System
NZXT Lexa Gaming Case + 800W SLI-Certified Power Supply
Corsair 4GB DDR2-800Memory
500GB SATA II(

[grey2vs @ Mar 29th 2008 10:11AM]

Whoaa! wait! that's an X2 which means 2 cards in one, so you put Tri-Sli and you got 6?! whooooot!? Where's Crysis!