DH Review: 9800 GX2 Quad and 8800 Ultra Three Way SLI + ESA

***Zardon*** · Mar 24, 2008, 01:45 PM

Read The Review Here
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Last week we brought you coverage of the new nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset along with the 9800 GX2. Within that article we would have liked to include benchmarks of the GX2 in an SLI Quad configuration but due to a rather bizarre decision by Nvidia they asked all partners to withhold Quad performance until today. Anyway, today we can tell you how Quad SLI performs but we want to do more than that so we will be taking our first look at 3-Way SLI using three 8800 Ultras ...

***Zardon*** · Mar 25, 2008, 08:56 AM

if you like this review, please diggit. thanks.

geraldmango · Mar 25, 2008, 09:33 AM

wow I wish I could afford 2 9800 GX2's. One is more than enough for me, got mine last week, very impressed.

3 x 8800 ultras....... that is a lot of money !

**kris23** · Mar 25, 2008, 11:28 AM

can i mess around with a GX2 from DH? ill promise to return it! .........in a few years

anyways, awesome review! pretty much gave playable frames all throughout Crysis! at 1680x1050!

how much would a system like that cost?

brutusmaximus · Mar 25, 2008, 11:33 AM

probably looking around the 3k mark for a system with Quad SLI. a lot of money but utterly useless unless you are gaming at 1920 or 2560.

Still at least nvidia are releasing high end hardware, shame there is no competition right now, I don't class the 3870s as anything more than a stop gap.

LukeK · Mar 25, 2008, 11:34 AM

sshessh.......... the frame rates in call of duty 4 are absolutely incredible. I cant even get a quarter of that.......... time for an upgrade I think

humonous · Mar 25, 2008, 11:35 AM

Nvidia are on fire lately, with all this amazing graphics hardware. I wish to god AMD had never bought ATI and ruined them

until we get competition these prices will remain sky high.....

Alex · Mar 25, 2008, 11:37 AM

lovely looking system that ESA thing coolermaster sent over. love the interface too. I gotta get me one of those.

As for three way ultra SLI. I can only see that as a viable option for upgrading a system, but if I had two ultras, id just flog em and get two GX2's with the mobo. wouldnt cost that much more.........

BlueMak · Mar 25, 2008, 11:55 AM

So no one else things that it is crazy to require SLI x2x3x4 to get acceptable frame rates, even with so powerful cards?

Alex · Mar 25, 2008, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueMak

So no one else things that it is crazy to require SLI x2x3x4 to get acceptable frame rates, even with so powerful cards?

Not at all. its a little silly now, however if you want to game at 1920 or 2560 and want the maximum quality AA, AF, DX10 effects, etc etc....... I am not sure a single card can cut it anymore. I know even two cards don't power crysis right. Is that a problem of the hardware or just crysis and sloppy coding? I think the latter. yeah sure crysis has a ton of things going on, but I think they should have put more time into making the actual game code instead of making it a crap version of farcry with a ton of effects that can be almost identically copied in DX9 with the mods floating about the net.

A ploy to sell hardware? yeah maybe, but I think multiple GFX cards should be doing more than just running games. There is a lot of potential processing power there and it should be able to be accessed in rendering applications, folding etc. I don't see why its not possible that all those specialist calculations couldnt make it outside gaming environments.

humonous · Mar 25, 2008, 12:14 PM

I also know that some people don't like gaming with frame rates around 30, even though that is seen as a good level for most. I like to keep my frames around 60 in most games as I think it just looks "smoother". hard to explain and people will probably think im mad.

If you want to game at 60fps in leading titles, you seem to need more than one card, especially if you are talking about 1920x1200+. right?

Judas · Mar 25, 2008, 12:26 PM

while i do agree that it's unfortuneate that ati can't seem to get out a true highend card....

the hd3870/hd3850's i think are doing very well for thier price to performance ratio

CDsDontBurn · Mar 25, 2008, 12:29 PM

nice review. although, i find quite humerous that you can flash the case's firmware.

