NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GX2 tested, still not out

It may not be out quite yet, but thanks to some cloak and dagger device-getting NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GX2 has gotten its first round of early tests. Sounds like it's got a few premature driver issues, but it's still a contender. If your interests lie in the world of high res framerates, check it out.

[Thanks, Neil and Lin]

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 16th 2008 10:05PM]

finally, a news article after 4 hours....

[Snipermonky @ Mar 16th 2008 11:33PM]

Bloggers get weekends too dude! Wait, what am I saying...

[webon @ Mar 17th 2008 12:11AM]

It wasn't 4 hours, wow thats exaggerated, It was only like 3 hours 45 min

[Aguiluz @ Mar 17th 2008 12:20AM]

@webon
Not exaggerated, just rounded off...

If I are to make an exaggeration, I would say that engadget posted this finally after a million years. ;)

*back on topic*

Let me reread this when it gets official!

[torqueo @ Mar 17th 2008 5:58AM]

I thought every day was a weekend for pseudo-journalists?

[j_g_puff @ Mar 17th 2008 6:08AM]

I play Commander Keen 4 (Secret of the Oracle).

[Dylan K @ Mar 16th 2008 10:07PM]

Disappointing. I'll be waiting for the 10 series or whatever it'll be called.

[JohnTitor @ Mar 17th 2008 12:26AM]

the X series

[Mike @ Mar 17th 2008 12:37AM]

John I can't mod you up enough for that comment.

[Jonathan Worrel @ Mar 17th 2008 1:20AM]

I have hope that Nvidia will make this card a short-lived success (because in my opinion it's a "fill-in" high-end card between the 8800Ultra and GT200 due to the company's "innovation delays"). If you've noticed closely, Nvidia has been recently spewing out drivers like no other time in their history - and we have already seen a total of three beta drivers specifically for the GX2 in just a week and a half before its launch. Such was not the case during the 7950GX2 lifespan. The 7950GX2 could run all the latest games at optimal settings, but it's hindering factor to the enthusiast market was the terrible driver support on Nvidia's part. Based on this assertion, I have reason to believe that Nvidia has learned from their unsuccessful ploys in the past and will attempt to alter their history with the continuation of the GX2 series.

And to the naysayers who argue that "the beta drivers out now are yielding terrible results that present this card to be yet another unquestionable failure," you should rethink your reasoning in this claim because, well... you are basing your arguments on synthetic benchmarks and pre-release beta drivers. Nuff said.

[Alijah @ Mar 16th 2008 10:16PM]

Why release it if it's gonna suck that bad...

[ByronGman @ Mar 16th 2008 11:18PM]

People, people.....

It's all about the drivers!

You really can't pass judgement until these things are out in the wild and have a have driver updates behind them.

I see performance improvements on my 8600M GT even now with the newer drivers.

[James Cameron @ Mar 17th 2008 12:27AM]

@ByronGman

A driver isn't going to save this overpriced POS.

[ByronGman @ Mar 17th 2008 12:53AM]

@ James Cameron

So right now the card is pretty well even or slightly ahead in most of the benchmarks, and is sucking it up in a few of them.

This is before the card has even been released. It's probably going to be dead-even at the very least across the board when it comes out, and most likely have a modest improvement.

That can only get better with time, which means at a minimum I'd say this card will lead the pack by at least 20%, which is more than enough to make a lot of people buy it.

Plus, it's being compared to overclocked cards. Which means in a truly fair fight, you'd have to give the 9800 GX2 all the tweaks and optimization of the competitors.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 17th 2008 1:12AM]

James Cameron, you are a complete and utter fool. What do you think is restricting this? It certainly ISN'T the hardware.

Better drivers will yield better performance and will make this card a killer (for the time being).

[James Cameron @ Mar 17th 2008 1:33AM]

@Zeus.:God

You are one dumb sucker who's falling for this card. Do you own an Nvidia card? I own a 8800GTX OC and I've been using like more than 10 drivers over the months. Don't expect a 10 frames improvement. Best you're going to get will be like 3 frames improvement and the rest will be for stability. There's nothing new great about the 9800 GX2. It's just an 8800 with some modification.

[ByronGman @ Mar 17th 2008 1:56AM]

@ James Cameron

You're using an overclocked card! Most of the recent NVIDIA drivers in the 169.XX branch (what I'd assume you're using for an 8800) either do not work or have problems with overclocking.

That means you're probably not going to see much of gain versus someone running a standard card who upgrades their drivers.

[James Cameron @ Mar 17th 2008 1:56AM]

So why are they so afraid to compare it to a 8800GTX or 8800Ultra? Because the improvement isn't worth giving up your old card.

