Is the 9800 gx2 still a good choice?

I recenty bought a 9800 gx2, but reading the forums I got the idea that I made a bad choice.
Should I keep the card or sell it a get another one?
GTX 260 core 216 or HD 4870 1 GB? What do you think?

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yup..especially for farcry 2 its a disaster (sorry to say that)..check it out yourself..its the bottom most card..

http://www.guru3d.com/article/far- [...] e-review/5

but if u still have time rma it and get a different one like the radeon 4870 Igb or 260gtx instead

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Reply to mbbs20

9800 GX2 is a good choice, but it doesn't support DX10.1 like the ATI's do and that's why it's criticised. It's not a major loss 10.1, so don't worry about it. Anyhow the 9800 GX2 is faster than the the 4870 by quite a margin in some games, You'd be downgrading with either of those cards you listed, ignore the fanboys.

Reply to speedbird

these are early results. We'll most likely see updated drivers that allow the 9800gx2 to perform much better on far cry 2. I mean, come on, the 9800 single card outperforms it? That'll change soon.

it's not a bad choice for a card, especially at the price point. If you want to do better, you'll have to get two 4850/4870s or two gtx260s

I have the 9800gx2 and have been playing and replaying Crysis. it performs wonderfully as long as you don't turn on AA.

------------------------------ They call me crazy for yelling, alone in my room, at the computer screen. They just don\\\\\\\'t understand the game.
Reply to jeremyrailton

mbbs20 wrote :

yup..especially for farcry 2 its a disaster (sorry to say that)..check it out yourself..its the bottom most card..

http://www.guru3d.com/article/far- [...] e-review/5

but if u still have time rma it and get a different one like the radeon 4870 Igb or 260gtx instead

Laughable, how exactly does a 8800GT defeat a 9800GX2 ? :sarcastic: something a miss here I think. It's either a driver problem that's caused this or this Benchmark is complete BS?. If it's a driver problem then Nvidia will soon be releasing FarCry 2 optimised drivers.

anyhow....

I wouldn't go by one benchmark especially ones like that!

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Reply to speedbird

The GX2 can be as powerful as the 280, but you need to keep your drivers up to date in order to ensure the GX2 is optimized for any particular game. Far Cry 2, for instance, the GX2 does a really bad job, yet its faster than the 280 in Crysis. For the GX2, its about driver support, but on average, still crushes the 4870 and 260 one on one.

Reply to gamerk316

thanks for your comments, in my country getting hardware is very difficult and expensive, so it´s good to know that I didn't mess it up

Message edited by mrmagoogt on 10-22-2008 at 05:29:53 PM

Reply to mrmagoogt

well, the 9800GX2 is potentially one of the 3 most powerfull graphyc cards today when it uses its 2 GPUs, that is OK, we can assume that, yeah powerfull card but......, great big mistake.... 512MB onboard usefull memory......, well this is not exactly what a monster graphycs card will need, if it was paired with 1GB it would be the moster it should.....
That is the main problem of this card......., well if you use it por 1680x1050 it would be ok but if you use higher resolutions you would be better with a GTX260/280 or a 4870 1GB o 4870X2.

Dammit i have it and use 1920x1200!!!!! im not so happy with that 512MB.......

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Reply to mayouuu

speedbird wrote :

Laughable, how exactly does a 8800GT defeat a 9800GX2 ? :sarcastic: something a miss here I think. It's either a driver problem that's caused this or this Benchmark is complete BS?. If it's a driver problem then Nvidia will soon be releasing FarCry 2 optimised drivers.

anyhow....

I wouldn't go by one benchmark especially ones like that!