Alex · Mar 25, 2008, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

while i do agree that it's unfortuneate that ati can't seem to get out a true highend card....

the hd3870/hd3850's i think are doing very well for thier price to performance ratio

Yeah no doubting that, decent card. But AMD are so far behind now its not even funny. its basically a mid range card, thats all they can deliver. It might not seem much to you, but its a major con to the way the public perserve them, constantly playing catchup, and not even managing that...

brutusmaximus · Mar 25, 2008, 01:34 PM

Crysis this, crysis that, im sick hearing about it tbh, its a really average game and im sure if they wanted they could have optimised it a hell of a lot better when it was released. the fact that four high end nvidia cores struggle to power it at high resolution when something as graphically impressive as COD4 runs brilliant (over 4 times the frame rate basically)........

I think a 8800 GTS system in SLI or even a 3870 X2 in CF (if you can deal with the crappy ATI drivers) should last some time at a fraction of the cost.

IEMC · Mar 25, 2008, 01:47 PM

If it takes that much to play Crysis, then Crytek obviously either fucked up, or made a thing of beauty.

Judas · Mar 25, 2008, 04:33 PM

imo.. crysis is not a thing of beauty compared to that of similare graphical titles out there that preform incredibly well.... even in some cases looking a bit better.....

alex..

completely agree... the flagship has a habit of dictating dominance and how the pawns behind it stack up.....

this is where ati is failing, while thier other cards do not to badly at all, for the price.... they don't have a flagship... so everyone kinda sits on the side that has a flagship that blows the doors off anything available.

But considering the "flagship" of the 2900xt (scrapped xtx)....... things are doing well at all atm.

SSXeon · Mar 25, 2008, 10:46 PM

Where are the 8xAA tests and the tests vs the HD3870x2/s???? I know the GX2 is more powerful then the X2, but jesus it would be nice to see them compared.

BlueMak · Mar 25, 2008, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IEMC

If it takes that much to play Crysis, then Crytek obviously either fucked up, or made a thing of beauty.

Why do you think Crysis sold over 5 million games?

and by 5 million I think it means under 100k.

SSXeon · Mar 26, 2008, 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueMak

Why do you think Crysis sold over 5 million games?

and by 5 million I think it means under 100k.

It acually some how sold a million, yeah its true. MP is great, and they killed themselves because it isnt hardware friendly.

***Zardon*** · Mar 26, 2008, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSXeon

Where are the 8xAA tests and the tests vs the HD3870x2/s???? I know the GX2 is more powerful then the X2, but jesus it would be nice to see them compared.

Couldn't agree more, however one of our 3870's died during testing so it was impossible to arrange a replacement over Easter. As for Jesus, im not sure he could have helped either.

As for multiple graphs, we don't like flooding pages with about 10 graphs of various resolutions, with products such as 3x 8800 Ultra SLI and Quad SLI, people want the highest resolutions and the maximum eye candy possible - the selection of the highest AA was intentional to show the benefits of moving to this hardware with the ultimate image quality settings.

SSXeon · Mar 26, 2008, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Couldn't agree more, however one of our 3870's died during testing so it was impossible to arrange a replacement over Easter. As for Jesus, im not sure he could have helped either.

OMFG that made my morning ahahaha.

Quote:

As for multiple graphs, we don't like flooding pages with about 10 graphs of various resolutions, with products such as 3x 8800 Ultra SLI and Quad SLI, people want the highest resolutions and the maximum eye candy possible - the selection of the highest AA was intentional to show the benefits of moving to this hardware with the ultimate image quality settings.

Well said, it was a good review btw, im just a bit bitter because most all the reviews sucked ass, yours was good, but i would like to see a HD3870x2 in there.

slickric21 · Mar 28, 2008, 09:24 AM

Nice review again, and nice to see some different titles in there again, not just the same old same old like in every other review.

This review however has left me in a bit of a pickle. I'm was gonna put my 8800 Ultra on ebay and get a GX2, hopefully without having to spend too much to make up the difference.
However after seeing these benchmarks I may be best served getting a 2nd Ultra instead as SLI Ultra's handily beat the GX2. Also any games which don't like the dual core/sli will run better on 1 Ultra than on 1 core of a GX2.

Anybody like to comment and end my indecision ????????