Inno3D GeForce 9800 GX2
We won't thrash over the architectural and speed details of the GeForce 9800 GX2. Please head back to our original look to learn more.
Inno3D's card is based exclusively on the reference design. That means no product-level differentiation from the twenty-something NVIDIA partners'.
Big, a little louder than we'd like, but imbued with terrific horsepower, the GeForce 9800 GX's price-tag of around £375 ensures that its appeal is limited to those with high-resolution monitors.
Having a pre-SLI'd solution that interfaces via a single PCIe 2.0 interface means that the card can be used in practically any modern motherboard. Performance scaling, however, will be at the whim of the SLI profiles.
Adding a second card requires an SLI-capable motherboard, preferably one with dual x16 PCIe 2.0 slots. On the Intel front, then, the nForce 680i Ultra SLI, nForce 780i Ultra SLI, and nForce 790i (Ultra) SLI would be our choice, and the latter the one for absolute performance.
The cooling appendage takes up two slots. Not really a problem for folk considering this card; your system will, most likely, be housed in a tower chassis with ample internal room.
The single SLI connector is hidden on the far side, accessed by removing the small panel.
Remember, a single card costs more than a PlayStation 3 and a handful of Blu-ray titles, though.
Board power is provided by six-pin and eight-pin PCIe cables, and NVIDIA recommends a certified 580W PSU for single-card usage and an 850W model for SLI.
Twin DVI ports are good, but only the primary display, at the top, will display the booting screen. Further, unlike ATI's recently-revised CrossFire usage, one cannot run two independent screens with multi-GPU mode enabled, which is poor, frankly.
