Product review: Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2
by Damien Triolet
Published on March 18, 2008
9800 GX2 vs. 8800 GTS 512 SLI
We wanted to see how the GeForce 9800 GX2 would fare against a system equipped with two 2 GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB. We set the latter two cards at the same frequencies as those of the GeForce 9800 GX2 in order to see if there was a significant difference in performances. We knew this would be unlikely because the PCI Express BR04 switch is actually an nForce 200, or the same component as that used to manage the PCI Express ports in SLI on an nForce 780i.
In this test, we used an Asus STRIKER II motherboard based on the brand new nForce 790i which to some extent directly integrates the BR04 to its Northbridge. Note that the GeForce 9800 GX2 was also retested on this same platform to not mix up results even if performances were very close.
As you can see, on the one hand the SLI system based on 2 GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB has slightly higher performances, which is only logical given the higher frequencies. On the other hand, the GeForce 9800 GX2 has very similar scores to the other system at the same frequencies. It is always barely ahead, but only by a small amount even if there was a 2% difference in Quake Wars.
