Another 9800gx2 post! huzzah!

[saberwing_ca]

My Fathers video card recently blew up on him, and finds himself on a tight budget. I have opted to help him out and I am thinking of selling him my 8800 gt and upgrading to the 9800gx2.

I have read other posts saying wait for the 4850X2 but the site I usually buy me parts from has the GX2 practically half off...http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=29030&vpn=01G-P3-N891-AR&manufacture=eVGA&promoid=1014 should I?

 

[saberwing_ca]

Well I guess I neglected to notice you need an 8pin pci-e power supply...this could greatly increase the price of this since I would have to get a new power supply too. /sigh

 

[Annisman]

I assume you live in Canada ?

 

[Guest]

or just get a 4870... its slightly worse than the 9800 gx2.... which is more or less equal to the gtx 280... only requires 2 6-pin connectors and is cheaper

 

[Quitoman]

The 4850 will provide a big performance increase from your 8800GT and it only cost about $150 ( I bought an open box for $137) and did I mention it only need ONE 6-pin

 

[monsta]

If you are getting the 9800GX2 cheap , then go for it

 

[ovaltineplease]

Well I guess I neglected to notice you need an 8pin pci-e power supply...this could greatly increase the price of this since I would have to get a new power supply too. /sigh

No need to get a new power supply unless you want to overclock the card, these cards come with 8pin->6pin adapters - http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-N891-AR&family=GeForce%209%20Series%20Family

The 9800gx2 has been shown to regularly outperform the 4850, 4870, GTX260, and GTX280 until you get into very high res(1920*1200+) and high AA where the 512mb video ram limits it over the newer cards from either company.

Another issue is that the card does produce a lot of heat, however it is designed to handle this so it should generally be a non issue.

Lastly, these cards perform poorly in SLI (aka quad SLI) mode - it just doesn't work very well under that architecture; so if you intended to add a second GPU eventually its not the best choice.

Regardless of these issues, a 9800GX2 is a pretty great card for 310$ - it definitely outperforms everything else I can think of in that price class unless you are running at 24"+ resolution - at which the newer generation cards are statistically better.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[L1qu1d]

actually I ended up testing the Quad sli, it peformed very well, I was shocked. COD4 obviously loved it, and Crysis got something from it. The only game that would crash or run slow was oblivion. Everything else the Scaling was awesome.

The GX2 holds its own up to 1920x1200. anything over that, it falls on its face hard. 1920x1200 with AA on (In most games) should work just fine

 

[monsta]

Have to agree with Liquid, good to hear it from someone that has or owns the 9800GX2.
Im a proud owner of a Quad Sli set up , it performs great, all the games Im currently playing run without a glitch at 1920x1200, yes its not a cheap set up but hey its what I wanted and Im very happy with it. Even the single 9800GX2 performs very well.