My card's been with me since 4/2/08 but thanks to two exams haven't been able to do the benches until today.
Before I get on with the figures a quick look at the card, the packaging and my messy case LOL :
eVGA Geforce 9800GX2 Box - Front
eVGA Geforce 9800GX2 Box - Rear
eVGA Foam Package
The Card - Front
The Card - Rear
Messy Case
Rig:
Core2 Q6600 @ 3.15Ghz (350x9)
Gigabyte P35-DS3L
2x2GB Supertalent DDR2-800 @ 840 Mhz
Creative X-Fi Platinum
Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1
Resolution: 1680x1050 [For the Entire Review and Comparisons with old card]
Driver: Forceware 174.74 (WHQL)
Video Card Stock Clocks: 600-1512-2000
Video Card OC Clocks: 725-1836-2200
Games Benched:
1. Bioshock DX10
2. Call of Juarez DX10
3. Crysis 64Bit DX10 [High/Very High]
4. DiRT [Single Car Rally/Multiple Cars Circuit Race]
5. Far Cry 64Bit v1.32
6. F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate [Fraps/In Game Bench]
7. Frontlines Fuel of War
8. Call of Duty 4
9. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
10. Rainbow Six: Vegas
11. Test Drive Unlimited
12. World in Conflict [DX9/DX10] [Fraps/In Game Bench]
I will devote the following sections to each game:
A. Settings and Locations Used for Benchmarks
B. Benchmark (Stock and OC) (Min-Max-Avg)
C. Problems Encountered (ONLY if any)
D. Overall Experience (Including Improvement from eVGA Geforce 8800 512MB (756-1890-2000) [Hence, referred to as my previous card])
Unless specified as an "In-Built Benchmark" all of the numbers below are recorded during normal game-play using fraps:
Disclaimers:
i. I understand the variability of in game benchmarking using Fraps, but I made sure to use the same starting and ending points and the general combat techniques.
ii. Even though I was careful please take minimum frame-rates with a grain of salt, as you will see a few of them clearly don't change much during normal clocks and OC clocks, please look at the averages and my overall experience section for a better conclusion.
iii. This is not meant to be a scientific article, just an end user's personal experience.
1. Bioshock DX10 (Disabled VSync and redid numbers, thanks chizow )
A. Settings and Location: Olympus Heights - Walking around after exiting the underground area, fired a variety of weapons, engaged with various splicers and even a big daddy.
In Game: All Settings maximum
Nvidia Control Panel: 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)68-(Max)171-(Avg)112.65
OC: (Min)79-(Max)166-(Avg)120.95
D. Overall Experience: There is a nice performance difference from my previous card. Whatever action is going on the frames stay constantly above 60FPS, be it 4-5 splicers or even a big daddy firefight. I didn't try AA but had 16XAF applied which wasn't used with my previous card. After I redid my numbers overclocking does give a decent boost for this game.
2. Call of Juarez DX10
A. Settings and Location: Starting of the Episode IV: Abandoned Mine Level
In Game: All Settings maximum including 2XAA and Anisotropic Trilinear Filtering
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)38-(Max)66-(Avg)52.567
OC: (Min)42-(Max)82-(Avg)60.317
C. Problems Encountered: 4XAA seemed to just kill the performance of the card making it quite unplayable.
D. Overall Experience: There was a massive performance improvement from my previous card, the gameplay was uncomfortable even without AA & AF. Overall this card is a perfect match, hopefully 4xAA is a driver bug, but even with 2xAA I'm quite happy. Also there is a nice and healthy boost from overclocking.
3. Crysis 64bit DX10
A. Settings and Location: From landing on the beach to the killing of the first soldier on top of the rock
B. Benches:
Stock: High: (Min)30-(Max)58-(Avg)49.283
Very High (Min)22-(Max)42-(Avg)34.233
OC: High: (Min)30-(Max)67-(Avg)54.583
Very High (Min)23-(Max)46-(Avg)37.250
C. Problems Encountered: Very High Stuttered a little, both stock and overclocked, even though framerates seem reasonable.
