DH Review: XFX 9800 GX2 and 790i Ultra Sli

***Zardon*** · Mar 18, 2008, 08:50 AM

Read The Review Here
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Today we have the XFX Nforce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard in for review and we are pairing it with a 9800 GX2 video card, also from XFX.

Is this is the fastest hardware currently available? We aim to show you, in our 29 page indepth analysis.

slickric21 · Mar 18, 2008, 09:26 AM

Really good review, thanks.

Would have liked the Nvidia cards to have been tested on the same mobo though, i'm assuming that the 790i was used for the GX2 and the 780i for the Ultra ?
The 790i mobo is obviously faster.

However it wouldn't have affected the conclusion, 9800 GX2 looks like a fast card/s !!!

***Veridian3*** · Mar 18, 2008, 10:12 AM

All graphics testing was performed on the 790i.

BulletTheory · Mar 18, 2008, 10:13 AM

Really great review. Great job DH

humonous · Mar 18, 2008, 12:10 PM

Well i have just came from reading that utter mess of a hardocp article with a mere 3 games tested and after reading DH's review, you guys are miles ahead lately of anything ive read out there.

Can't believe hardocp are using a 1333fsb 3ghz cpu either. their tests were clearly CPU limited.

LukeK · Mar 18, 2008, 12:12 PM

absolute top job ! another top class review which showed me a lot of things I needed to know, especially when looking at some of the other reviews. that hexus article was a farce. Even disappointed with hardocps article too, although their groupies in the forums are doing some kiss assing I see.

Anyway enough of other substandard editorials. Top job from DH. ive ordered one.

Alex · Mar 18, 2008, 12:13 PM

Absolutely brilliant, took me a good 40 minutes to read and digest. By far the best one up again today. You guys deserve more credit tbh.

brutusmaximus · Mar 18, 2008, 12:14 PM

DUGG.

great looking card and the mobo is looking to be shaping up well too. Glad to see you are one of the few sites who properly patches games and uses the highest end hardware to eliminate cpu limiting. Some really big sites today have serious egg on their face due to both of these points.

With regards to the noise levels of the GX2, just how loud are they? and what about temperatures?

Shrink · Mar 18, 2008, 12:15 PM

Fantastic review! I regret that the performance is so good because I am now tempted to go for this card. Will the 790i accept DDR2? I've got $2000 to spend on a new system (not including monitor) and want 4 gigs of ram and the DDR3 pushes my budget in a bad way (not to mention the $600 card and $360 motherboard).

**ChaosMinionX** · Mar 18, 2008, 01:06 PM

Great reviews guys, looks like 2 solid products.

Have you guys ever thought to use Everest over Sandra? I dont find that sandra is very accurate when it comes to system performance, where as everest benchmarks are almost right on with what the computer is actually doing. Speaking of Memory bandwidth and such, Everest seems to be more accurate. Any thoughts on this?

***Zardon*** · Mar 18, 2008, 01:10 PM

not really, its a very small part of the reviews and only really included as a curiousity. im not a big fan of synthetic testing generally which is why i made the DH photoshop benchmark system. Not sure if I agree with you on everest being significantly better - I included both in the recent skulltrail review and they have strengths and weaknesses depending on the specific tests.

**Vikingod** · Mar 18, 2008, 01:21 PM

Interesting to see the Assassins Creed figures, nice addition, IMO.

As always, great review, the most comprehensive I've read today by far.

***Zardon*** · Mar 18, 2008, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shrink

Will the 790i accept DDR2?

Unfortunately not, the 780 is DDR2.

**ChaosMinionX** · Mar 18, 2008, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

not really, its a very small part of the reviews and only really included as a curiousity. im not a big fan of synthetic testing generally which is why i made the DH photoshop benchmark system. Not sure if I agree with you on everest being significantly better - I included both in the recent skulltrail review and they have strengths and weaknesses depending on the specific tests.

Agreed, synthetics only are relevant to a benchmarker really, and not the average user. Still excellent work with the review, just thought I would throw that out there about Sandra

Shrink · Mar 18, 2008, 01:32 PM

Too bad - well I just put in the order for my system. Here are the specs:

-
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor LGA775 Kentsfield 2.40GHZ 1066FSB 8MB Retail Box
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ASUS Maximus Formula LGA775 X38 ATX DDR2 2PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 2PCI 2GBLAN SATA RAID 1394 Motherboard
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Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5 4GB DDR2 2X2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 5-5-5-18 240PIN Memory Kit
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Scythe Ninja Plus REV.B Heatpipe Fanless Heatsink AM2 LGA775 S478 S754 S939 W/ 120MM Fan Adjuster
-
Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower Gamer Case 900 ATX 9 Drive Bay No PS Top USB2.0 1394 Audio
-
Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W ATX Triple 12V 50A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply 120MM Fan 2X PCI-E
-
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 3.5IN 500GB SATA2 8.5MS 7200RPM 32MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive
-
Samsung SH-S203N Black SATA DVD+RW 20X8X16 DVD-RW 20X6X16 DL18X/12X Lightscribe DVD Writer OEM W/ SW
-
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 32BIT DVD OEM
-
EVGA E-GEFORCE 9800GX2 600MHZ 1GB 2.0GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDMI HDCP HDTV Out Video Card

I guess i'll continue doing the beta testing when I give my old system to my son and on my work system <g>.

Any comments on this system? I don't plan to buy another GX2 to run in SLI (as I understand it is not possible with this mobo).

***Zardon*** · Mar 18, 2008, 01:52 PM

looks like a good system to me Shrink. can't believe the bargain prices on those 6600 quads, absolute steal IMO.

Judas · Mar 18, 2008, 02:06 PM

shrink.. the only thing i'd suggest changing is the Vista 32bit to 64bit....

humonous · Mar 18, 2008, 02:06 PM

What about Quad Sli Zardon?

Shrink · Mar 18, 2008, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

looks like a good system to me Shrink. can't believe the bargain prices on those 6600 quads, absolute steal IMO.

Yeah - they overclock pretty well too from what I have seen. Was the GX2 stable on the Intel system you guys used?

***Zardon*** · Mar 18, 2008, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by humonous

What about Quad Sli Zardon?

Nvidia have placed a seperate NDA date on this, another week basically. We have been testing it, and it works, and it actually works well in the games we have tested (even with the current driver). This really is as much as I can say right now as we are under NDA with Nvidia and would be breaking our contract.

Check back next week for results from Quad testing.

Shrink · Mar 18, 2008, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

shrink.. the only thing i'd suggest changing is the Vista 32bit to 64bit....

Thanks! Performance-wise will there be a difference? I believe all my peripherals have 64-bit drivers. I wasn't planning on going over 4GB of ram but...

Judas · Mar 18, 2008, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shrink

Thanks! Performance-wise will there be a difference? I believe all my peripherals have 64-bit drivers. I wasn't planning on going over 4GB of ram but...

performace improvements? Well maybe... really depends on a considerable number of things.... generally i'd say yes..

But more in point, the reason i suggest 64bit is due to the fact that if you don't do it now.. your going to have to later anyways..... It just solves a number of problems that you'd likely run into down the road anyways.....

If you could manage 4gb of ram.. i'd also suggest it over 2gb....and if you go 4gb.. you'd need 64bit anyways.... considering that if you weren't running 64bit, you'd only have about 3gb of it seeable by the os.