Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX Review

Features
By Florian Charpentier
published

Flight Simulator X

Flight Simulator X is often considered, and rightly so, to be an application that's limited by the processor. That remains true in a lot of ways, given the similar performance of most GeForce 8s at all resolutions except 1920x1200 with the filters activated for this title, but we noticed that the driver also has its importance. As a result, AMD was significantly behind, peaking at less than 22 frames per second, even with the 3870 X2 (which is 25% less than the 8800 GTX/Ultra).

Conversely, the 174.53 driver seemed to squeeze a little more performance out of the G92 -the 9800 GTX posted 10% better performance than the 8800 GTS 512 MB (and even 24% better at 1920x1200 with the filters activated), whereas the GTS never managed to move ahead of the 8800 GT, even though their specifications are further apart. And the 8800 GTS 512 MB and the 8800 GT share the same driver.

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