9800 GTX Review / Benchmarks

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Parker

He has two 8800GTS 320MB cards not 640MB.
The GTX will beat the GTS 320's.

And BTW, when you put cards in SLI for instance two 8800GTS 320MB cards, that doesn't mean you now have 640MB of video memory and a 2x320bit interface. Thats not how SLI works, both of the cards are fed information and they both work together to produce the graphics power required.

Put it this way, would you rather hike up half dome with a 50lb. backpack by yourself, or with a buddy to share the load and take 25lb. off your back and hike up with you?

IMO, SLI is a waist of money unless your running anything bigger than a 24" LCD.
One High end card is better than to low end cards.. (unless of course you've got money's to burn and want two or three high end cards).

2x320MB is 640MB. Besides, you do have 640MB of video memory in SLi. And you do have 2x320bit bus. That's actually how SLi works. Both cards are different entities and except the fact they share data they are still the same cards you know.
I believe 2 8800GTS 320MB would perform a bit less than a 9800GTX however.

[Parker]

Originally Posted by polobunny

2x320MB is 640MB. Besides, you do have 640MB of video memory in SLi. And you do have 2x320bit bus. That's actually how SLi works. Both cards are different entities and except the fact they share data they are still the same cards you know.

Hmmmm, well ok. I said exactly what you said on another forum a while back and someone corrected me saying what I explained above.
But whatever.... Thanks PB!

I believe 2 8800GTS 320MB would perform a bit less than a 9800GTX however.

I agree an 100 percent!!

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Parker

Hmmmm, well ok. I said exactly what you said on another forum a while back and someone corrected me saying what I explained above.
But whatever.... Thanks PB!



I agree an 100 percent!!

What I meant is that the hardware doesn't change because you have the two cards connected together, but don't expect the performance to scale in SLi as if your 3DMark06 scores would double.
There's somewhat a good load of processing needed for the two cards to work together, not talking about the drivers which are always being worked on. SLi normally gives a good boost (~18% to ~30% in average FPS depending on the configuration).

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by polobunny

2x320MB is 640MB. Besides, you do have 640MB of video memory in SLi. And you do have 2x320bit bus. That's actually how SLi works. Both cards are different entities and except the fact they share data they are still the same cards you know.
I believe 2 8800GTS 320MB would perform a bit less than a 9800GTX however.

Not exactly. While you physically have double the RAM, it's not the same as having an effective 640MB buffer:

Originally Posted by SLIZone

Dear Mad Mod Mike,
If I have two GeForce 6600GT 128MB cards hooked up in an SLI configuration will video games use 256MB of video RAM? I ask because an article at Guru3d says that the video is "cloned" from one card to another and that video games cannot use the video memory as if you had a single 256MB card.

Confused,
Jeffrey

This is a common question Jeffrey. Guru3D is correct. The graphics memory is NOT doubled in SLI mode. If you have two 128MB graphics cards, you do NOT have an effective 256MB. Most of the games operate in AFR (alternate frame rendering). The first card renders one full frame and then the next card renders the next frame and so on. If you picture SLI working in this way it is easy to see that each frame only has 128MB of memory to work with.

If you feel you need 256MB or even 512MB of graphics memory for certain games, then you need to make sure that each card has that much memory. Also keep in mind that if you mix a 128MB GeForce 6600GT with a 256MB GeForce 6600GT that BOTH cards will operate with 128MB of graphics memory (the lowest common memory size of the two cards).

Graphics Memory & SLI - Everything you need to know

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by One4yu2c

Not exactly. While you physically have double the RAM, it's not the same as having an effective 640MB buffer:



Graphics Memory & SLI - Everything you need to know

Hmm I see where you're going to. You could technically use SFR to maximize your "640mb" memory. SFR doesn't scale as nicely as AFR however in terms of performance. You still have 640Mb of physical memory available, it's just that you could end up not using it fully depending on your application configuration.
Good thing you cleared that one up Paul.

[RBIEZE]

About memory buffers.

you only actually utilize the memory of the first card in an SLI setup.
Data from the first card is mirrored in the second cards memory.

