Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX Review

Features
By Florian Charpentier
published

Introduction

The way the GeForce 9 series has been introduced is probably not one of the best decisions the marketing department at Nvidia has made recently. This is the first time the manufacturer has launched a new generation of graphic cards that make exclusive use of an existing GPU core from the preceding generation, with absolutely no change to either the instruction set or to the stream processors.

After the midrange GeForce 9600 GT and the very-high-end 9800 GX2, Nvidia now feels that it has to bring out a new high-end device, the GeForce 9800 GTX, but one that's actually more like just another version of the G92, after the 8800 GT and GTS. Still, the 9600 GT was a very good card, and it even opened up a new segment of the market, with a lower price point than the GeForce 8800 GT 256 MB and closer to AMD's offering. But will the 9800 GTX do the same?

(Compare Prices on Geforce 9800 Graphics Cards)

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Florian Charpentier
5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • BPT747
    Interesting results, I have found several card makers (Palit, Asus, Evga, and Zotac) that make a 1GB 8800GT(S). Since you were speaking of the memory limitations of the 9800GTX, I am curious how these cards would preform with the 8800 driver optimizations you mentioned.
    Reply
  • Spectere
    I purchased a GF9800GTX not long after it came out and the only time I recall hearing the fan spin up to high (which is fairly loud) is when the card first initialized itself when I turn my system on. I've logged many hours of game time on this rig and haven't heard it spin up at all. I'm using the ForceWare 174.74 drivers and an XFX branded card (if that would make any difference at all...probably not).
    Reply
  • teamjawbox
    Would an Intel Core 2 Duo Dual Core E6600 (2.4ghz) 1066FSB processor bottleneck the 9800GTX? Trying to decide whether to get one or not and dont want to get it and not see an increase in performance due to my processor. Thanks!
    Reply
  • ziegemon
    Processor bottleneck goes up to about 3.2 Ghz on my Q9450
    Reply
  • TiberiumSoldier
    i am going to buy an intel Core 2 Duo E8500 with ASUS or XFX or eVGA 9800gtx and 2gb Corsair Dominator ram.. is this a good option??? or i should buy an AMD Phenom 9600?
    Reply