Nvidia been spamming us and oversaturated with the 8600, 8800gt, 8800gs, 9600 and now this. This was suppose to be a card for people who doesn't want to use SLi. But it failed across borders.

[ByronGman @ Mar 17th 2008 1:59AM]

@ James Cameron


A. It's not even released yet.

B. It doesn't have good drivers yet.

C. It hasn't been overclocked yet.

D. None of us are "afraid" to compare it, it is merely too soon to tell.

E. You are a moron and this conversation is no longer worth participating in.

[James Cameron @ Mar 17th 2008 2:08AM]

@ByronGman

You should head over to guru3d.com's forum and see for yourself. They have released tons of drivers over the months. Some people will have frames improvement where others don't have any improvement with the new driver. Some will go back to the old drivers for stability and some have better framerates with older drivers than the newer one.

They already have problem producing drivers for the other cards so don't expect a miracle drivers that going to make this card that much faster. It's been more than 6months after 8800 been released and the drivers improvement for framerates have already reach their peak. Right now they are concentrating making it stable and working for most games.

[James Cameron @ Mar 17th 2008 2:14AM]

@ByronGman

Why have they been so secretive about this card? Well, look at the stats and benchmark pretty much telling us why.

Isn't this 2 card put into one and performing nothing like it? Don't make me laugh about the drivers. So are you telling me they produce this card blindly and hope that a driver will do it magic?

[ByronGman @ Mar 17th 2008 3:04AM]

Why release new drivers if the originals are so perfect out of the gate?

Your argument is completely ludicrous.

Before even seeing what the card will look like optimized you have canned it. I never said it would be all that, I'm saying that judging off one pre-lease benchmark on pre-lease drivers is just stupid.

And if this card does have new hardware designs, it makes sense that it will take awhile to optimize now doesn't it? And neither you nor I has any idea what that will look like.

Like I said above, my bet is a modest gain.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 17th 2008 4:39AM]

James Cameron, you're just another one of them tards that think they know everything.

Drivers make a HUGE difference. When you're sitting there and comparing different drivers for a released card that only fix bugs with the old drivers, then no, you're not going to get a major performance boost, but when you're comparing rough drivers on a card that you don't have any real reference drivers for, then YES, different, better constructed drivers WILL provide large performance boosts, GUARANTEED.

Indeed, Nvidia has gotten lazy lately, as they haven't had any real competition, but claiming that this card is going to be a "POS" is unfounded and ignorant.

You're ridiculous, and should likely think twice (Hell, maybe 3 times) before you try to argue- otherwise it will turn out like this with you arguing a stupid point that has no backing whatsoever.

Grow up; shut up.

[James Cameron @ Mar 17th 2008 12:17PM]

@Zeus.:God

Waaah, waaaah, waaaaah. This card is an overpriced POS. It's 2 8800GT put together you stupid idiot. A new latest driver isn't going to save this POS.

[Orly @ Mar 17th 2008 9:22PM]

Actually this is simply two 8800GT's on a single PCB with horrible driver support at this time. It's pre release, the card isn't out yet so don't judge it. BUT, because we already know it is just an SLI 8800GT setup on one card, we know that you will NEVER see the kind of performance that was promised.

THE MAXIMUM that is even possible from this card is going to be lower than an SLI 8800GT 512MB setup.

As I recall, in a past press statement Nvidia stated their 9 series to be almost quadruple the performance over the 8 series, then months later claimed over 2x performance, and now we see that there really is ZERO performance gain because the new cards ARE die shrunk 8 series cards to bring down the cost, then rebranded.

I used to be a big ATI fan until AMD bought them, then through the 7 and 8 series I turned to Nvidia, now I think I'll just stick with my 512MB 8800GT OC, these new cards are nothing more than Xx50's

By that I mean they should have been called the 8650GT (9400GT), 8850GT (9600GT) and 8800GX2 (9800GX2) because that's all they are.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 18th 2008 12:31AM]

Sorry, James, but the only one crying here is you.

[KEROLiUKAS @ Mar 16th 2008 10:16PM]

Looks sick, now there is finally something newer than my 8800 ULTRA (on the nVidia side) and it's the 9 series....Though not too impressive if you ask me, I don't see myself upgrading. It compared to the 8800 GT and it was only a few FPS behind, so my ULTRA should be on top of it/equal.

[Evan @ Mar 16th 2008 10:36PM]

What an underwhelming benchmark.
I will also be keeping my 8Ultra for now.

[asphixiated @ Mar 17th 2008 1:05AM]

yes, i too plan on keeping my fifteen 8800Ultras....

[Juaquin @ Mar 17th 2008 1:14AM]

Yea, well I drive a Hummer!

