Spécifications
Note once again that the dual GPU cards tested here are the equivalent of a single 512 MB and not a 1 GB card!
Power consumption and noise
We evaluated the power consumption of the different cards. Measurements were taken at the wall socket. This is therefore the total power consumption of the power supply, in this case a Cooler Master Real Power M1000 (1000 watt).
Use of the 55 nanometer process and PowerPlay in order to reduce consumption means the Radeon HD 3870 as well as the X2 are very economical in stand-by; however, in load PowerPlay no longer gives the Radeons this advantage.
The GeForce 9800 GTX consumes more than the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB which is only logical given the higher frequencies. On the other hand, consumption is 30 watts lower compared to the GeForce 8800 Ultra. Given that a GeForce 8800 GTX generally needs 20 watts less than an Ultra, there hasn’t been much progress here.
Note that the GeForce 9800 GX2 is
Hybrid Power compatible and can therefore be entirely turned off when used in a system compatible with this technology (such as the future nForce 780a for AMD processors). We will have to wait for this summer until a similar alternative arrives for the Core 2.
In terms of noise, the GeForce 9800 GTX is still discreet in stand-by but is noisier than a GeForce 8800 GTX or Ultra in load. The fan turns noticeably faster or at least airflow seems to be louder.
The tests
In this test, we used ten games, four of which support DirectX 10. Tests were carried out only in 1920x1200 as a lower resolution isn’t generally suited for such a high end product. Anisotropic filtering and HDR were activated in all cases when available in the game. Finally, transparency/adaptive anti-aliasing were activated in multisampling mode.
Of course, all updates to Windows Vista relative to performance were installed.
Configuration
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770
Asus P5E3
2 GB DDR3 1066
Windows Vista
Forceware 174.53
Catalyst 8.3