2 -512 MB cards only yield 512MB (or less) of usable video ram,period...


Edit - OOPs ,didnt see the post above ,my Bad...

[sbohdan]

Originally Posted by Parker

He has two 8800GTS 320MB cards not 640MB.
The GTX will beat the GTS 320's.

And BTW, when you put cards in SLI for instance two 8800GTS 320MB cards, that doesn't mean you now have 640MB of video memory and a 2x320bit interface. Thats not how SLI works, both of the cards are fed information and they both work together to produce the graphics power required.

Put it this way, would you rather hike up half dome with a 50lb. backpack by yourself, or with a buddy to share the load and take 25lb. off your back and hike up with you?

IMO, SLI is a waist of money unless your running anything bigger than a 24" LCD.
One High end card is better than to low end cards.. (unless of course you've got money's to burn and want two or three high end cards).

I know its 320MB but there is 2 of them. and I don't think you can say the 8800GTS (G80) is a low end card - never was. it is not that much slower than the G92 GTS and when you have to of them... so show me some comparison banchmarks, otherwise I don't think the GTX would be faster than 2 GTS's or at least not much... the old GTS has a wider memory bus and yes it has lower mem speed but even like that the memory bandwith is 64GB/s and the 9800GTX's is 70GB/s. now we have 2 GTS's and I said to OC them... go figure. the GPU is slower and lower in speed but can also be OC'd and again: there is 2 of them. so be carefull throwing opinions around, unless you can support them... and oh yes - I know what SLI is and I do know it doesn't mean double power but it is considerably MORE power neverthless. I've been into OC'ing video cards for a long time now - check out one of them under my sig.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by sbohdan

I know its 320MB but there is 2 of them. and I don't think you can say the 8800GTS (G80) is a low end card - never was. it is not that much slower than the G92 GTS and when you have to of them... so show me some comparison banchmarks, otherwise I don't think the GTX would be faster than 2 GTS's or at least not much... the old GTS has a wider memory bus and yes it has lower mem speed but even like that the memory bandwith is 64GB/s and the 9800GTX's is 70GB/s. now we have 2 GTS's and I said to OC them... go figure. the GPU is slower and lower in speed but can also be OC'd and again: there is 2 of them. so be carefull throwing opinions around, unless you can support them... and oh yes - I know what SLI is and I do know it doesn't mean double power but it is considerably MORE power neverthless. I've been into OC'ing video cards for a long time now - check out one of them under my sig.

Don't get on your high horses sbohdan, nobody's saying you don't have experience with video card overclocking. :)
Still, you asked for comparative benchmarks to backup Parker and I opinion about a 9800GTX beating 2 8800GTS 320mb.
Why don't you prove both of us wrong by showing us just that, 2 8800GTS 320mb beating a 9800GTX?

[sbohdan]

Originally Posted by polobunny

Don't get on your high horses sbohdan, nobody's saying you don't have experience with video card overclocking. :)
Still, you asked for comparative benchmarks to backup Parker and I opinion about a 9800GTX beating 2 8800GTS 320mb.
Why don't you prove both of us wrong by showing us just that, 2 8800GTS 320mb beating a 9800GTX?

well I'm not saying that the two GTS's would beat the GTX but they MIGHT - ESPECIALLY when overclocked and don't forget - the original issue was: is it worthed performance wise to trade in the 2 GTS's for a 9800GTX and pay on top of that. I don't think it is. I said in my original reply that he could OC the 2 GTS's and I'm pretty sure even if they wouldn't be faster at stock speeds, they would PROBABLY beat the GTX when OC'd - and all this for free. now I don't have any proof of that, since I couuldn't find any comparisons and if anyone can I would like to see them myself but I am pretty sure it's not an upgrade to pay an extra $114 on top of the 2 GTS's to get a GTX.

[onebxr]

I dont think the performance gain will be that big of a net gain to justify getting a 9800gtx. This card is a very poor performer compared to the g92 8800 series. A 8800gts 512 will keep up with the 9800gtx, and in SLI will beat it in every benchmark.
I am very underwhelmed with the 9000 offerings. The 8800 g92 sereis is still the best bang for the buck!
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