9800GT or 9800GTX Plus?

Current System:

XFX o/c 8600GTS, S939 X2 4200 @2.6Ghz (=FX61), 2G DDR400.

When I built this system I had an XFX o/c 7800GT but it died under warranty
and was replaced with the o/c 8600GTS. Its DX9 performance is in the same
ballpark as the 7800GT but its relative lack of bandwidth means it suffers
at resolutions like 1600x1200 even on older games like CoD2 so I figured I
would replace it in the near future.

At current street prices I could get an XFX 9800GT for AU$205 or an XFX
9800GTX Plus for AU$289. Even the 9800GT would be a big jump over what I
have now but I'm not sure the 9800GTX Plus wouldn't be overkill for the rest
of the system (which is why I'm not considering a GTX260 or 280).

Opinions, please.

Why not opt for the 9800GX2 ??
Check out the prices for comparison. I have the 9800GX2 on my system. It has
two GPU's and 1 gig of DDR3 so it works well indeed. I have not checked any
prices recently myself but this card cost me 330.00 UK Pounds. Also if you
decide to get this card you need to make sure that your power supply unit
has got an 8pin and 6 pin PCIE connectors as this card uses them both.

Phil.


"DRS" wrote in message
...
Current System:

XFX o/c 8600GTS, S939 X2 4200 @2.6Ghz (=FX61), 2G DDR400.

When I built this system I had an XFX o/c 7800GT but it died under
warranty and was replaced with the o/c 8600GTS. Its DX9 performance is in
the same ballpark as the 7800GT but its relative lack of bandwidth means
it suffers at resolutions like 1600x1200 even on older games like CoD2 so
I figured I would replace it in the near future.

At current street prices I could get an XFX 9800GT for AU$205 or an XFX
9800GTX Plus for AU$289. Even the 9800GT would be a big jump over what I
have now but I'm not sure the 9800GTX Plus wouldn't be overkill for the
rest of the system (which is why I'm not considering a GTX260 or 280).

Opinions, please.

Have you considered the Radeon HD4850 for AU$197? It's as fast as the
9800GTX+.
http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/...er=radeon+4850

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


"DRS" wrote in message
...
Current System:

XFX o/c 8600GTS, S939 X2 4200 @2.6Ghz (=FX61), 2G DDR400.

When I built this system I had an XFX o/c 7800GT but it died under
warranty and was replaced with the o/c 8600GTS. Its DX9 performance is in
the same ballpark as the 7800GT but its relative lack of bandwidth means
it suffers at resolutions like 1600x1200 even on older games like CoD2 so
I figured I would replace it in the near future.

At current street prices I could get an XFX 9800GT for AU$205 or an XFX
9800GTX Plus for AU$289. Even the 9800GT would be a big jump over what I
have now but I'm not sure the 9800GTX Plus wouldn't be overkill for the
rest of the system (which is why I'm not considering a GTX260 or 280).

Opinions, please.

"First of One" wrote in message

Have you considered the Radeon HD4850 for AU$197? It's as fast as the
9800GTX+.
http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/...er=radeon+4850

I hadn't considered ATI, to tell the truth. Nvidia has been dominant in
this market for so long, sometimes even for good reasons, ATI is not really
on my radar. It is cheap, though.

Would the 9800GTX/4850 unbalance my system, do you think?

DRS wrote:
Current System:

XFX o/c 8600GTS, S939 X2 4200 @2.6Ghz (=FX61), 2G DDR400.

When I built this system I had an XFX o/c 7800GT but it died under warranty
and was replaced with the o/c 8600GTS. Its DX9 performance is in the same
ballpark as the 7800GT but its relative lack of bandwidth means it suffers
at resolutions like 1600x1200 even on older games like CoD2 so I figured I
would replace it in the near future.

