Eyes on NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GX2
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Mar 5th 2008 8:16AM
posted Mar 5th 2008 8:16AM
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These cards get bigger and bigger. Next thing you know, the video card will be like a power supply. 1 big box that connects to the motherboard via one big cable.
So what you're really saying is, i need a new case?
true. I second. :)
To the best of my knowledge the PCB is the same size as the 8800 Ultra, it's just much thicker. So much so that I think I wouldn't be able to use any of my SATA ports on my Asus p35 mobo (p5k premium). You already lose 2 if you have an 8800 Ultra, I wonder how many get caught out by this.
Actually, that's not a bad idea.. then I could just plug it into my laptop as a secondary video boost and have awesome graphics, essentially just using my onboard processor, keyboard and screen and letting the external box do the rest. That way graphics become portable and more affordable.
@Bradstar
Someone already made something similar. It was basically a box with a PCIexpress slot that then plugged into your laptop via an expresscard I believe. The problem I think was that you could only use mid level cards because of the expresscard slot on laptops being a PCIe x1 bus so the bandwidth was pretty low. However maybe they will make a new one when laptops come out that support expresscard 2.0 which is way faster than 1.0.. in fact expresscard 2.0 details came out this week...
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/hands-on-with-the-asus-xg-station-external-gpu/1#c10861196
It's called laziness.
In a rush to advance technology, we seem to throw more RAM at our machines instead of designing something efficient to work smoothly at lower specs.
We throw more fancy cpu/gpu-demanding 3D graphics at our games instead of working on the gameplay/storylines.
But not I... Not I...
Sounds like a sweet card... but there is one little thing that kinda nags at me. I hate marketing gimmicks aimed at twisting things around to make products look better than they really are, and this one gets me: The back of the box states, "Up to a 90% performance increase over the GeForce 8600 GTS GPU". Erm... why are they comparing it to the 8600? Wouldn't it be more realistic to compare it to the 8800 GTS? I was under the impression that the 9600 was the replacement for the 8600... Why not just say, "Up to 40,000% faster than a GeForce2 MX!!" Woo!
Oh well, not like everyone doesn't do it... still doesn't make it right. :)
Kinda silly to be showing off a box and card without some in-use demo, pricing, and performance stats. Ooooo, shiny box! :-P
"It renders wall images nearly 3 trillion times better than the average caveman!!!"
Each board on the GX2 is actually worse than the 8800 Ultra in every specification . . these are basically stock GTXs sandwiched together. Absolutely no improvement at all, except for the HDMI port. So basically nVidia tried to make a come back with a 2-for-one sale . .
That caught my attention for a different reason - it makes the card sound pretty pathetic to be honest. The 8600 GTS was completely and utterly rubbish from the point of view of the people the 9800 GX2 will be aimed at (ie high end users and gamers). The fact that they have nothing better to say than that it's only 90% faster than a sluggish mid-range card has worried me.
Agreed. They could at least compare it to an 8800Ultra by claiming "Over 30% faster than the 8800Ultra!" - after all, it IS a high-end enthusiast replacement. And since it's built on G92-450 architecture (256-bit bus and 8 ROPs less than the 8800Ultra), I'm assuming that it'll have negligible performance benefits over the Ultra in non-SLi supported games.
Isnt this meant to be a Duo SLi card replacement so you dont have to buy 2 8600s, Just buy this "one" card?
@V3LOCIP3D3: spec arent from the gtx, its 2xgts. gtx has 384mbit memoryinterface, gx2 like the gtx 256mbit
Can you show it next to, say, a cat for size comparison purposes? Cause I know a cat will *just barely* fit inside my case.
Hahahahaahaha, nice, thanks for the visual.
...now how do you know a cat will fit in your case? I'm not sure I want to hear the story behind this.....
I was just thinking how exactly I could cram that into an mATX lanbox. Maybe I'll try stuffing my x-box in there first to get a good idea. =)
maybe a dog, or perhaps a frog. Either would be much easier to drag along to an electronics trade show for size comparison purposes...
