![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , April 22, 2008
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
XFX GeForce 9800 GTX SLI
What kind of gameplay experience does GeForce 9800 GTX SLI provide? We evaluate two retail XFX GeForce 9800 GTX video cards on an SLI platform and compare those to GeForce 9800 GX2, GeForce 8800 GTX SLI, and AMD's Radeon HD 3870 X2 CrossFireX.
Introduction
On April 1st the GeForce 9800 GTX was launched by NVIDIA. We evaluated a full retail BFGTech GeForce 9800 GTX in three popular and graphically demanding games. To summarize the specifications, the GeForce 9800 GTX is a 65nm GPU consisting of 128 stream processors clocked at 1.688MHz with a 675MHz core clock and 512MB of GDDR3 clocked at 1100MHz. At these specifications the GeForce 9800 GTX is no more than a faster clocked GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB which shares the same features.
One of the positive notes about the GeForce 9800 GTX has been the price, with an MSRP of $299-$349 it can actually be found within this suggested price range online today. Per usual, SLI is supported with the GeForce 9800 GTX. In that vein we will be exploring GeForce 9800 GTX SLI gameplay performance today.
In our original evaluation we found the single GeForce 9800 GTX able to compete well, providing a mixed bag of performance in terms of comparing to the GeForce 8800 GTX. In this evaluation we are specifically going to include GeForce 8800 GTX SLI to see how GeForce 9800 GTX SLI compares considering the memory bandwidth and framebuffer size differences. We are also going to include a GeForce 9800 GX2 and AMD ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 CrossFireX which are the closest platforms in price to GeForce 9800 GTX SLI.
XFX GeForce 9800 GTX SLI
Today we have two retail XFX GeForce 9800 GTX video cards which can be found for a very delectable $329 at Newegg currently. The model we are evaluating is PV-T98F-YDF9. Our model is clocked at NVIDIA reference clock speeds of 675MHz core, 1688MHz stream processor and 1100MHz memory. XFX offers a variety of other 9800 GTX models with differing clock frequencies.
Two beautiful XFX video cards are ready to be tortured. XFX has adorned their box and video cards with a purple color tone. On the front of the box are listed important features such as PCI Express 2.0 support, 512MB DDR3, SLI support and the core clock speed of 675MHz. Also on the front of the box is a label indicating the inclusion of the full version of Company of Heroes in the retail box. Flipping the box on its side reveals recommended requirements including power supply requirements. A minimum 450W PSU is required, though XFX suggests 630W for non-SLI use and for SLI they recommend 680W or greater.
The XFX GeForce 9800 GTX is a double-slot video card. The heatsink shroud covers the entire surface of the video card. The shroud does come close to the back bracket, allowing the hot air to exhaust out of the back of the computer. You will find two 6-pin auxiliary power connectors on each video card required for proper operation. There are also two SLI connectors atop the video card to support Tri-SLI configurations.
The GeForce 9800 GTX is lighter than past GeForce 8800 GTX incarnations, but is still the same length. With GeForce 9800 GTX SLI setup is as easy as plugging back cards in, connecting their power connectors and placing the SLI bridge atop the video cards (it doesn’t matter which SLI connector you use.) Enabling SLI is as easy as any other implementation, simply enable SLI from the driver control panel and you are ready to game. Worth noting is that we did not have to reboot our computer after enabling SLI, we were able to enjoy the benefits of SLI immediately.