Geforce 9800GTX + Performance Preview Options

[ChrisRay]

Geforce 9800GTX +




Introduction: The Geforce 9800GTX + is basically a die shrunked 9800GTX on steroids with higher clocks. From the outside you cant tell it apart from a standard 9800GTX. The main advantages of lowering the process is the ability of reducing heat and power while allowing for higher clocks. The 9800GTX + has been changed by adding increase core and shader clocks. While the memory remains the same. Like the 9800GTX standard it only has 512 megs of memory. This preview I am doing something a little different than I have in prior previews. I am providing a max stable overclock result to all my benchmarks. So everything labeled as 9800GTX + OC will represent my attempts at overclocking this part.






Card Impressions: The 9800GTX + uses the same cooler as the 9800GTX. Infact they are identical in almost every aspect. The 9800GTX + can also be SLI'd or 3 Way SLI'd with older 65 NM 9800GTX cards as well. Most cards at the 200 dollar ranges have limited coolers and dont tend to overclock or stay cool as well due to that. The 9800GTX + cooler is more than enough to keep this card cool. And in some ways overkill. But will protect the lifespan of your GPU. The cooler itself is quiet and I've never seen it spin up over 30% in even some of the most GPU intensive enviroments. Making it quiter than the GTX 260 and GTX 280 which can get a bit louder under load.

Power Usage and Savings: Like the 9800GTX the 9800GTX + uses the same dual 6 pin connectors found on the 9800GTX, 8800GTX and GTX 260 cards so it should be compatible with most power supplies. While it doesnt feature the advanced idling capabilities of the GTX 200 series it does feature hybrid power for Hybrid SLI setups.

Other Details: I'm not going to bore people here with the rest of the details because there arent any. It's a smaller more clockable 9800GTX. Beyond that not a whole lot has changed.

Test Setup

[ChrisRay]

PhysX PhysX PhysX


Opening Thoughts: Less than a month ago we were just "talking" about PhysX on the GPU. And now its here and a reality. Currently only a few games support it. Nvidia has told me they are working on making other existing PPU enabled titles work with PhysX. Also I currently know of at least 12 games coming with GPU PhysX support. In my testing I am going to demonstrate Nvidia's UT3 PhysX mod using Tornado and Heat Ray levels.

Screenshots









Note: PhysX effects seen here are running off the CPU. Not GPU.

Thoughts: PhysX really made these levels come alive. Hail was falling and bouncing off the ground. Glass was shattering. Decals were seering. On the tornado level the tornado was dragging objects and pulling roof tops as it passed over them. Which was really breath taking to behold. A completely different experience than with PhysX disabled. The only problem was that these effects were costly and my performance nose dived... so I enabled GPU PhysX...




Final Thoughts: All I can say is wow. This was just a single 9800GTX. Not even with SLI and the performance improvement was substancial. And there no loss to actual rendering gameplay performance due to using the stream processors to process performance effects before the final rendering. If Nvidia can continue to deliver PhysX performance like this and change the way we percieve Physics.. all I can say is "Sign me Up". It really is quite incredible. This is with a 200 Dollar CPU and a 200 dollar GPU.

GamePlay Benchmarks







Thoughts: Fear is primarily limited by Stencil Performance and fillrate. So the GTX 260 and 280's wider pipelines really allow the cards to stretch there legs. It should be noted that 2 9800GTX + cards surpass the GTX 280 in performance here.

[ChrisRay]

Thoughts: I changed the way I did my Nevewinter Nights 2 tests. Instead of just using app preference AA I am now using "ENhance" setting. Allowing for 16x CSAA and transparency SS. This increases the GPU bottleneck but uses less memory than the 8x multisampling mode allowing the 9800GTX + to behave more naturally at high settings. The use of 8x multisampling causes the 512 cards to fall behind substancially due to the memory bottleneck as seen in my GTX 260/280 investigation.