Try a tiger or lion, for that matter
That thing is a beast! (and I mean that in a good way) I'm just curious of what the price will be... I plan to build a new rig this summer, this may be dropped into it!
But will it blend?
@ Aeo
SACRILEDGED!!!!!
You may blend an IPOD, you may blend a ZUNE, you may blend freaken Chuck Noris for all I care....
But you will NEVER, EVER BLEND A GEFORCE!!!
True that Bryon. Sure PS3, 360, and Wii fanbois are loud and mouth of when you insult or threaten them. But us PC gamers esp NVIDIA fans? We just cut your throat while your sleeping.
To start the tour take a look at the next Sony Playstation 3 SKU. Oh, I'm sorry it's the new PSP.
Wait a minute what the heck is it? A graphics card.
Well back in my day they made graphic cards smaller. Oh well how time flies.
Your going senile, old man.
Seriously, graphics card makers are expanding the size of the cores (shaders, etc.) while the manufacturing process remains constant, or changing more slowly than the expanding of the cores. Thats why these cards are getting so damn big. They really need these cards at 32nm to make them small and energy efficient. That isnt going to happen for quite a few years. And by then, you will have 512 shaders on the 32nm process, and the core size will still be huge requiring a massive heatsink.
This thing doesn't even look like it belongs in a computer!
Come on, that thing is just ridiculous. How come I want it so much.
Seems to me that CPU's have gotten more power efficient and run cooler while GPU's are getting hotter and more power hungry...
Anyone else notice how it says "The console within" on the front of the card in green letters?
yeah, nice baby! :D
Pretty soon graphics cards are going to be their own seperate tower. One tower for the PC, and the other tower just to house the graphic card.
YES IT CAN PLAY CRYSIS AT MAX SETTINGS
YES IT CAN BLEND PROVIDED YOU GIVE IT A BIG ENOUGH BLENDER
YES IT CAN PLAY DOOM
YOU, FOR ONE, CAN SHUT THE HELL UP.
Really?! IT PLAYS CRYSIS AT MAX SETTINGS?!
You know there is the possibility that it does not play Crysis at max settings, right? You know- because it's only 30% faster than an Ultra, and 2 Ultras can't handle it very well...
The real question is, can it play Crysis well at max settings?
Oh, you're right about the rest.
P.S. I realize you might not have been serious.
I bet it plays Doom.
Can you blend "Doom?"
ATI wins! I just retired my 9800 card. It is AGP even!
i am running a 8800gts on my machine and i can wait to get my hands on this new card.
This thing will suck power like a hoover, and cost an arm and a leg. That is why I gave up on the PC gaming industry and just bought a 360. Best decision I've made for my gaming hobby and my wallet.
judging by the rate at the these cards are growing, soon you'll have to start plugging your computer into your video card. I'm surprised it doesn't come with it's own case and psu!
Different strokes for different folks, ya' know?
Both are good and both can have excellent value or can be expensive as Hell depending on if you know what to look for and where to look, and what set up you're going for.
I'm primarily a PC gamer, but I can see where you're coming from.
"They wouldn't take it out of the case by order of NVIDIA but we did get confirmation that the anticipated graphics king will launch before March is done for an undisclosed price."
How does that sentence make any sense? Also, is it not March yet in Germany? Because it is here in the states...
Umm...."before March is DONE" see what I did there? I put in bold the word you should be paying attention too. Please drink more coffee before commenting.
"I put in bold the word you should be paying attention too. Please drink more coffee before commenting."
Capitals. I believe those are capital letters, good sir.
Oh c'mon, that ain't nothing but a VHS tape rewinder!
Will this finally be the card that finally plays Crysis without a hitch? Since it's so big I guess the next obvious move is make 45nm chips.
first thing that came to my mind after i saw the pics was 'fatty' and 'external GPU'...
btw wht the hell happened to those external GPU's being developed by nV and ATi??
do you think this beast will fit into the antec 900 casing?
