System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+, 512Mib | BFG GeForce 9800 GTX 512MiB | BFG GeForce GTX 280 OC, 1,024MiB | XFX GeForce GTX 260, 896MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870, 512MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 4850, 512MiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £149 | £129* | £349 | £219 | £179 | £125 |
| Shader Model | 4.0 | 4.1 | ||||
| Stream processors | 128 | 128 | 240 | 192 | 800 | 800 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 738 | 675 | 615 | 576 | 750 | 625 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 1,836 | 1,688 | 1,350 | 1,242 | 750 | 625 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 2,200 | 2,200 | 2,214 | 1,998 | 3,600 | 2,000 |
| Memory bus width (bits) | 256 | 256 | 512 | 448 | 256 | 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 (2x 2GiB) DDR2-1066 | 4GiB (2x 2GiB) 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 174.74 | NVIDIA ForceWare 174.74 | NVIDIA ForceWare 177.34 | NVIDIA ForceWare 177.34 | CATALYST 8.6 press | CATALYST 8.6 press |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business, 64-bit | |||||
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.103: DX9 - very
high quality Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.2 (demo_00010.dem, map Valley): OpenGL - vhq Lost Planet: Extreme Condition v1.004 built-in benchmark: DX10 - high quality Crysis v1.2.1 custom-recorded benchmark: DX10 - high quality Futuremark 3DMark Vantage b1.0.1 |
|---|
Notes
* it's worth noting that practically no etailer has stock of the GeForce 9800 GTX at £129. Most cards are listed as pre-order, and we believe that stock constraints translate to what amounts as vapourware. The £129 is unlikely to be filled, in volume, before GTX+ arrives.
Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1050, 1,920x1,200 and 2,560x1,600
with decent image-quality settings as well.
We've omitted the 2,560x1600 results for Crysis and Lost Planet:
Extreme Condition running in high-quality modes because they produced
what we consider to be non-playable frame-rates.
What's the point of showing you an average frame-rate of 7fps?
But
we believe that this six-way comparison should be able to run those
games with their high-quality settings.
All drivers are either WHQL or released within the last two months.
In fact, so not 'new' is the GeForce 9800 GTX+ that it shares the same
device ID as the non-plus version.