D. Overall Experience: OC clocks helped a lot, High setting ran like butter, it is unbelievable how smooth the game runs now that frames are high enough to prevent motion blur from kicking in aggressively when the player is turning and moving. After benching I played through to the beach area. High was smooth all the way, very high performed slightly slower than my previous single card, but the light rays through the foliage was a treat to watch (Hopefully Dual GT200s should cut it for very high)
4. DiRT
A. Settings:
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4XAA
B. Benches:
Stock: Hillclimb (Single Car): (Min)53-(Max)69-(Avg)63.083
CORR (Multiple Cars): (Min)33-(Max)72-(Avg)59.217
OC: Hillclimb (Single Car): (Min)62-(Max)80-(Avg)72.333
CORR (Multiple Cars): (Min)44-(Max)81-(Avg)67.200
D. Overall Experience: The 9800GX2 finally made the Multiple car races an enjoyable experience for me, there are massive gains from a single card, framerates quite literally doubled. This game looks amazing and is extremely GPU hungry based on the scaling and healthy performance increases when overclocking.
5. Far Cry 64Bit v1.32
A. Settings and Location: Initial combat in the Swamp Level
In Game: All Settings maximum including 8XAA and 16XAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)94-(Max)169-(Avg)134.5
OC: (Min)91-(Max)179-(Avg)125.733
D. Overall Experience: Yes, I know there is no need for a 9800GX2 to enjoy just this game, the previous card was more than enough, I just included this to highlight the monster that this card is and the framerate improvements by using the 64bit version.
6. F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
A. Settings:
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4XAA 16xAF and Soft Shadows
B. Benches:
Stock: Fraps: (Min)72-(Max)253-(Avg)149.7
In Game Bench: (Min)85-(Max)407-(Avg)132
OC: Fraps: (Min)86-(Max)414-(Avg)185.77
In Game Bench: (Min)92-(Max)479-(Avg)154
D. Overall Experience: F.E.A.R. as well, was very much enjoyable on my previous card (though without soft shadows). Again I have included it to highlight the power of the card, as the game is extremely GPU hungry scales well with multiple cards as well as Overclocks.
7. Frontlines: Fuel of War
A. Settings and Location: Last Mission - Defending the city square
In Game: All Settings maximum
Nvidia Control Panel: 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)57-(Max)66-(Avg)63
OC: (Min)57-(Max)65-(Avg)62.967
D. Overall Experience: There is a nice performance difference from my previous card. Whatever action is going on the frames stay constantly at 60FPS. I didn't try AA but had 16XAF applied which wasn't used with my previous card. Also since the Engine appears to be capped at around 60 FPS overclocking does nothing additional for this game as it is already maxed at stock clocks.
8. Call of Duty 4
A. Settings and Location: Defending the Hill after killing of AlAsad
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4xAA & Max AF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)50-(Max)113-(Avg)75.233
OC: (Min)52-(Max)110-(Avg)74.067
D. Overall Experience: There is a noticeable performance difference from my previous card. No slowdowns at all, very very smooth. We also seem to be hitting some other system limitations as the OC does nothing for the framerate.
9. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
A. Settings and Location: Bruma Outdoors
In Game: All Settings maximum incl. HDR, except self shadows: OFF; Shadows on Grass: OFF; & Both Shadow Sliders Halfway, due to personal IQ Preferences
Mods: Qarl's Texture Pack III
Nvidia Control Panel: 4XAA 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)38-(Max)149-(Avg)74.45
OC: (Min)37-(Max)133-(Avg)76.033
D. Overall Experience: Again, there is a noticeable performance difference from my previous card. Stuttering is at a bare minimum now, quite smooth. The OC doesn't make a tangible difference.
