Test Rig & Configuration

That's it about the card itself, from a hardware and design point of view. Leaving you with all with this impression on the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card we are going to move forward to the performance that you can expect from this graphics accelerator. The system which we used to compile and analyze the gaming performance figures is build around the high-end Intel Core 2 Extreme technology, which will provide extensive central processing power supporting the dual-G92 visual and processing capabilities. We are using our new and high performing system based around the NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI Express chipset powering our mainboard. So, let's go through the system specifications...

• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3.00GHz Quad Core Processor
• MSI P7N SLI Platinum (nForce 750i) SLI Ready Mainboard
• Corsair XMS2 2GB PC2-6400 Dual Channel Memory
• NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Edition Graphics Card
• EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GT SuperClocked Graphics Card
• Western Digital 150GB Raptor X 16MB Cache Hard Disk
• Cooler Master 850W Real Power (SLI Ready) Power Supply
• Cooler Master Stacker 830 (RC-830) Tower Case
• Arctic Cooling MX-2 Performance Thermal Compound
• Dell UltraSharp 30" 3007WFP (Black) LCD Flat Display
• Microsoft Vista Ultimate 64-bit Operating System

As you can see we have used high performance components, and we would like to express our special thanks to Overdrive PC, MSI and Cooler Master for their generosity on supplying us with some excellent hardware. The MSI mainboard is based around the NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI chipset supporting the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor and DDR2 memory. We will be using our high-end Core 2 Extreme QX9650 running at 3.00GHz to support the high-end graphics cards. So both the mainboard and CPU are fine tuned for the best optimal settings but running at their default clock speeds. Currently the Core 2 Extreme processors are the top of the market, with AMD's Phenom series trailing behind.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Going for our usual approach, we would normally start of the benchmark analysis by going through the different benchmark suites coming from Futuremark, and the discontinued AquaMark 3 program. These would provide a good indication on the game play of today's games. Though in this instance we will only use one benchmark suite only as we had a quiet limited amount of time to spend with the pre-build system housing the GeForce 9800 GX2 accelerator. This does mean we have been able to check the system and the card up to a certain details and we will surely check and execute more benchmarks and game runs once we have received a retail package from one of our partners. We did put the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 edition accelerator against the greatest card on the market today, the GeForce 8800 GT SuperClocked card provided by EVGA, and analyze the performance figures. So let's just give it a go...

Futuremark 3DMark06

To have a first view on the performance we are including some Futuremark figures we noted down while running 3DMark06, which is currently the worldwide standard in advanced 3D game performance benchmarking. A fundamental tool for every company in the PC industry as well as various PC users and gamers, where 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9.0c 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests. 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today.

Benchmark Results - 1280x1024 - QX9650 3.00GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 8800 GT 512MB	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	650/1900MHz (Ref - Single)	12595
4x AA/8x AF	650/1900MHz (Ref - Single)	9534
8x AA/16x AF	650/1900MHz (Ref - Single)	7493
	GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (Single)	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	600/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	15214
4x AA/8x AF	600/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	14257
8x AA/16x AF	600/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	12472
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.
Benchmark Results - 1600x1200 - QX9650 3.00GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 8800 GT 512MB	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	650/1900MHz (Ref - Single)	10916
4x AA/8x AF	650/1900MHz (Ref - Single)	7930
8x AA/16x AF	650/1900MHz (Ref - Single)	6057
	GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (Single)	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	600/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	11070
4x AA/8x AF	600/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	7965
8x AA/16x AF	600/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	6073
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

With the rather limited time we have tried to spend it with one of the most well know benchmark suites, and did several runs on the system featuring a single NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics accelerator. So to start we ran at the normal resolution, which is actually currently quite standard for any decent LCD display. We can see from the results that the GeForce 9800 GX2 is doing better than the previous king in the high-end market, and able to keep on scoring high scores while enabling the anti-aliasing options. The GeForce 8800 GT doesn't do badly at all though comes a bit short looking at the new dual-GPU accelerator that makes use of an internal SLI bridge to deliver higher performance. And yes, you can say also that it is higher clocked, though you need to take into account that it comes with a similar limited 256-bit memory interface, which has its impact on the rendering throughput.

Benchmark Results - 2560x1600 - QX9650 3.00GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 8800 GT 512MB	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	650/1900MHz (Ref - Single)	7684
4x AA/8x AF	650/1900MHz (Ref - Single)	5344
8x AA/16x AF	650/1900MHz (Ref - Single)	N/A
	GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (Single)	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	600/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	7796
4x AA/8x AF	600/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	5438
8x AA/16x AF	600/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	N/A
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

You didn't have enough yet? Well we neither, to that extend we did a spin with selecting the HD resolution to sense and feel the hype around the high definition gaming experience. Yeah we certainly are convinced that the high definition gaming is one hell of an experience and with the GeForce 9800 GX2 edition it does turn a small smile on our faces. The image quality is outstanding, providing stunning image clarity. Extreme HD will immerse you in games like never before, letting you see more of the exciting gaming action. Looking at the new NVIDIA card which is build around two G92 cores we can say it does quite well and once again is outperforming the GeForce 8800 Ultra. Though the performance increase is not as spectacular as we expected, but we have to take into account that the SLI feature isn't yet that well supported with Windows Vista and that it will certainly take some extra driver revisions to see the true performance.