That benchmark is real and solid. And yes, it's a driver problem. It's not just x2 cards, but all sli setups as well. The Nvidia driver fix is already in place in beta driver (released yeasterday, same day as Far Cry 2 release), and will be in the next official driver.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/GeForc [...] -2104.html
The game bug also applies to crossfire/ATI x2 cards. There is no driver fix from ATI out yet, but expect it very soon.

mayouuu wrote :

well, the 9800GX2 is potentially one of the 3 most powerfull graphyc cards today when it uses its 2 GPUs, that is OK, we can assume that, yeah powerfull card but......, great big mistake.... 512MB onboard usefull memory......, well this is not exactly what a monster graphycs card will need, if it was paired with 1GB it would be the moster it should.....
That is the main problem of this card......., well if you use it por 1680x1050 it would be ok but if you use higher resolutions you would be better with a GTX260/280 or a 4870 1GB o 4870X2.

Dammit i have it and use 1920x1200!!!!! im not so happy with that 512MB.......

512mb of ram does not run out at 1920x1200 resolution. See benchmarks at 1920x1200. It does run out at higher resolutions, although most monitors can't handle higher.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=14
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=15
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=16
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=17
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=18
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=19

And 9800gx2 is not just "potentially one of 3 most powerful graphics cards today," it's ranked 2nd place, above gtx280 and below 4870x2.

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
Reply to dagger

well, it does run out of memory . Crysis Warhead @ 1920x1200

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Reply to mayouuu

the 9800 GX2 is an awesome card! especially cos its cheap! runs far cry 2 fabulously!!!!!!!!!1

Reply to alex_oneill2006

mayouuu wrote :

well, it does run out of memory . Crysis Warhead @ 1920x1200
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217 [...] ws1.th.jpg http://img217.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif

That's strange. The old Crysis didn't run out of vram at 1920x1200, I thought Warhead is supposed to be more optimized. :??:
http://www.anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=3192

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
Reply to dagger

I did a head to head test GX2 vs 280 GTX, the 280 can do more AA, Crysis AA @ 4 crippled the GX2 even @ 1280x1024 in intensive scneces, while the 280 didn't even take a hit (not even 1 fps) when turned on.

The GX2 can only do soo much, to be honest I couldn't go back to it, was a very big pain in the rump.

Though the price kinda negates those pains at the moment.

I don;t think I'm ever going to go for an X2 or GX2 card ever again...too many problems, and optimizations to run a simple game.

1 card or just plain real SLI configuration for me will do me just fine alteas there I actually have 2 physical card Plus SLI is way less of a pain than QUad sli

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Reply to L1qu1d

L1qu1d wrote :

I did a head to head test GX2 vs 280 GTX, the 280 can do more AA, Crysis AA @ 4 crippled the GX2 even @ 1280x1024 in intensive scneces, while the 280 didn't even take a hit (not even 1 fps) when turned on.

The GX2 can only do soo much, to be honest I couldn't go back to it, was a very big pain in the rump.

Though the price kinda negates those pains at the moment.

I don;t think I'm ever going to go for an X2 or GX2 card ever again...too many problems, and optimizations to run a simple game.

1 card or just plain real SLI configuration for me will do me just fine alteas there I actually have 2 physical card Plus SLI is way less of a pain than QUad sli

That's strange. Are you sure you did it right? Here's benchmark for Crysis at 1920x1200, 4xAA.

Crysis is a very pro gtx280 game. Notice how gtx280 outperforms 4870x2. Doesn't happen often.

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
Reply to dagger

trust me I stress out these cards to the max, the benchmarks they do don't stress the card out as much as actually playing the game through. The stupid Benchmark tool makes my old 9600 GT OC look good

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Reply to L1qu1d

L1qu1d wrote :

trust me I stress out these cards to the max, the benchmarks they do don't stress the card out as much as actually playing the game through. The stupid Benchmark tool makes my old 9600 GT OC look good

I use the benchmark tool, and it seems pretty decent, fast moving camera...etc.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Crysis [...] -1791.html

If you're talking about explosions and physics ladden scenes, may the cpu is bottlenecking? Dual gpu eats up more cpu power.

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
Reply to dagger

lol doubtful...I have it clocked @ 3.6....how much CPU do you need? lol to actually use that card then

I'm talking about lighting and gun fights not physics...

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Reply to L1qu1d

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