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The Nvidia 9800 GX2 is currently the reigning champ in the graphics card arena and today we have the XFX 9800 GX2 in our labs for testing. The last GX2 was from Asus and quite frankly it did not perform as well as the Zotac 9800 GX2, even though they were clocked at the same speed. The XFX card also runs at the same speed, so I'm really anxious to see what kind of performance it is capable of. There are around 8 different versions of the GX2 on the XFX website, and we'll be testing the Standard Edition today.
So, without wasting any more time, let's dive into the good stuff.
The Box
I've always liked the design of XFX's packaging style (remember the infamous 'X' shaped boxes that they had for the previous gen cards?). This time around the box has a more hardcore mechanic look. The entire box is black with a mechanical '9' displayed in the center and the name of the card in gold lettering. On the lower right we have the primary features of the card displayed and also a photo of the bundled game (this time it's Company of Heroes). The back of the box has a picture of the card along with some of its capabilities. When you go into the store this is surely going to grab your attention.
Specifications & Bundle
Here we have the detailed specifications of the card from the XFX website
The bundle includes the following:
Quick install guide
Tips & Techniques leaflet
Driver CD
2 x DVI to VGA Adapters
1 x PCI-E to Molex power adapter
1 x HDMI audio out cable
Company of Heroes game DVD
The Card
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We see the same reference design adopted by all the GX2 cards, so no surprise here. There is an XFX sticker with the same '9' symbol and the name of the card. Just make sure you have enough room in your cabby, for this is one huge card.
Nothing much to write about here, the back features a large XFX logo which looks quite cool.
In the front panel, we have 2 dual link DVI-D connectors along with an HDMI out port. All you need is an HDMI cable and you've got full HD (1080p) on your TV, provided your TV supports it. Just before the HDMI port are two LEDs, one below the other. The lower one is green and signifies that the card is receiving power. The one above is blue and turns on as soon as you get a display on the monitor.
Towards the rear we have the power connectors. There's one 6-pin and one 8-pin socket. Beside it is the audio out when you use the HDMI audio cable. Unlike Radeon cards, which feature an inbuilt audio processing chip, Nvidia cards still use the onboard/discrete audio chip. Now, let's move to the benchmarks.
Test Bench
CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme X9770 @ 3.2 GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS3 RAM 2 x 1GB DDR2 1066 MHz (5-5-5-15)
HDD: Hitachi 250 GB SATA II (7200 rpm)
PSU: Corsair TX650 W
Monitor: Viewsonic G90fB Monitor (19-inch, Max Res. 1920 x 1440)
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate
VGA Driver: Forceware 175.16
Synthetic Benchmarks
3D Mark2005
3D Mark 2006
3D Mark Vantage
Real World Benchmarks
F.E.A.R (DX9)
In F.E.A.R, the XFX 9800GX2 is on par with the Asus GX2 and quite a bit faster than the Zotac. Also worth noting is the performance of the 8800GT in SLI which again keeps up with the big guns.
HL2: Lost Coast (DX9)
The scores are pretty much even among all the GX2s, in both resolutions.
Crysis (DX10)
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This one is really interesting - at 1920 resolution the XFX card really shines and gives an outstanding 51fps. Strangely enough, once AA is enabled, it drops to 18fps, which is much lower than the Asus 9800 GX2.
Over clocking
The XFX 9800 GX2, being a dual GPU card, runs really hot. But the cooler is effective and all the hot air is exhausted through vents on top and at the rear of the card. It actually feels like a blow dryer, no kidding. We were able to overclock the core to a very healthy 710MHz. This provided the best performance boost in 3D mark. But as soon as we pushed the core to 720MHz, the scores dropped drastically which means anything above 710MHz and the card begins to throttle. Still, 710MHz is a pretty sweet overclock and the numbers speak for themselves.
Conclusion
This beast from XFX is priced at around Rs 39,000/- and comes with a 3yr warranty. Compared to the Asus 9800GX2, which costs around 31K, I would say this card is overpriced. Given that the XFX performs better only in some games and has nothing special to offer while overclocking, I really don't see a reason for pricing it so high.
Keep in mind that Nvidia has just launched their new high-end GTX series of cards (expect a juicy review on that very soon) based on the GT200 chipset. These things are monsters and perform a lot better than the GX2 at high resolutions (according to preliminary testing).
It all comes down to this, if you could stall your upgrade itch a little longer you will have a better choice of cards in this price range, not to mention a drop in price for the GX2. But if you have to buy a 9800GX2 right now then I would rather recommend the Asus 9800 GX2. The XFX 9800GX2 is a rock solid card and their service is also very good in India, so you won't be left stranded should something go wrong. I think the price is the only thing that would give me second thoughts.
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