10. Rainbow Six: Vegas
A. Settings and Location: Terrorist Hunt: Border Town Map
In Game: All Settings maximum
Nvidia Control Panel: 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)84-(Max)170-(Avg)116.233
OC: (Min)96-(Max)189-(Avg)129.6
C. Problems Encountered: Any amount of AA (even 2xAA) forced through the control panel caused an unexplainable drop in performance, I hope this gets fixed in a future driver update, as R6V could sure use some AA.
D. Overall Experience: The game runs beautifully as you can judge from the framerates, but I'm disappointed by the AA bug. Even though its irrelevant due to plenty of performance already, but overclocking does improve framerates nicely.
11. Test Drive Unlimited
A. Settings and Location: City Center
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4XAA
Nvidia Control Panel: 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)31-(Max)70-(Avg)57.567
OC: (Min)36-(Max)78-(Avg)60.483
C. Problems Encountered: Massive Amounts of stuttering compared to the silky smooth single card I had previously, I really hope this is a driver bug, as I very dearly love this game. High minimum framerates are critical in this game.
D. Overall Experience: This is the first entirely negative experience vis-a-vis the previous single GPU card, the max and avg framerates have improved nicely, but the brief moments of stuttering happen when you want them the least, for example you don't want a stutter when you are passing a car with an oncoming car very close, or you don't want a stutter when you are braking hard and going into a corner way too fast and sideways, it just ruins the experience
12. World in Conflict
A. Settings and Location: Battle for the Pine Valley: In the beginning - Chosen as it is the same map as in the built in benchmark
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4XAA 16xAF; Shadows From Cloud Only available in DX10
B. Benches:
Stock: Fraps (DX9): (Min)39-(Max)71-(Avg)50.55
In Game Bench (DX9): (Min)23-(Max)110-(Avg)50
Fraps (DX10): (Min)23-(Max)69-(Avg)53.5
In Game Bench (DX10): (Min)14-(Max)70-(Avg)36
OC: Fraps (DX9): (Min)43-(Max)78-(Avg)58.75
In Game Bench (DX9): (Min)24-(Max)120-(Avg)51
Fraps (DX10): (Min)21-(Max)74-(Avg)50.733
In Game Bench (DX10): (Min)18-(Max)72-(Avg)38
D. Overall Experience: This game is largely system bound, hence not much improvement from overclocking, though I was able to play with DX10 and Shadows From Clouds, unlike with my previous card. It is quite playable in DX10 mode with full eye candy, Shadows From Clouds settings made a big difference in IQ in the chosen level.
Miscellaneous Observations:
* Yes, it is a hot card. If your system's temps are already on the edge, then this will probably send it over.
* Yes, it is quite loud, BUT only when gaming which doesn't bother me in the slightest. Otherwise at idle it is as quiet as my previous 8800GTS 512MB.
Few Requests and Notes:
* Please try to refrain from postings 9800GX2 is too expensive and 9600GT/8800GT SLI is better value for money, if we didn't have perfectly great and nice overclocking P35-X38-X48 motherboards with fully functional installs we would buy them too.
* I have no bias towards either nVidia or ATI/AMD; I buy whatever fits my needs, and so should you.
* I'm very happy with my well thought out step-up, so please try not to ruin that for me.
* This took me nearly 12 hours of my free time so please consider that in your replies, though don't get me wrong, I would love some constructive feedback, thats how we all learn and grow together.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the very long post.
