9800x2 or GTX280?

[ppv]

Well... the benchmarks for cod5 the 9800x2 is doing quite well.. so i wanna know if there's anyone who own both cards and which is better?
according to the specs the gtx280 is better right? but why the 9800x2 overcomes the gtx?
also im planning to get a new display card, my specs
P5K
Corsair 750TX
Dominator 4GB kit (1066)
Vista 32
native reso 1600*1050
i wanna run at maximum, and i dont hope to see fps <60
thx :O

 

[gkay09]

welll u see the GX2 better cos of the 2 chips on the single card..but u shuld go wit the gtx280 bcos it wil help u in the future upgrades....stick to the gtx280...get another one later n sli them...

 

[fergie]

I upgraded from a 9800gx2 to 280s and they feel so much smoother when gaming.With the GX2 you get stuttering which I think is quite common.

 

[ppv]

thx for the feedback, btw are you guys aware if nvidia is going to release a new card?
would it be a 280x2? if it is shouldnt be good rite? coz u mentioned that the 9800x2 was stuttering right...
any websites with good prices to get a 280? well im looking for an asus or evga.. thx

 

[JeanLuc]

There’s not a lot of difference in speed between the two cards however its worth pointing out that the 9800GX2 requires games to be suitably coded to use SLI, if their not coded correctly or if the drivers need updating the cards performance will suffer greatly. With the GTX280 you just don’t get these issues.

 

[gamerk316]

The GX2 and 280 typically perform about the same, although a few games do NOT like the GX2. GX2 performance has steadilly improved over the past year, and considering its half the price of a 280, its not a bad buy at all.

EDIT

To clarify, I can't think of a single game off-hand that the GX2 had scaling issues in that wasn't fixed in the games first patch, or by a subsequent driver release. You might want to check to see if any of your games you currently have suffer first though, just to be safe. At worst, the GX2 is slightly more powerful than a single 9800 GTX. At best, it performs slightly better than a 280 at half the price.

END EDIT

As for stuttering, I've never encountered it on a GX2, apart from TRYING to run Crysis at high res that one time...I guess most of the people complaining about stuttering have a weaker CPU, but I've never seen a single instance of Microstuttering on my GX2.

 

[L1qu1d]

COD5 had problems, because sli makes it screw up. Far cry 2 didn't scale at all it did worse than any other card. Oblivion doesn't like quad GX2s.

And the 512 Vram holds it back from acheive 16 AA in alot of games. Crysis I can't do 4xs AA playable even with quad sli.

Now with 1 of my 280 GTXs I can actually do 16. And with barely and performance hit.

I'd do the 280 GTX, runs cooler, don't have to worry about sli profiles. and is less hassle when sliing. PLus the 9800 GX2 is getting phased out, which is one of the reasons I did the trade.

 

[xxcoop42xx]

yeah its really what you would like to have honestly, they perform the same most of the time with the GX2 ahead by a little. i own a 9800GX2 and i never had any issues with it as for microstuttering or scaling problems, its a fast card and it does its job well. one issue i would make a point is the GTX280 will run way way cooler. the GX2 is 2 cards packed into one metal case and one fan so it runs pretty hot (mine idled at 60C and under load could get upto around 87C so be careful) but i have now swithced to SLI 9800GTX+ in my main system and put the GX2 in my 2nd rig in which i had a GTX260-216. so just research the games, look at benchmarks and decide. the GX2 i hear is a lot cheaper. good luck

i also noticed COD5 not using SLI very well even though you change the dual video card option to yes, it doesnt use SLI at all as far as i can tell. my temps while playing only gpu1 temp goes up while gpu2 temp stays at idle temp.

 

[gamerk316]

For CoD4, i didn't have any issues with my GX2...although I never clicked the "use dual video cards" option; i figured that should be OFF for CoD5 (its the same engine, so i'm surprised there's an issue there).

Far Cry 2 does struggle a bit, but I can get to 1600x1280, with everything maxed, no AA without any issues. Already, the Beta drivers help out a TON in Far Cry 2, so I'm waiting for the next official driver release before I can judge the GX2's performance on this one.

The GX2 beats the 280 in Crysis. There's no point to playing on resolutions over 1280x1024 (or 1440x900) at this point anyway. AA set to 0 goes without saying.


