Final Thoughts and Conclusions
Performance

Like many of you I assume, I was aggravated at first to see that the new GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB card did not up the top single-GPU graphics card performance market.  While the move from the 7800-series cards to the 8800-series cards was HUGE leap in both technology and performance, the move from 8800 to 9800 cards is really nothing like that.  We saw the first 65nm GPUs from NVIDIA introduced as the 8800 GT, then the 880 GTS, then the 9600 GT and 9800 GX2 and now we have the 9800 GTX.  Why NVIDIA has gone with this name convention is still a mystery and will be a topic of debate for some time I am sure in our forums. 

Getting past the numbers game, the 9800 GTX is a great performing card, even if it can’t stand up to the aged 8800 Ultra or 8800 GTX cards in performance for a majority of the time.  The new graphics card is not being marketed as the new super-high end product; NVIDIA claims that is what the 9800 GX2 was for.  What the 9800 GTX does do is bring 8800 GTX performance down to the lower process technology and thus saves NVIDIA money and saves users heat and power.  The price has gone down as well making the GTX/Ultra performance more accessible to enthusiasts.

If we just look at the benchmarks, the single 9800 GTX was never quite up to taking on the 8800 Ultra but it fared much better against AMD’s Radeon HD 3870 X2.  If I were a betting man, I’d call the inter-company battle a tie but then I would always lean towards the single GPU solution if I were forced to make a single recommendation.  Getting one GPU to its peak theoretical performance limit is always easier than trying to get two to do the same.

NVIDIA 3-Way SLI

When I first looked at NVIDIA’s 3-Way SLI technology I was impressed but disappointed that it was being relegated to the super-high end market.  The 9800 GTX sort-of addresses this since you can get these cards starting for $300; that’s better than the per-card cost of the 8800 GTX but still not in the $150-ish range that AMD’s CrossFireX starts. 

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Review - 3-Way SLI makes a return - Graphics Cards 178

The scaling on 3-Way SLI was much better than my most recent Quad SLI evaluation though in a few titles the third GPU wasn’t as utilized as I was expecting.  For now, I would still find it hard to recommend any more than two GPUs in your system for NVIDIA’s SLI technology though we will be taking another look at Quad and Tri-SLI performance very soon.

Noise and Heat

The cooler on the 9800 GTX was decently quiet – a step below the 9800 GX2 but a step above the 8800 GTS.  Even in the 3-Way SLI configuration I never ran into any stability or heat issues so NVIDIA’s engineers can rest easy knowing they seemed to have hit the sweet spot in this regard once again.

Pricing and Availability

As I mentioned on the first page, the estimated pricing on the new GeForce 9800 GTX cards is $299-349 according to NVIDIA’s papers.  That will vary depending on the add-in card vendor and the retailer you buy it from.  There are two paths this card can take: one I’ll call the “GT path” and one I’ll call the “GX2 path”.  The 8800 GT was a huge success when it launched and shortages caused prices to go ABOVE the MSRP from NVIDIA for quite a while.  However, the 9800 GX2 was met with meager sales initially and the $599 price point quickly fell to $550 and under.

Based on what little info is peering out at this late hour (it’s about 6am as I finish this) the pricing should be about where NVIDIA states: I’d expect to find the BFG and XFX cards floating around the $299 price point from day one. 

If NVIDIA meets this price segment, that puts AMD in a predicament – the HD 3870 X2 is still going for over $425 in most cases and the next card in their lineup is the HD 3870 512MB card that is woefully unprepared to take on the 9800 GTX.  The 9800 GTX will likely be that great graphics card purchase for the high-end enthusiast until AMD musters up something of their own.

UPDATE:  The GeForce 9800 GTX cards are showing up already!
Final Thoughts

The 9800 GTX is not the new king of the world when it comes to single-GPU performance graphics cards like we had hoped, but it is a great performing card with a fantastic price point that should appeal to a lot of hard core gamers.  From a technology stand point it is really nothing more than an overclocked and renamed 8800 GTS 512MB card, but that’s just fine with us – and I imagine it will be fine for quite a few enthusiasts as well.

Be sure to use our pricing engine to find the best prices on NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards and anything else you might need:

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