Ashish
Before I get on with the figures a quick look at the card, the packaging and my messy case LOL :
eVGA Geforce 9800GX2 Box - Front
eVGA Geforce 9800GX2 Box - Rear
eVGA Foam Package
The Card - Front
The Card - Rear
Messy Case
Rig:
Core2 Q6600 @ 3.15Ghz (350x9)
Gigabyte P35-DS3L
2x2GB Supertalent DDR2-800 @ 840 Mhz
Creative X-Fi Platinum
Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1
Resolution: 1680x1050 [For the Entire Review and Comparisons with old card]
Driver: Forceware 174.74 (WHQL)
Video Card Stock Clocks: 600-1512-2000
Video Card OC Clocks: 725-1836-2200
Games Benched:
1. Bioshock DX10
2. Call of Juarez DX10
3. Crysis 64Bit DX10 [High/Very High]
4. DiRT [Single Car Rally/Multiple Cars Circuit Race]
5. Far Cry 64Bit v1.32
6. F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate [Fraps/In Game Bench]
7. Frontlines Fuel of War
8. Call of Duty 4
9. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
10. Rainbow Six: Vegas
11. Test Drive Unlimited
12. World in Conflict [DX9/DX10] [Fraps/In Game Bench]
I will devote the following sections to each game:
A. Settings and Locations Used for Benchmarks
B. Benchmark (Stock and OC) (Min-Max-Avg)
C. Problems Encountered (ONLY if any)
D. Overall Experience (Including Improvement from eVGA Geforce 8800 512MB (756-1890-2000) [Hence, referred to as my previous card])
Unless specified as an "In-Built Benchmark" all of the numbers below are recorded during normal game-play using fraps:
Disclaimers:
i. I understand the variability of in game benchmarking using Fraps, but I made sure to use the same starting and ending points and the general combat techniques.
ii. Even though I was careful please take minimum frame-rates with a grain of salt, as you will see a few of them clearly don't change much during normal clocks and OC clocks, please look at the averages and my overall experience section for a better conclusion.
iii. This is not meant to be a scientific article, just an end user's personal experience.
1. Bioshock DX10 (Disabled VSync and redid numbers, thanks chizow )
A. Settings and Location: Olympus Heights - Walking around after exiting the underground area, fired a variety of weapons, engaged with various splicers and even a big daddy.
In Game: All Settings maximum
Nvidia Control Panel: 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)68-(Max)171-(Avg)112.65
OC: (Min)79-(Max)166-(Avg)120.95
D. Overall Experience: There is a nice performance difference from my previous card. Whatever action is going on the frames stay constantly above 60FPS, be it 4-5 splicers or even a big daddy firefight. I didn't try AA but had 16XAF applied which wasn't used with my previous card. After I redid my numbers overclocking does give a decent boost for this game.
2. Call of Juarez DX10
A. Settings and Location: Starting of the Episode IV: Abandoned Mine Level
In Game: All Settings maximum including 2XAA and Anisotropic Trilinear Filtering
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)38-(Max)66-(Avg)52.567
OC: (Min)42-(Max)82-(Avg)60.317
C. Problems Encountered: 4XAA seemed to just kill the performance of the card making it quite unplayable.
D. Overall Experience: There was a massive performance improvement from my previous card, the gameplay was uncomfortable even without AA & AF. Overall this card is a perfect match, hopefully 4xAA is a driver bug, but even with 2xAA I'm quite happy. Also there is a nice and healthy boost from overclocking.
3. Crysis 64bit DX10
A. Settings and Location: From landing on the beach to the killing of the first soldier on top of the rock
B. Benches:
Stock: High: (Min)30-(Max)58-(Avg)49.283
Very High (Min)22-(Max)42-(Avg)34.233
OC: High: (Min)30-(Max)67-(Avg)54.583
Very High (Min)23-(Max)46-(Avg)37.250
C. Problems Encountered: Very High Stuttered a little, both stock and overclocked, even though framerates seem reasonable.