Does anyone know if the HDMI will also send out Audio ? basicly looking to use my XPS420 as a extreme media PC .. i have the 8800GT now , but if i can get audio with this card might as well
I'm not quite sure- I don't think so. They might, but even if you would be using more cables, a separate sound card would be better unless you're using an HDTV.
Well I think you can, I saw some picks of this card and it looks like a 2-pin S/PDIF
You can't actually see the port i am talking about in the Gallery but it is next to the power ports (a 6-pin and an 8-pin)
http://www.firingsquad.com/images/pr/9800gx2side.jpg
Weird! It doesn’t seem to have the same rear venting window size as previous cards. How does all of the heat get OUT of the PCs case? Does this run cooler than the 8800 series? Probably not. Well, it time for case manufacturers to KEEP UP! And I don’t mean with looks and lights either. Vapochill is cool and all but time to make better FULL AC’ed cases. I’m just sayin!
if you look at the pics @ tomshardware, it seems to vent at the rear and out the side. A side exhaust fan should do the trick
What a behemoth!
I am noobish and need to know something based on these pictures.
One: What is with the two ports if you have one screen?
Two: This is SLI in one card right?
One: If you only have one screen, then you just connect your monitor to one of them and leave the other one alone.
Two: Yes, it is.
One: Ok
Two: So do you know how much RAM and Processing power it needs?
Oh yeah, to the people complaining about how big this card is, at least it's smaller than the 7900 GX2. ;D
http://www.asisupport.com/nl_gf7_card_comp.gif
As a previous owner of 7950 GX2 I can only say that I'm staying away from 'SLI in a card' solutions.
I used it for gaming plus the same PC is used as a Media Center, connected to a plasma TV. Guess what? Every time you want to use two monitors on a PC with SLI you have to *restart the PC*, to switch to multi-display mode from multi-GPU mode (gaming performance mode). I doubt that this "great" feature of Nvidia drivers is gone with the new series as it may be a hardware issue, and it was a pain in the ass for me.
The second point against this card is: I'm currently an owner of 8800 Ultra and only 30% performance increase is pathetic, what happened to 3 times the performance of 8 series, that Nvidia was announcing 9 series back in October? I want a new card that plays Crysis well and max settings, 1920x1200, but this will not cut it.
You are mistaken. This card is not the "real" 9 series. Obviously the two G92 GPUs being used in this card are 8-series/8th generation. The "real" 9 series, codenamed GT200 should be much faster than an 8800 Ultra and I believe should be out Q2/Q3 2008. This is just a stopgap card so Nvidia is still has the fastest card out...
how would it compare to a 8800 gt 512? I just got one a couple weeks and I haven't even installed vista for the directx10....
Just to set the record straight, Isaac incorrectly stated that nVidia is comparing this card to the 8600GT, and saying it's 90% faster. That was said of the 9600GT, NOT the 9800GX2.
The 9800GX2 being only 90% faster than the 8600GT would just be embarrasing, considering how poor the 8600 was. People should think/read the facts properly before they post!
To whoever was asking why many cards have dual DVI sockets, it's so you can run two monitors, or a single monitor at resolutions above 1920x1200 (ie. a 30" at 2560x1600).
Perhaps you should take a look at the 8th picture in the gallery. Up to 90% increase over the 8600GTS, right there on the back of the 9800GX2 box. :)
Interesting... Gotta be a typo, surely. 90% faster than the 8800GTS would be logical, as it is essentially two of those on one card, and seeing as SLI doesn't scale perfectly, 90% max performance increase would make sense.
Sure enough though, it does say 8600GTS.
Here's the nVidia page on which it says the 9600GT is 90% faster than the 8600GTS
http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_9600gt.html
By that logic, the 9800GX2 would have equal performance to the 9600GT! :)
Its really funny to see how wrong people are.
The intake to the internal fan is on the right.
The venting exhaust is out the bracket and partially in the system. It's designed for 6pin and 8pin graphics power connector.