[moe @ Mar 16th 2008 10:39PM]

this is old news from the other day. every other forum has already linked to it. also this is not a true review. the drivers for this card do not exist yet. also drivers for the ATI x2 are not finished yet and are lousy at the moment. the only true numbers are those of the GT.

[Kamokazi @ Mar 17th 2008 3:03PM]

That's kinda what I am thinking (that or this is bogus to begin with). The 9600GT completely smokes the 8600GT and performs nearly on par with the 8800GT in many tests. I would think a 9800 card would at least beat a 8800GT consistently, ESPECIALLY a dual GPU version. The 7950GX2 can still perform on par with single 8800 cards in many games.

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 16th 2008 10:39PM]

eh. new drivers.
i won't pass judgment until it's RELEASED.

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 16th 2008 10:40PM]

err NEEDS drivers.

[compuguy1088 @ May 5th 2008 6:23PM]

There are leaked drivers that have support for this card...174.51 for vista 32 and 64. It has support for this card.

[Alex @ Mar 16th 2008 10:41PM]

Much as I enjoy seeing technology move forward, I can't help but be a bit relieved to see that my 8800GTS 512 isn't going out of date just yet.

[Rubicon @ Mar 16th 2008 10:44PM]

Can i even play crysis with this at maxed out graphics? cuz i aint paying 500 ish dollars for another graphics card that can't play current gen games. Like what happened to the day when a pentium 2 and a ati ragepro could play everything released that generation

[ethana2 @ Mar 17th 2008 12:23AM]

Is someone running a hackintosh? As an Ubuntu user, I fail to see the point of doing that. Yeah, Apple! Take that! I'm so desperate to run your OS I'll go through hades to do it!

[Zorque @ Mar 17th 2008 10:55AM]

Ethana2:

"A few things. First, the Bible is basically under a CC-BY, assuming derivatives are properly notated. As a Christian, I believe copyrighting work is unethical. While I don't condone or practice piracy, I spread Ubuntu everywhere I can, and most of my music comes from jamendo.com. 'Freely you have received, freely give.'
Also-- I have a hard time recognizing black people. They're not any less important than us Caucasians or anything, but I just don't know very many of them- so I do have some trouble like that. Am I racist? I don't think so; I try not to be. One soul has the same infinite value that another does, you know, all men being created equal and all...
And some people would knock me for some of the things I believe, but that's outside of the scope of this article so I'd appreciate it being left out of the rating for my comment here. ~Fin"

[GLMcPheligan @ Mar 17th 2008 2:37PM]

@ethana2:

What, exactly does that have to do with the article, the comment you replied to, or anything at all?

P.S. What are you talking about anyway?

[Thomas @ Mar 16th 2008 10:48PM]

Driver problems... must be a mac.

[Drew Scott @ Mar 16th 2008 10:52PM]

is that supposed to make sense?

[Thomas @ Mar 16th 2008 11:38PM]

@ Drew Scott (mac lover)

"Maybe your processor is a mac pc"

-My Girlfriend

Classic

[Superfungus @ Mar 16th 2008 11:50PM]

Girlfriend? Now this really doesn't make sense.

[Andrew @ Mar 17th 2008 1:21AM]

Superfungus I almost NEVER post on Engadget, but what you said was so funny I had to let you know. Laugh out loud.

[kntgsp @ Mar 16th 2008 10:56PM]

From the article:

"NB: Due to the way that Crysis offers which resolutions you can select, some cards may not be tested at 1920 x 1200 and beyond."

That's the explanation for why there are no 1920x1200 results for the 3870X2 on the Crysis page.

What a joke. I'm running a 3870X2 in Vista and play Crysis at 1920x1200 just fine. That's just some epic fail. If you can't figure out how to set 1920x1200 on Crysis with a 3870X2, you have no business reviewing the card.

[Snipermonky @ Mar 16th 2008 11:10PM]

By the looks of it they were also running a vanilla copy of Vista. No SP1 I've seen it make a somewhat possitive effect on SLI scaling in Crysis...

[James Cameron @ Mar 17th 2008 12:33AM]

Alot of dumb people doesn't realize that Crysis and the video card manufacturers are in this together and scamming the people to believe the ultimate card is the one with the best FPS for Crysis.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 17th 2008 1:15AM]

Again, James, you're a total retard.

I don't feel I need to explain my thoughts on this one, as they are totally clear anyway.

[Juaquin @ Mar 17th 2008 1:18AM]

If you can get the best FPS in Crysis, then yeah, it's one of the best cards. Are you kidding? Crysis is the test that brings every card to its knees, then melees it into oblivion. Crysis is an excellent test as to the power of a card.