We've looked at a couple of graphics cards based on NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GT and thought it would be a good idea to check the SLI performance of these graphics cards that basically reside towards the bottom of the high-end chain. To get this going we are using an ASUS and a Zotac GeForce 9800 GT card, which are both operating at stock speed. We all know by now that the GeForce 9800 GT is just more of the same old GeForce 8800 GT but given a new name and some minor feature updates, though no real performance gains that make it to deserve the GeForce 9 series naming. But this isn't something new as NVIDIA has done this in the past already once in a while. - t-break

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT Gaming SLI Config Preview

Besides using this single GeForce 9800 GT to see how much performance is gained in a SLI config for comparison, we've selected a few other SLI setups such as the GeForce 8800 GT and the GeForce 9800 GTX as well as AMD's CrossFire setups with the Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 3870 video cards. We've also thrown in some single higher-end cards to see how the SLI'ed GeForce 9800 GT stacks up. These include the Radeon HD 4870 from AMD and the GeForce GTX 260 from NVIDIA. With this wide mix of graphics cards we should be able to give a very good view on the actual SLI performance advantage.

Looking at the numbers, its hard to justify getting a GeForce 9800 GT setup in SLI config. You're looking at spending around $400 for it and for that amount of money, the performance just isn't worth it. Also, issues exist with the setup and/or drivers as noted in some of the games where an SLI setup of GeForce 9800 GT cards performs lower than a single card. Where it does work, we see the older GeForce 8800 GT taking a lead in many of the benchmarks. Simply put, this isn't a setup that we'd recommend. You're better off investing in a single high-end card for that much.