At current street prices I could get an XFX 9800GT for AU$205 or an XFX
9800GTX Plus for AU$289. Even the 9800GT would be a big jump over what I
have now but I'm not sure the 9800GTX Plus wouldn't be overkill for the rest
of the system (which is why I'm not considering a GTX260 or 280).

Opinions, please.



The 9800GT is an NVIDIA reroll of the 8800GT (vendors are permitted to
relabel 8800GT cards). It's identical. The 9800GTX is a cost reduce
version of the 8800GTX based on the G92b core. The 9800GTX+ (plus) is a
9800GTX with higher clocks.

In benchmarks the 9800GTX+ performs very favorably. There are several
situations in which it tops a 4850 (mostly related to bandwidth and AA).
It also has a better cooler design than the 4850 and runs relatively
cool under load (50-55 idle, 65-70c load, similar to my 8800GT).

I think overall the 9800GTX+ is a better card, if you need one right
now. For the money the 4850 is amazing though. I am waiting for a
GTX260 revision, but only because I have an 8800GT right now which is
good enough for the time being.

Indeed, nVidia has been dominant since Nov 2006 (when the 8800GTX launched),
until the HD48xx cards came along.

This review shows the 4850 trading places with the 9800GTX+ depending on the
game. Interestingly the 4850 is faster in ETQW, despite it being an OpenGL
title that stresses memory bandwidth.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13

No video card setup can unbalance the system if you have a large enough
monitor. Since lighting is now calculated per-pixel, the shader workload
increases dramatically with increasing resolution. Most new games are still
fillrate- or shader-limited above 1600x1200 with AA.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"DRS" wrote in message
...
"First of One" wrote in message

Have you considered the Radeon HD4850 for AU$197? It's as fast as the
9800GTX+.
http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/...er=radeon+4850

I hadn't considered ATI, to tell the truth. Nvidia has been dominant in
this market for so long, sometimes even for good reasons, ATI is not
really on my radar. It is cheap, though.

Would the 9800GTX/4850 unbalance my system, do you think?

"DRS" wrote in message
...
"First of One" wrote in message

Have you considered the Radeon HD4850 for AU$197? It's as fast as the
9800GTX+.
http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/...er=radeon+4850

I hadn't considered ATI, to tell the truth. Nvidia has been dominant in
this market for so long, sometimes even for good reasons, ATI is not
really on my radar. It is cheap, though.

Would the 9800GTX/4850 unbalance my system, do you think?

Whichever one you choose you'll very quickly learn that your bottleneck is
going to be that 2.6Ghz X2 4200 and Socket 939 DDR mainboard, especially
with the resolutions you mention. I was running an Opteron 185 at 2.9Ghz
with double the L2 of your X2 unit. As soon as I upgraded to an 8800GT it
became the #1 thing holding back my performance. And a 2Mb Opteron 185 at
2.9Ghz is considerable better than a 1Mb X2 4200 at 2.6 Ghz.

"First of One" wrote in message


[...]

This review shows the 4850 trading places with the 9800GTX+ depending
on the game. Interestingly the 4850 is faster in ETQW, despite it
being an OpenGL title that stresses memory bandwidth.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13

So, the HD4850 is competitive with the 9800GTX+, draws slightly less power
but runs hotter and is a bit noisier. I'll have a think.

"Augustus" wrote in message
news:Bg0qk.8070$%b7.5725@edtnps82

[...]

Whichever one you choose you'll very quickly learn that your
bottleneck is going to be that 2.6Ghz X2 4200 and Socket 939 DDR
mainboard, especially with the resolutions you mention.

That's fine. Going from 8600GTS to 9800GT (or thereabouts) basically
doubles my DX9 performance so it'll extend the life of the system for a year
or two, which is what I need. If I have a little oomph in reserve that's
fine.

Yep, that about sums it up. Just keep in mind the 4850 is almost AUD$100
cheaper.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


"DRS" wrote in message
...
So, the HD4850 is competitive with the 9800GTX+, draws slightly less power
but runs hotter and is a bit noisier. I'll have a think.