First question: Does anyone know if EVGA discontinued the 9800 GTX? Everyone is out of stock, and they are all on backorder on EVGA's website.


I currently have an EVGA 8800GTS 640MB SSC Edition in my computer. I originally bought it for my old computer as an upgrade from a XFX 7800GT 256MB. I just built a new computer and am using this card temporarily until I do the EVGA step-up program. I bought the 8800 in April, so I have a couple weeks left to do the step-up. I wanted to trade it in for the stock clocked 9800GTX, but they are currently wiped clean(if not discontinued completely).

Second Question: If EVGA offers the 9800GTX for the step-up program again before my window runs out, would I be able to buy another 9800GTX from another manufacturer, such as XFX or BFG, with the same clocks and use them in SLI?

I ask this because EVGA seems to be the only company having trouble making them(if they still are) and other companies are offering them for an average price of $200 since the advent of the GTX series.

Sadly I am bound to EVGA because of the step-up, and if the 9800GTX isn't offered for the step-up before my window expires, I may have to trade in for the 8800GTS 512MB KO Edition instead, and then get another for SLI because they run about equal to the 9800GTX, but cost more and are already overclocked.

You can sli same cards, manufacturer doesn't matter. They use the same gpus given by nvidia and reference board required by nvidia, so "manufacturer" is a misnomer, since there is very little manufacturing going on. It's a matter of pasting on different labels. Call them "distributer" instead. Clock also doesn't matter. You can sli a factory oced card with non-factory oced one.

Don't get a 8800gts for higher than $200. It's a ripoff. A factory oced 8800gts comes to $155 after mir.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127325
There was a stock one for $120 after mir for a while, but they've since jacked up the price.
http://fxvideocards.com/ZOTAC-GeFo [...] 16280.html

The problem with step up is EVGA cards are so overpriced to begin with, for identical hardware. You may actually save money by buying other brands and ignore the step up. You get to keep the old card for an old computer or selling on ebay too.

I figured I could mix and match with different..."distributers" I just wanted to be sure before I ended up with 2 cards that wouldn't work together. Thanks dagger.

Personally, rather than pay money to upgrade and buy a second 9800GTX, I would save all that cash and buy the 4870x2.

You didn't give us specifics, but I imagine upgrading the 8800GTS 640MB to the 9800GTX won't be cheap.

The 4870x2 should give you significantly superior performance to two 9800GTX cards in SLI, plus you won't be spending money on two cards that will limit your upgradability in the future.

X2 isn't out yet, at $500, cost far more than 2 $150 8800gts, and will be just as limited for upgrade since the sli motherboard doesn't support cf.

Looking at how well the 8800GT and the 9800+GTX and the 9800GTX (where shown) do in SLI
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341
I'd just be inclined to get a $150 8800GTS 640 and SLI them.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130317
Then you can sit back for months and see just what's going to happen to make GPUs even better.

I hope they still have them, but yes, you can SLI cards from other manufacturers. My bet is they are out because EVGA is the #1 nV card maker.

Those are some great charts for frame rates that you posted dirt! I think you're right and I'm just gonna grab another 8800GTS, and it should be very close to the 9800GTX SLI configuration.

Actually, the old g80 8800gts is still slower than 9800gtx by quite a bit. It's the same as 9600gt.
http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/02 [...] p/?page=10
Still very good performance though.

G92 8800gts is the one that's the same as 9800gtx:
http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/03 [...] review/12/