GeForce 9800 GX2 pics and specifications.

Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 11:06:58 Fri, January 04, 2008

[H]ard|OCP has received some 9800 GX2 information from "sources overseas" that they consider trustworthy. The pictures are not the greatest and not all the specs are there but I know you guys will enjoy them anyway!

The 9800 GX2 is similar in design to the GeForce 7950 GX2. There are two PCBs connected together (probably the same way as before, with a socket on one PCB that mates with a plug on the other) and two DL-DVI ports (that are vertically grouped instead of horizontally grouped, so there is one port per PCB I guess).This time the cores will be 2 8800 cores (G80 or G92?) that have been "shrunk to 65nm". I am guessing that they are G92 cores because the 9800 GX2 has 512MB of RAM per core instead of 768MB, and the G92 is already 65nm and therefore is cheaper to use than "shrinking" some G80 cores.

The card will have 256 shader processors and we are told that it will be about 30% faster than a single 8800 Ultra. Like the 7950 GX2, you will be able to use two of these together for a Quad SLI configuration. Lets just hope the driver support is better this time around.

UPDATE 1-5-2008

Intrepid commenter Hood has found much nicer pictures of the 9800 GX2 over at Tom's Hardware. They must be seen to be believed!

24 Comments

Friday, January 04, 2008 11:35:26 AM

NotMe
guest

Perfect Christmas gift: 3 x 9800 GX2 working in Tri-SLI, along with a 6-core Intel cpu.

Friday, January 04, 2008 11:42:55 AM

anon
guest

It's been two years since the release of the 8800 Ultra and the best NVIDIA can do is a mere 30% increase in performance? And mind you that's the SLI'd version of the 9800 series card. That would mean a 9800 GTX/Ultra is probably only 15% faster than an 8800 Ultra. I guess that's what happens when your competitor doesn't release a high end card to compete. Damn you ATi. Damn you for not battling it out with the 8800 GTX/Ultra and damn you for not releasing a new GPU architecture this year.

Friday, January 04, 2008 1:00:33 PM

Radiator
Senior Member

So.. it's not a dual 9800 GTX setup ?
Weird . But oh well... 30% increase over a single 8800U.. then , a single 9800 GTX will be much slower than a 8800U . But ... I don't think it's two 9800 GTX's on two connected PCBs .
And I wonder how much will this thing cost .

Friday, January 04, 2008 3:28:18 PM

Mike
GPUReview Founder

This is pretty much what I was expecting. They're following roughly the same roadmap as they did with the 7 series. Hopefully this card will be short lived. I'd like to see some real next-gen hardware next year.

Friday, January 04, 2008 4:28:26 PM

anonymous
guest

30% increase? This is what I was waiting for? Woopdidoo. May as well get a superclocked 8800GT, because the price for this will most likely be >= "$yourhouse".

Friday, January 04, 2008 4:30:30 PM

Adam
guest

I am patiently waiting for this card or a 9800 GTX. I sold my 8800GTS 640 last month. My computer is just waiting for a monster card.

Friday, January 04, 2008 5:34:43 PM

Hood
guest

what a disapointment...30% increase? hell yeah, now we can play crysis on high quality at higher resolutions at 9 fps...I know that's what i've been waiting for :(

wake me up when the real next gen card comes out...

Friday, January 04, 2008 6:33:01 PM

Dincon
guest

Mike:

correct only with the 7 serie the named it the 7950gx2 not the 8950gx2, now there naming it the 9800GX2 like if its a howl new generation while its actually 2 8800cards in one.

Friday, January 04, 2008 10:51:42 PM

anonymous
guest

@anon Uh, unless I slept through 08 it's only been one year dood. 8800 was released dec of 06 (with full availabilty in feb of 07) that would put it at *just* over a year old. But yeah, still a bogus release. Seems to be a die shrink and maybe better power management, but nothing surprisingly new.

Saturday, January 05, 2008 12:49:49 AM

Hood
guest

TomsHardware picked up the "story". Instead of fuzzy pics, it has some actually decent (believable) photos...

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/05/exclusive_nvidia_geforce_9800gx2/

Saturday, January 05, 2008 2:21:25 AM

GPU Professional
guest

Almost have the same idea as the upcoming R680 core, having 2 R600 cores in a single card, while this has 2 GeForce 8800 cores, wonder how well it can compete with the R680

Saturday, January 05, 2008 1:26:08 PM

Sunny
guest

Thanks for the link there Hood. I guess we will wait and see how it stacks up once it is out and benchmarked.

Saturday, January 05, 2008 3:39:39 PM

Mike
GPUReview Founder

@GPU Professional: Since the 8800 gt is faster than the HD 3870, it stands to reason that the 9800GX2 will be faster than ATi's upcoming dual RV670 solution. Unless ATi manages to get the clock speeds appreciably higher than they are now.

Saturday, January 05, 2008 9:37:19 PM

Hood
guest

Time for me to register...I made the frontpage :)

Sunday, January 06, 2008 2:15:48 AM

andrew
guest

30% two 8800gt would be faster, i wanna see 80% i dont wanna see dual core its just the same as sli

Sunday, January 06, 2008 9:53:29 AM

anonymousD
n00b

weak...:p

Sunday, January 06, 2008 11:08:49 PM

Ajax9000
guest

I wonder if that optical port is in or out ... ?

Monday, January 07, 2008 3:09:14 PM

Hood
guest

The only thing is that crossfire generally scales much better than SLI. So, if the g92 chips are connected through some form of SLI bridge, I'm betting that the cards will be pretty simliar in performance, even though the 8800gt has the clear advantage in raw power.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008 7:18:34 PM

anonymousD
n00b

dual gpu on a pcb/die all the way...screw 4 slut cards :D those things are a joke i tell u.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008 3:55:11 AM

MrWizard6600
guest

what the hellel is going on in those pictures from toms? two PCBs? 1? hows the air routed? they drilled straight through both PCBs? whats that damn fan look like!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008 8:52:51 PM

Sunny
guest

I was wondering the same thing about the cooling solution if it actually cools well with 2 GPU's under there.

I see lots of disappointment on the 30% increase but if you had 2 in SLI wouldn't that be a 60% increase over Ultra's in SLI. If you do the math correctly.

@andrew it is probably true that 2 8800GT in SLI would probably beat this card by itself but did you ever think that if there were 2 of these cards they would smoke 2 8800GT while still using 2 PCI-E lanes.

Thursday, January 10, 2008 4:04:42 AM

anonymousD
guest

possibly its a turbine blowing air on a common heatsink..or such.

Thursday, January 10, 2008 4:08:57 AM

anonymousD
guest

and what a fan : http://www.tcmagazine.com/images/news/Hardware/Nvidia_GeForce_9800_GX2_05.jpg

Friday, January 18, 2008 1:17:37 PM

Sunny
guest

So I am guessing that this takes 2 6 pin Pci-E connectors none of the pictures seem to show that side of the card

Add Comment

This is a moderated comment list. All posts are subject to my personal approval. Please limit your comments to the subject of the article. Don't (for example) start asking questions about your video card here, you'll get a much better response in the forums.

Anonymous posts are allowed, but I encourage you to sign up for the forums and post comments under your name.