Its will be the highest performance product until there next gen architecture comes out. At least this board looks better then RV680 dual GPU board. There SLI technoly is superior to Amd/ATI Xfire (misFire).
Has anyone else noticed that what a person used to pay for an entire PC, they now pay for a videocard every six months - and that videocard just barely outperforms the last $200,$300, or $700 "monster" ?
It's almost like they have a fanbio base like totally addicted, and they just release the .1% purer crack at twice the former price.
I'm an angry skeptic, because since 1996 I've been aware of intel "frowning upon overclockers" - but now they've finally had their greed epiphany, and they make $$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$.$$ on "unlocking" their "forced in the die process on purpose and at great expense locked forever multiplier" to cut down the performance interested general public, their "top chip" (now unlocked and EXTREME !!!!! )- and selling it as their greatest monster.
Look, ATI blew it about 6 months ago and let out that 2900 that could be turned into an XXX2900 TXT !! with a simple bios flash...and it was selling for 200 bucks less or some crap. Gawd, they sold fast then instantly disappeared in silent total recall.
This "new monster" is a hacked up, chopped down, cut in two, halted, neutered piece of c-r-a-p , no mater how you many fps my "extreme armor" right click crysis suit enhancement achieves, and of course every red blooded geek will be screaming bloody murder for it - at some insane price.
MAN, THEY'VE GOT US ALL BY THE ....
Silicondoc......tell us how you really feel..no really....don't hold back..lol..
I have an 8800gts 640mb and can't wait for this card to come out. If you look on newegg the 9600 and 8000gt's have dropped in price this week in anticipation of the 9800's being released any time. Large price drops across the board ussually means the next cards are coming soon. woohoo...nice card...I love the built in HDMI for 1080p res.
I'm running at 2560x1600 on a first-generation Dell 3007WFP (over two years old tech, with weak contrast and color gamut, so I will likely upgrade to the 3008WFP soon). I'm currently using dual 8800 Ultra, but I hardly ever enable SLI because nVidia's drivers for SLI in Windows Vista aren't very stable. I like to run nVidia's Cascades DX10 demo, but it can be pretty sluggish on my current system, depending on what textures I'm using. If this thing only performs a little over 30% better than an 8800 Ultra, then shame on nVidia. They shouldn't be releasing a 9800 anything unless it'll provide at least 50% more FPS. And is this really the 9800? Someone said it's just a couple 8800s slapped together. I want to play Crysis at 2560x1600 with all effects enabled and have it run smoothly. Do your job, nVidia!!! Okay, maybe I should just chill and wait until I see some actual benchmarks, but based on all the rumors, I don't know what nVidia is thinking.
this thing will fail. my brother has the 7950 gx2 and it sucks. but then again they have the right to make us eat out of their hands. also i highly doubt any system will be able to run crysis with max res and settings in 10x for at least another year. maybe longer. by then maybe nvidia or ati will have better drivers and be competing against each other again. the reason i say a year for crysis is because you still cant play supreme commander at full settings and res. hardly even close actually. why doesnt anyone compare a card with supcom forged alliance? i have an 8800 gts 640 mb, 22 in monitor, amd 5200+, 2 gig ram, winxp, and i have to run the game with most settings on low/disabled if i want to play in 1680 x 1050. my computer runs crysis better than it does forged alliance.
Brandon- Sup Com is a CPU bound game, not very graphics intensive. I can play it on medium to higher settings with my 7900GT.. And a Q6600. And only 1 Gb RAM! (Not permanent)I have nothing disabled.. So try this: Overclock your CPU and see if FPS go up..
(Well I only have supcom- is FA more graphics intensive or something?)
fa has much better particle effects and you can see about 50% more screen because there are no black bars. sup com is one of the only games that make use of a quad core so i cant relate with that but i did just build a friends computer with 2 8800 gts (512 mb), e6850, eVGA 780i mobo, and 24 in monitor and it runs no so hot on his computer either. but then again he is using vista ultimate 64 so the drivers are still beta on sli.