9800 GX2 Official!

[Scotty]

Link (http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQzOSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==)


NVIDIA's yet-to-be released GeForce 9800 GX2 in the "flesh." We reveal some of the specs and what should be expected.

The best way to think of the GeForce 9800 GX2 card is as an 8800 GPU that has been die shrunk to 65nm and placed in an SLI configuration in a "single" card. The 9800 GX2 is very reminiscent of 7950 GX2 of days past. (And we loved the 7950 GX2 at launch, but terrible support and diminishing returns soon painted it as one of NVIDIA’s biggest failures since the 5800 series.)

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will launch in late February or early March as it now stands and will replace the 8800 Ultra (single GPU) card in NVIDIA's high-end product line up. The 9800 GX2 is said to be 30% faster than a 8800 Ultra. While it is not clear from the pictures below, we are told it will support "Quad SLI."

GeForce 9800 GX2

1. 1GB Frame Buffer

2. Two PCBs

3. Two 65nm GPUs Total

4. 256 Stream Processors Total

All of the information here comes from sources overseas that we consider trustworthy. Obviously there are some specifications that could be a bit more clear, especially on the memory bus. We would expect to see two 768MB frame buffers per GPU here, but that is not what is spelled out. We are guessing 512MB per GPU currently. Should we learn of any changes and/or corrections we will certainly update this page and inform our readers on our daily news page.

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[Ap1thy]

saw this one on another forum, the specs looks nice, but i just dont like the way the whole card is encased in the metal/plastic and the fact they are still using the 8800 series chipset. Its a great gpu, but still no dx10.1 support (I could care less, but it certainly one advantage the ati 3870 x2 can hold over it) and only 256 stream processors? Time will tell who wins the next high performance war

[crenn]

I'll wait for the card to come out before I judge it. The card may be official, but the specs may not ;3

[Spawn-Inc]

The card may be official, but the specs may not ;3

thats what i'm hoping for, also that the actual specs will be better:)

[Scotty]

256 is a significant improvement over the max of 128 the GTX and Ultras currently hold.

Im more interested in seeing the 9800GTX than this one.

[Chewy_Solo]

i cant wait, i hope they release more detailed specs soon, i mean the release is only a little over a month away! hopefully they dont delay it....

[Indybird]

If a single one of these can run Crysis @ 1920x1200 High, then I am sold. However if they are over $500, are only a minor improvement over the 8800Ultra, have bad drivers or a better (and more reasonable card) is coming out within a month of it then I am not getting it.


Im more interested in seeing the 9800GTX than this one.

100% agreed, especially considering all of the sweet things I've heard about the possible stats.

-Indybird

[crenn]

Well I have to wait either way since I need money to buy a new GPU.

[luciusad2004]

Video cards confuse me so much... seems like a new one comes out every other month and i never know what to look for in them... It sounds impressive though, despite the fact that it is absolutely massive looking.

[Spawn-Inc]

here is the newest card, it will be 10 times more powerful than anything on the market right now, it is so advanced it comes with a nerdy girl to install the card!

http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/2980/geforce9800ed3yd0.jpg

[Scotty]

I wish, its just so unbelievable...

That card would NOT fit in that case.

edit: more pics

LINK (http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/05/exclusive_nvidia_geforce_9800gx2/)

Card has HDMI on, looks about 1-2 inches longer than a 8800GTX
TBH i think it looks hot on that motherboard, especially in SLi.

[luciusad2004]

Dude... Those cards are so big that THE MOTHERBOARD looks like an add-on. But i guess when a person is going for that much graphical power... the mother board probably is an add on in their mind

But honestly... It covers all of the expansion slots so you couldn't use any other cards and i don't even want to know what kind of a power supply you need to push that.

Edit: I'm full of it... I know i would buy one if i had the money.

[dexaroni]

Damn.. the cooler looks real nice, and only 450 is the expected release price.

I will have to see what else is coming out, I may just wait for the Gforce product line refresh (different naming scheme, but Geforce 10 equivalent) before I buy a new card.

[The boy 4rm oz]

No way in hell lol. There is no way they would make a card that big, it wouldn't fit in any case. Look at it, it's twice as wide as a standard card and looks twice as long, easily 60-70 cm long judging on what I can see there.

The 9800GX2 is only meant to perform 30% better than an 8800ULTRA. I am happy with my 8800GTX and wouldn't get this card because it would mean a case upgrade and another PSU upgrade, my GTX barely fits in my LEXA as is.

[Scotty]

Sooner or later people will have to be buying bigger cases. Im pretty sure ill be safe for a while. Im not going to get one of these, until my GTX stops being able to play games a native res, nice settings and a playable frame rate. (Excluding Crysis)

[The boy 4rm oz]

I am going to get a second GTX a few months after the 9*** series GPUs are released and run it in SLI with my other one, that will cap off my gaming experience for a few years until I have to do another full upgrade. A PhysX card wouldn't go a stray either lol.

[crenn]

Hmmm.... anyone notice the optical out?

[Scotty]

Yea. HDMI and Optical? Odd, very odd.

[crenn]

I'm wondering if this thing has a built in sound card!

[The boy 4rm oz]

The whole sound thing will be the same as the Radeons, on board sound.

[crenn]

Can you be certain? I don't recall the Radeons having optical out. We'll have to wait and see, but it's going to be an interesting development.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Sorry I wasn't very clear. Doesn't HDMI contain Video and Audio signals? Don't the Radeons process both but only have a HDMI output? The optical out on the 9800 GX2 (I presume) will allow you to connect the GPU to your X-FI sound card to share the load and possibly get better performance, which would be cool but may still be a bit tedious in the long run (kinda like how PhysX cards turned out). You may even be able to connect it to your home theater system for better integration and over all HTPC flexibility.

[crenn]

HDMI contains both signals. The Radeons don't process sound, the onboard sound still does that. I wouldn't think a GPU and a X-Fi would do any load balancing, it's still dependant on the X-Fi to do the sound, but the HDMI output may just 'integrate' the sound and video the GPU outputs.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I'm not an expert but by going from what you are saying it sounds like that's how it will probably turn out. Still it's good to see that they actually thought to integrate HDMI into the card.

[crenn]

I had an interesting thought this morning. It has 3 video connectors. 2x DVI and 1x HDMI, does this mean it will be able to support 3 monitors?

[The boy 4rm oz]

Who knows, I would say that you would only be able to access either HDMI or DVI.

[Indybird]

Actually I think it does support 3 monitors because the HDMI probably replaces the "Video Out" (Component, Composite, S-Video) connections that graphics cards have had for a while now.

-Indybird