Thoughts: I also made a slight change to this benchmark changing the shadows to maximim to increase the GPU workload. The 9800GTX once again behaves fairly linear with its pricing compared to the GTX 280 and 260. The 9800GTX + SLI configuration once again is pulling ahead of a single GTX 280. The overclocked 9800GTX pulling in slightly behind the GTX 260.






Thoughts: Pretty much the same story. Overclocking the 9800GTX helps but in an but is still unable to catch the the GTX 260 b with the 9800 GTX + SLI configuration pulling ahead of the GTX 280.

[ChrisRay]

Thoughts: UT3 finds itself becoming CPU limited on the high end GTX 280 SLI configurations at the lower resolutions. Once the resolution raises. The 9800GTX tends to fall more in line with other tests.








Thoughts: I chose Crysis for last because it demonstrates a point that cant be seen in most of these tests. The 9800GTX can be limited by its 512 megs of memory. At lower resolutions the memory doesnt prevent it from performing as expected. But once the resolution is raised. The 9800GTX suffers a serious performance deficit. As the resolution raises beyond the settings used in this preview. This will be more apparent varying from game to game and its something that you should highly consider when choosing your parts.


Thoughts and Conclusion:

9800GTX +: I think the 9800GTX would have been very welcomed if it delivered this performance in place of what the current 9800GTX delivers. It would have been a much better "upgrade" option for older Nvidia users. But reality is. The 9800GTX + was released a few months after the 9800GTX. So it sort of sours the impression a bit. If your looking for a card to deliver on a 19 inch monitor with reasonable performance now. Then this is a good card to have. Its cheaper than it used too be starting at 229 dollars. Once the price drops further I think the card will become more attractive to more users. Unfortunately the 9800GTX + has to deal with yet another nemesis. The GTX 260. The Geforce GTX 260 was slated for 400 dollars 4 weeks ago. And if that price had remained the 9800GTX + would look alot more appealing. However if you search well enough you can find GTX 260 cards ranging from 325 to as low as 260 dollars. The question you'll have to ask yourself is the small price premium of the 260 worth the additional features and memory the GTX 260 brings to the table. I'd have to say yes. Even when overclocking I wasnt able to match the GTX 260's performance and it can also be overclocked.

9800GTX + SLI: Combining 2 lower end cards to beat 1 higher end card is not exactly a new concept. We SLI users have been doing it since the 6600 GT. However while the 9800GTX + is able to surpass the GTX 280 at these resolutions and levels; As seen in Crysis you can see that it will face an uphill battle compared to the GTX 260 and 280 as games start utilizing more memory or the resolution increases. For those looking to upgrade there current 9800GTX cards. The 9800GTX + will SLI with the 65 NM 9800GTX counterparts. So upgrading to a second card may not be such a bad idea. However if your building now and spending in the 450 range. I'd suggest considering the GTX 280 for just a little bit more. While it may perform slightlly worse. Its more expandable and will allow you to keep the resolutions up and will unlikely ever be bottlenecked by its total memory in its lifetime.

Summary: With all that being said. The 9800GTX + isnt a bad card. Its cool and quiet. It performs well. And is still one of the easiest 3 way SLI setups to manage from a thermal perspective. Its fairly overclockable and should suit the average user quite well. It runs cool thanks to the exceptional cooler for its price range.


Pros

+ Good Quiet Cooling
+ Overclockable
+ Can be SLI'd to meet and exceed a GTX 280's performance in certain cases.
+ PhysX support thats here and now.
+ Fairly decent value if it hits the 200 dollar price point.

Cons

- Faces tough competition from its bigger brother the GTX 260.
- 512 Megs of memory can be a severe bottleneck in some cases. Specially when SLIng for higher resolutions.
- Could be a little cheaper
- Very hard to tell whether or not your getting a 9800GTX + or a regular 9800GTX. Shop carefully.

[Exitios]

Give 'em a hand, folks, not even five days back and he's already cranked out a review for us. He doesn't even seem to mind I robbed him of his GX2s!

[ChrisRay]

Oh I am aware theres some typos in my graphs. I am working on it.

