Why I might consider a 9800GX2

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

^you can avoid the nvidia boards by getting a single-card dual-gpu solution, in ATI's case, the 3870x2 performs slightly more efficiently than two seperate cards in CF, lets hope that's the same for the 9800GX2

 

[Akubane]

IF the 9800GX2 performs. I don't think i'll ever get an ITO card again. I still like the company, just change in preferrence i guess.

 

[Poizen22]

^you can avoid the nvidia boards by getting a single-card dual-gpu solution, in ATI's case, the 3870x2 performs slightly more efficiently than two seperate cards in CF, lets hope that's the same for the 9800GX2

once the cf drivers get going 23870s will be faster they have gddr4 the 3870x2 has gddr3.

 

[Prophet]

Here's the best way I can explain it:

The 9800GX2 is technically, at the hardware level, pretty much 2x G92 8800GTS in SLI in one card (two PCBs though). All the specs are the same. And some early reports are indicating this performance-wise.

Now... in the past, the new flagship from a new series would always beat the flagship of the old series, even when the old series was in SLI. So an 8800GTX would've beat two 7900GTX in SLi. Seeing as how the G92 technology is 8-Series technology and it's been used to its full potential (the 8800GTS G92 has all SPs enabled, higher clocks would not yield major improvement) The next single-gpu flagship from Nvidia, for the 9 Series, should be a new GPU entirely, and it should be more powerful than the 9800GX2 for that reason. They really should've named it the 8800GX2 or 8900GX2, or something within the 8 Series.

The only thing I can see working at this point is that their single-gpu 9 Series flagship becomes the 9900GTX, but what happens if the single-gpu flagship is weaker than the GX2? Then what? If it's slightly weaker, then why not go to the GX2? If it's much weaker, then why not go to an 8800Ultra? It just won't work to have the single-gpu flagship weaker than the 9800GX2, so it either has to be stronger... or maybe, not even exist at all

What if the 9800GX2 IS the flagship 9 Series card.. what if there is no 9800/9900GTX, what if we have to wait until the 10 series before we see a huge revamp in the gpu tech??

You make a good point, thats why i was scratching my head when i saw that the 9800GTX was "planned" to replace the 8800GTS/GTX. But at this point, who knows what nvdia is planning. I do agree however that they should not have introduced the GX2 as a 9 series card, as they are using 8/9 series technology, but realistically the only reason the G92 cores were used on 8 series cards were to compete with ATI on lower performance cards (8800GT).

I think the whole naming scheme is messed up, but i guess they want to give us the perception that they are moving forward, and by naming it the 8800GX2 people might think that they are still stuck on 8 series technology.

I just hope the GX2 comes out before april so i can step up, and that the GX2 has significant performance increase over the Ultra or 8800GTS which i have.

 

[Sora]

I have a 19 inch monitor and my 13550 3Dmark06 score with my outdated but heavily overclocked CPU is awesome. If i actually wanted a quad-core or so I could hit 16+ but i don't a new CPU yet

 

[gurusan]

I'm doin basically the same because frankly this ultra doesnt cut it. I see slowdown in supcom at only 1280x1024 XD NWN2 as well, and a bit in C&C3.
considering ill have a 24" by the 2nd week of jan I can't see any reason to keep the ultra. and SLI'ing with another one for higher res would cost more than the GX2 >.> thats not including another new mobo haha.

I like the plan merk, give 'er.

Supcom and C&C3 are both cpu limited. At what speed is your Quad clocked? Also I would throw in another 2gb ram...it's cheap right now and 2gb ram aint enough for games these days if you are running Vista.

 

[Whirlwind]

I would love to have just a single card solution that is better than the 8800 ultra.....

I am just not sure of this 2 cards on one pcb, and 2 cards on two pcb thing....I mean from what I have read...you still need to profile alot of games to get them to work with the 3870X2

I hate the hassel of having to have a profile to get a game to work, or having to play around with this or that....just give me a ONE STRONG CARD SOLUTION.

 

[Prophet]

I have a 19 inch monitor and my 13550 3Dmark06 score with my outdated but heavily overclocked CPU is awesome. If i actually wanted a quad-core or so I could hit 16+ but i don't a new CPU yet

i havent seen many people hit 16+ with a 8800GT, My bud has an overclocked Ultra with a Q6600 overclocked to 3.8ghz ( water cooling) and hits around 14 500, where i hit 17k with my system.

 

[NosBoost300]

i havent seen many people hit 16+ with a 8800GT, My bud has an overclocked Ultra with a Q6600 overclocked to 3.8ghz ( water cooling) and hits around 14 500, where i hit 17k with my system.

wow ur bud is definitely having problems then.. i hit 14k w/ a gtx and q6600 at 3.37...

 

[mgcook]

My bud has an overclocked Ultra with a Q6600 overclocked to 3.8ghz ( water cooling) and hits around 14 500, where i hit 17k with my system.

hm, i ran 3.9Ghz with a OC'd Ultra and i hit 16.5k

he's probably got AA and AF turned all the way up in the Nvidia control panel. it made about a 1500 difference when i turned mine off.