Review: NVIDIA (ZOTAC) GeForce 9800 GX2 - the champ is back! - Graphics - HEXUS.net

Final thoughts

The GeForce 9800 GX2 1,024MiB graphics card is absolutely, undeniably the fastest single-card solution available today, if our limited games' selection is, as we believe, a decent indicator of gaming performance at large.

It doesn't just squeak by the post, barely eclipsing the GeForce 8800 Ultra and ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 - it batters them into submission in each and every benchmark. Indeed, the other SKUs do well to get to two-thirds of the GeForce 9800 GX2's performance.

The card opens up what was previously the territory of SLI'd setups - where one would need an SLI-certified motherboard - for users with a motherboard based on any chipset, and that's a compelling feature.

NVIDIA will shortly release a further driver that optimises two-card GX2 performance, for Quad-SLI rendering, to provide the fastest graphics sub-system around.

Now, all this speed has been harnessed by shoehorning what amounts to two GeForce 8800 GTS 512 cards into a single package that's pre-SLI'd, but that also means it may be compromised in some games by a lack of efficient profiling for multi-GPU usage. Also, it won't be cheap.

Tentatively priced at £399, the GeForce 9800 GX2 arrives at roughly the same price-point as the incumbent, but hard-to-find, GeForce 8800 Ultra - rendering it, for all intents and purposes, useless.

Performance is the most important criterion at this portion of the pricing spectrum, really, and the GeForce 9800 GX2 delivers it in SLI-encrusted spades, as our benchmarks show.

The card is aimed at high-resolution, high-image-quality gaming and users will need 24in WUXGA (1,920x1,200px) displays to get the most out of it.

We cannot see the performance crown slipping from NVIDIA's shoulders until ATI unveils its next iteration of GPUs and then runs them in a dual-GPU configuration.

For most readers, though, there's no new technology here, and it's just a matter of doubling-up on what NVIDIA already has, pricing it high, and basking in the refulgent glory of having the fastest card around.

Trouble is, £399 is a lot of money to spend on a single graphics card, no matter how fast it is. If you can justify the outlay, there is nothing - and we mean nothing - that touches it in single-card performance. Add a second card and, pocket allowing, there seems little point in looking at a three-way SLI or two-board 3870 X2 setup for ultimate performance.

Don't have £399 to spend? The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is a good bet at £270; the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 attractive at £199, and the ATI Radeon HD 3870 a steal at £129. Not as fast, sure, but priced at levels that most can aspire to.

ZOTAC's card is based entirely on the reference design and, as such, everything written above applies to it too. We really like the fact that the company now offers a five-year warranty on its range, and should it be priced favourably compared to other default-clocked models, it's certainly one to put on the short-list.

Bottom line: the fastest (desktop) single-card graphics solution ever released. Its appeal is to a niche market, but if you happen to be in that market, look no further. Everyone else, buy a GeForce 8800 GT 512 for £140 or a Radeon HD 3870 for £129 and spend the rest on a holiday.

HEXUS Awards

ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GX2 1,024MiB

HEXUS Where2Buy

The card is currently on pre-order for £407.50, including VAT.

HEXUS Right2Reply

HEXUS invites manufacturers to comment on our review's findings. If any of ZOTAC or NVIDIA's representatives wish to do so, their HEXUS Right2Reply will be printed here, verbatim.

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HEXUS Forums :: 17 Comments

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Posted by -iceblade^ - Tue 18 Mar 2008 13:18

finally, a proper review i can read, not this pre release rubbish…

Posted by neonplanet40 - Tue 18 Mar 2008 13:19

Can i ask why Crysis wasn't in the review? I would have thought that it would be the first game people would want to see results in.

Its a good card but you will pay for it. AMD currenty has an advantage at that point.

Posted by pollaxe - Tue 18 Mar 2008 13:34

“Sorry, but the URL you followed to get to this item is invalid.”

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Posted by Tarinder - Tue 18 Mar 2008 14:08

neonplanet40
Can i ask why Crysis wasn't in the review? I would have thought that it would be the first game people would want to see results in.

Its a good card but you will pay for it. AMD currenty has an advantage at that point.

Yup, good question. Let me try to answer it.

Our Crysis testing, under Vista, has shown that whilst it's possible to generate numbers for any given resolution/setting, getting them to a reasonable standard deviation, on three runs, proves to be incredibly difficult.

We need three runs to eliminate any freaky results, but it happens all too often with this game.

For example, three runs might average 21.15, 18.25, 23.15fps, respectively. Run them again and the figures might be 20.12, 16.58, 23.15, for example: there's no consistency.

We've therefore dropped it until we properly explore custom-recorded timedemos, which is what we're doing right now.

Posted by Aez - Tue 18 Mar 2008 14:25

hexus graphics card reviews are nice but you run 3 benchmarks, it would be useful to do a lot more.

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