Again, the 280 is a better overall package, but the GX2 is almost as good for under half the price.

 

[L1qu1d]

Agreed GX2 does beat every card @ Crysis, but when AA is on even @ 1280x1024 it still struggles, I couldn't get it passed 4 AA, anything higher it dropped to 20s and lower.

4 half the price it is a good deal, but personally I wouldn't go back to it, the micro stutter happens alot, and I play CSS alot, and source hates the GX2 and quad sli GX2.

Plus when I play a non sli game, I'd like to have 280 GTX power instead of an underclocked 8800 GTS

 

[L1qu1d]

in all honesty though, ur better off paying the extra 100$ and buying a 4870 X2. I mean that card owns all of these, and if it comes down to non sli game, u won't take as much of a hit as goind from GX2 to 8800 GTS.

 

[Silverion77]

They are basically the same card....performance wise
There is the microstuttering for the GX2 but i RARELY get it. Sometimes i get it in Crysis but it goes away once i play for awhile.

Only reason i see getting the 280 is if u plan on SLIing it because the GX2 scales poorly due to the 512MB of ram.
But the fact that u have a P5K mobo, i dont feel ull be going that path very soon and by then the new card will beat any sli.

Some new games at first get bad frames, like in L4D demo i got 50 and up to 100 in dark areas. but in other source engines i easily get 250+ maxed. My conclusion is 1) the demo isnt rly coded for "SLI" or dual chips or 2) the drivers for L4D in general need to be updated

 

[invisik]

COD5 had problems, because sli makes it screw up. Far cry 2 didn't scale at all it did worse than any other card. Oblivion doesn't like quad GX2s.

And the 512 Vram holds it back from acheive 16 AA in alot of games. Crysis I can't do 4xs AA playable even with quad sli.

Now with 1 of my 280 GTXs I can actually do 16. And with barely and performance hit.

I'd do the 280 GTX, runs cooler, don't have to worry about sli profiles. and is less hassle when sliing. PLus the 9800 GX2 is getting phased out, which is one of the reasons I did the trade.

+1
i agree i would recommend the gtx280

 

[L1qu1d]

They are basically the same card....performance wise
There is the microstuttering for the GX2 but i RARELY get it. Sometimes i get it in Crysis but it goes away once i play for awhile.

Only reason i see getting the 280 is if u plan on SLIing it because the GX2 scales poorly due to the 512MB of ram.
But the fact that u have a P5K mobo, i dont feel ull be going that path very soon and by then the new card will beat any sli.

Some new games at first get bad frames, like in L4D demo i got 50 and up to 100 in dark areas. but in other source engines i easily get 250+ maxed. My conclusion is 1) the demo isnt rly coded for "SLI" or dual chips or 2) the drivers for L4D in general need to be updated

Source is very CPU based, and doesn't do well past 2 cards. Either way Source is now ATI territory. I personally had the GX2, and it is great for the price, but like I said I wouldn't go back because of the lack of support in the future, and also because I love the fact that I can run games on 1 GPU now. It really makes me more secure as a user knowing that worse case scenerio 1 280 GTX is as strong as (Depending ont he settings, the higher the more they go towards the 280 GTX) the 9800 GX2.

At 200-250$ that I've seen the GX2, it is a very hard deal to pass though, and if your gaming at anything lower than 1920x1200, and don't plan on using anything over 4 AA (Crysis styled games) than this is ur card.

IF you want to be more secure and future friendly the 280 GTX, 260 GTX, 4870 512/1 gig (I want to add even the 4850 since it is stronger than 1 9800 GX2 GPU for a good price compared to the 9800 GTXs). And you want a sure thing, the 4870 X2 is a monster. I was going to recommend the 4850 X2, but thats 100+ higher than the 280 GTx and they perform about the same ATm.

Happy shopping.

 

[Silverion77]

+1 to Liquid

The only reason to get the 4850x2 i see is for what im building soon....another 3 monitor workstation and it gives 4 DVIs. So instead of 2 9800s i can get one of those. Just more convenient to use

 

[ppv]

is the 4870x2 really worth it? the benchmarks ive been seeing is that 98x2 and gtx280 > them..
plus isnt it a extremely hot card?

 

[ppv]

can you guys give me a good website to buy the display cards? (i live in south of china, Macau)
thx