Full Review: 9800GX2 vs HD3870X2 !!

Looks like the 9800 GX2 beats the 3870 X2 in almost every benchmarks! But there were a few games where the NV card can't run with AA turned on.

Both websites talk about the same thing:

in English:
http://lly316.blogspot.com/2008/03 [...] 70-x2.html

in Chinese:
http://www.pconline.com.cn/diy/gra [...] 41871.html

Seems to be a monster card, but also seems to have some pretty major issues (if this article is true) like not being able to run some games with AA and not being able to work on an X48 motherboard. I think Nvidia will need to fix these if they want their flagship card to sell at $600.

It looks like immature drivers. Nvidia normally does really well with AA so to see fps that low with AA on is quiet strange.

Hopefully new drivers would solve the AA problem.

That blogspot is just an English translated version of the original, taken from that Chinese web site.

Given that 3870X2 has a better price/performance ratio plsu it is going to have another price cut, I wouldn't take another look at the obesely expensive GX2.

Ah ok, PConline is know (like HKePC and exPreview) , still not as good as the major sites, but better than someone's blogpost. Didn't really take note of the second link at first glance.

Yeah the main thing will be hopefully this is immature drivers for the AA issue, the non-compatability issue is a little more disturbing.

Im really not sure what you are talking about, I dont get involved in those type of debates.

Any card, ATI or nVidia, that is benched before its release, is most likely on beta drivers, and will have a negative impact on performance, and compatibilty.

So put the gas and matches away, you wont get a flame war from me.

I think the major difference IMO of the driver issue is the history. nV's GF7GX2's had driver issues their entire lives, and also had MOBO compatability issues at launch and their entire lives.

I was skeptical about the early ATi gemini cards ever improving too because of their R9800MAXX experience, but they proved to figure it out on the low end before ever making it one of these high end cards.

To me that's the difference.

I'm hopefully it's just immature drivers, but I definitely wouldn't spend my money or the money of someone I like on this product unless things change by launch, because the history of it's predecessors doesn't make me confident about how quickly these same issues will be fixed.

However it's far to early to condemn anythinguntil shipping drivers and launch updates/tweaks are used.

And if after the dust has settled and the performance is anything less than stellar, then can we have it shot at dawn?

And someone was accusing you of being an nvidia fanboy today. . .

Ic, not much idea about the reputation of Chinese sites.

I trust info from Anandtech, Xbitlabs, Techpowerup etc.. oh, and Tom's hardware

What I really want to see is 9800gx2 vs 8800gt sli. I've got 8800gt sli now, but should I exchange them for a gx2? Or wait to use my evga step-up to get two 9800gtx ?

I'd be happy with 8800gt sli until new generation of cards. 9xxx series from Nvidia is supposedly more of a repackged 8xxx series.

same here

theres no way that it can suck that bad.!

Those benches have the gx2 doing 41 fps on crysis 19x12 on high
8800gt sli does 30 fps 19x12 on very high

Id say the 8800gt sli is on top, and at under $500. Of course I wouldn't be sure about it until we see some head to head benches. Looking forward to those.

i need my dual monitor setup soon to be triple monitor if you need to enabel sli to get 100% out of the 9800gt2 thats me out as Multi-monitor + sli + vista doesnt work together its 9800gtx for me

Whats the price going to be for the 9800GX2? I mean if it costs $600, that 33% higher then 3870 X2. I would then expect to see on average 33% higher performance. If the 9800GX2 beats the 3870 X2 on average by 33%, then I would call this a tie.

satanpro you have absolutely no proof to back up what you just stated at all.


Since the card has 2x 128 SP's it wil MOST LIKELY outperform 2x 8800GT since it is SLI. You just don't need a cruddy nvidia motherboard to run it on.

both of these cards are sad... but the 9800GX2 should be competing and beating 8800GTX in SLI..., it aint whats the point.

PR pure and simple, just like the last GX2.

I agree with you completely. Anyone even remotely interested in this likely already either bought 2 GTX/Ultras in SLi or bought one with the anticipation of adding another later. What this offers to that crowd over buying a 3rd GTX/Ultra I don't know.

It's a tough card in a crowded market. At least the X2 has AMD loyalist who may have ignorantly shuned the GF8800 series, and potentially wisely avoided or upgraded from the HD2900XT series, but this GX2 doesn't really offer that same motivation to those GTX-SLi crowd who are the general targets for this type of thing. And the X2 itself is significantly cheaper to make with a chip smaller than the GF9600GT and a single PCB solution. This can't be much of a moneymaker for nV compared to either the GTX or the X2.

I think it will be low production and simply to fill SKUs and Press Releases until their next gen arrives.
The wise user IMO is already either SLiing GTX/Ultras/GT-GTS-512s or anticipating moving into the Tri-GTX/U-SLi phase or waiting to do the same to a potential GF9800GTX.

The GX2 will still sell, but I'm no very optimistic about it's success.

Of course that's just sofar, if launch drivers etc provide a more compelling reason, I'll change my outlook, but it has to be truly compelling.

I'll start assembling the firing squad.

LMFAO i have 2 of the 3870X2 and these benches dont even come anywere close to what i get....... SO DONT BE FOOLED

and dont say im a fanboy i have 2 ultras in my other rig

Thats it? $600 for THIS performance? What a joke.......

If I've $600 i would buy a 3870x2 AND another 3870 and SLI them up. AMDs Codename Thunder must be laughing out loud.

I didn't ignorantly shun the 8800 series. I shunned them based on two things; poor image quality in the 7xxx generation vs. ATI and fudges like the Crysis demo. I simply did not trust Nvidia after trying their chipset for the first time and their card for the second time.

I had an MSI 405 chipset board with a 7600gs (because that board's "chipset limitations" prevented me from getting an ATI X1650 Pro, I went Nvidia). The 7600gs had blur that my wife's X1650 Pro AGP on an Intel i865 motherboard did not have. Plus, DX10 performance with the 8800gts 320's were not all that stellar (nor was the X2900xt's last spring).

I skipped the X2900 Pro because of heat issues, and when I finally got a cheap ATI board and transferred my CPU, the 3870 was out. I almost got one, but the 3870x2 was too good a deal. Finally, performance is there for ATI. Not always on top, but never near the bottom. Nvidia's 9600gt linkboost issues lead me to believe they're fudging again, and I simply don't trust Huang to put out a good product without attempting to rig benchmarks beforehand.

Besides, I like ATI/AMD chipsets, whereas I've had bad experiences with Nvidia chipsets. If I stay single PCIe x16, I'll get a 780G, if I go Crossfire, it will be a 790 board with all the bells and whistles. For that reason, I'll trust the 9750 in May and then upgrade to a Deneb this time next year. Overall, it's ATI's stellar performance over the past 5 years in my PC's that make me want to be loyal to them instead of trusting the alternatively bad then good performance from Nvidia.

Never assume people blindly stick by ATI just because Nvidia has a generation that appears to work better in some games, with particular settings and with oftentimes dodgy driver and Nvidia motherboard tweaks. I trust ATI's transparency. Don't you?

i would not say new its still using the g92... correct me if im wrong>?