System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GX2 1024MiB | MSI NX8800GTS-T2D512E-OC | ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT 512MiB AMP! Edition | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MiB | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 X2 1024MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £399 | £188 | £189 | £229 | £399 | £269 | £129 |
| Shader Model | 4.0 | 4.1 | |||||
| Stream processors | 256 | 128 | 112 | 128 | 128 | 640 | 320 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 600 | 678 | 700 | 576 | 612 | 825 | 777 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 1,500 | 1,728 | 1,674 | 1,350 | 1,512 | 825 | 777 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 2,000 | 1,944 | 2,000 | 1,800 | 2,160 | 1,802 | 2,252 |
| Memory bus width (Bits) | 256 | 384 | 256 | ||||
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 LGA775 (3.0GHz, 8MiB L2 cache, quad-core) | ||||||
| Motherboard | eVGA NF68 (nForce 680i SLI) | MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R) | |||||
| Motherboard BIOS | P31 | P2B2 | |||||
| Mainboard software | NVIDIA device driver 15.08 | Intel Inf 8.4.0.1016 | |||||
| Memory | 4GiB (4x 1GiB) DDR2-1066 | 4GiB (4x 1GiB) DDR3-1066 | |||||
| Memory timings and speed | 5-5-5-15 2T @ 1066MHz | 7-7-7-20 2T @ 1066MHz | |||||
| PSU | Gigabyte ODIN GT 800W | Enermax Galaxy DXX 850W | |||||
| Monitor | Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600 | ||||||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 160GiB SATAII (ST3160812AS) | ||||||
| Graphics driver | NVIDIA ForceWare 174.53 | NVIDIA ForceWare 169.25 | NVIDIA ForceWare 169.04 | NVIDIA ForceWare 169.25 | CATALYST 8.2 beta 5 | CATALYST 7.12 | |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business, 64-bit | ||||||
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.103: DX9 Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.2 (demo_00010.dem, map Valley): OpenGL Lost Planet: Extreme Condition v1.004 built-in benchmark: DX10 |
|---|
Notes
A seven-card line-up that takes in every major GPU priced above £125.Note, though, that the MSI and ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GTS/GT cards are heavily-overclocked versions of the SKU. As such, they aren't indicative of stock-clock performance, but both are available to buy, albeit at higher-than-stock prices.
NVIDIA has a single aim with the GeForce 9800 GX2, and that's to take back the performance crown that, really, has belonged, just, to the Radeon HD 3870 X2 for a month or so now.
The GX2's pricing is such that it will fit into the space vacated by the erstwhile champ, the G80-based Ultra. NVIDIA, too, isn't bothering to compete against on ATI on price; it really believes the 9800 GX2 to be that much faster and better.
Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,200, and 2,560x1,600 with decent image-quality settings to boot.