[Valconeye]

Hmm.. gunpoint :)

Ill trade my 2 7950gx2's for a gtx 260 :)

Should go nicely with my lonely single gtx 260..

To keep it on topic, nice reviews.

I like those high clocks, makes me excited to see the new GTX 260/280 versions when they come out.

This post has been edited by Valconeye: Jul 11 2008, 01:35 AM

[Luke_SLI]

Very cool! Wish I saw some 1920 x 1200 :(

Is it fair to say that the "512 Megs of memory can be a severe bottleneck in some cases" instead of the memory interface itself? We've seen how the 1gig 8800GTS G92 and GT's did and they didn't do too much better.

I've seen 9800 GTX's running a 850Mhz core. I was hoping to see what a 9800 GTX+ could do :(

This post has been edited by Luke: Jul 11 2008, 01:43 AM

[ChrisRay]

I never seem to get these magic overclockers. My standard 9800GTX cards cap at about 1775 Mhz on shader and 740 on the core.

[Luke_SLI]

I never seem to get these magic overclockers. My standard 9800GTX cards cap at about 1775 Mhz on shader and 740 on the core.

Freakin 8800 G92 GTS :Shrug: One six pin connector and 65nm :shrug: Memory will run at 1052 just fine too! The card came stardard with a 730Mhz core.



This post has been edited by Luke: Jul 11 2008, 02:27 AM

[ChrisRay]

Is that a single card? I do my stability testing with SLI enabled. Which does effect maximum overclock range.

[Luke_SLI]

Is that a single card? I do my stability testing with SLI enabled. Which does effect maximum overclock range.

Single card.

[ChrisRay]

Well I am pretty sure this card would clock higher if twas operating by itself. But this is an SLI website. So I tend to do my testong with SLI considerations in mind.

[420Ryme]

16xAA? In Crysis? GTX280? 16x... yeah? You sure that's right? *thinks about selling his car*


Very well done ChrisNewRayEgg! I agree with you on the point that there was really no need for the GTX+ with the price of the 260 dropping so quickly and dramatically. You would have to be a fool to not spend the extra - what - 120$ to get a pair of 260's for the performance gain shown.

[Luke_SLI]

Well I am pretty sure this card would clock higher if twas operating by itself. But this is an SLI website. So I tend to do my testong with SLI considerations in mind.

I, personally, am a poor college student. I cannot afford 2 cards a gigantic PSU and some fancy Nvidia motherboard.

I can however afford one card. Where is the Nvidia site for poor people like me?

[geckoguru]

Chris, which drivers did you use to enable the physx on your 9800 GTX?

Im pretty sure the G92 GTS isn't officially supported with physx, but i had heard somewhere that it will work. Any truth to this?

This post has been edited by geckoguru: Jul 11 2008, 03:01 AM

[Luke_SLI]

Im pretty sure the G92 GTS isn't officially supported with physx, but i had heard somewhere that it will work. Any truth to this?

Yes. With 173.39 I scored a P7850 on vantage because of physx.

[ChrisRay]

I, personally, am a poor college student. I cannot afford 2 cards a gigantic PSU and some fancy Nvidia motherboard.

I can however afford one card. Where is the Nvidia site for poor people like me?

Your in the right place. This forum is open to all interested in Nvidia hardware. I am simply pointing out that this is an SLI website. So my test beds, settings, and testing patterns stay consistent with SLI interests. The drivers I used are listed in my test configuration.

[420Ryme]

Chris, which drivers did you use to enable the physx on your 9800 GTX?

Im pretty sure the G92 GTS isn't officially supported with physx, but i had heard somewhere that it will work. Any truth to this?

You can find mod'ed INF's on the guru3d forum for the 93 drivers.

[SoloBuggMaster]

I, personally, am a poor college student. I cannot afford 2 cards a gigantic PSU and some fancy Nvidia motherboard.

I can however afford one card. Where is the Nvidia site for poor people like me?

Seriously,
anyway, nice review ChrisNewRayEgg.
it's a nice cheap card and good competition for that 4850.