D. Overall Experience: OC clocks helped a lot, High setting ran like butter, it is unbelievable how smooth the game runs now that frames are high enough to prevent motion blur from kicking in aggressively when the player is turning and moving. After benching I played through to the beach area. High was smooth all the way, very high performed slightly slower than my previous single card, but the light rays through the foliage was a treat to watch (Hopefully Dual GT200s should cut it for very high)
4. DiRT
A. Settings:
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4XAA
B. Benches:
Stock: Hillclimb (Single Car): (Min)53-(Max)69-(Avg)63.083
CORR (Multiple Cars): (Min)33-(Max)72-(Avg)59.217
OC: Hillclimb (Single Car): (Min)62-(Max)80-(Avg)72.333
CORR (Multiple Cars): (Min)44-(Max)81-(Avg)67.200
D. Overall Experience: The 9800GX2 finally made the Multiple car races an enjoyable experience for me, there are massive gains from a single card, framerates quite literally doubled. This game looks amazing and is extremely GPU hungry based on the scaling and healthy performance increases when overclocking.
5. Far Cry 64Bit v1.32
A. Settings and Location: Initial combat in the Swamp Level
In Game: All Settings maximum including 8XAA and 16XAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)94-(Max)169-(Avg)134.5
OC: (Min)91-(Max)179-(Avg)125.733
D. Overall Experience: Yes, I know there is no need for a 9800GX2 to enjoy just this game, the previous card was more than enough, I just included this to highlight the monster that this card is and the framerate improvements by using the 64bit version.
6. F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
A. Settings:
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4XAA 16xAF and Soft Shadows
B. Benches:
Stock: Fraps: (Min)72-(Max)253-(Avg)149.7
In Game Bench: (Min)85-(Max)407-(Avg)132
OC: Fraps: (Min)86-(Max)414-(Avg)185.77
In Game Bench: (Min)92-(Max)479-(Avg)154
D. Overall Experience: F.E.A.R. as well, was very much enjoyable on my previous card (though without soft shadows). Again I have included it to highlight the power of the card, as the game is extremely GPU hungry scales well with multiple cards as well as Overclocks.
7. Frontlines: Fuel of War
A. Settings and Location: Last Mission - Defending the city square
In Game: All Settings maximum
Nvidia Control Panel: 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)57-(Max)66-(Avg)63
OC: (Min)57-(Max)65-(Avg)62.967
D. Overall Experience: There is a nice performance difference from my previous card. Whatever action is going on the frames stay constantly at 60FPS. I didn't try AA but had 16XAF applied which wasn't used with my previous card. Also since the Engine appears to be capped at around 60 FPS overclocking does nothing additional for this game as it is already maxed at stock clocks.
8. Call of Duty 4
A. Settings and Location: Defending the Hill after killing of AlAsad
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4xAA & Max AF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)50-(Max)113-(Avg)75.233
OC: (Min)52-(Max)110-(Avg)74.067
D. Overall Experience: There is a noticeable performance difference from my previous card. No slowdowns at all, very very smooth. We also seem to be hitting some other system limitations as the OC does nothing for the framerate.
9. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
A. Settings and Location: Bruma Outdoors
In Game: All Settings maximum incl. HDR, except self shadows: OFF; Shadows on Grass: OFF; & Both Shadow Sliders Halfway, due to personal IQ Preferences
Mods: Qarl's Texture Pack III
Nvidia Control Panel: 4XAA 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)38-(Max)149-(Avg)74.45
OC: (Min)37-(Max)133-(Avg)76.033
D. Overall Experience: Again, there is a noticeable performance difference from my previous card. Stuttering is at a bare minimum now, quite smooth. The OC doesn't make a tangible difference.
10. Rainbow Six: Vegas
A. Settings and Location: Terrorist Hunt: Border Town Map
In Game: All Settings maximum
Nvidia Control Panel: 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)84-(Max)170-(Avg)116.233
OC: (Min)96-(Max)189-(Avg)129.6
C. Problems Encountered: Any amount of AA (even 2xAA) forced through the control panel caused an unexplainable drop in performance, I hope this gets fixed in a future driver update, as R6V could sure use some AA.
D. Overall Experience: The game runs beautifully as you can judge from the framerates, but I'm disappointed by the AA bug. Even though its irrelevant due to plenty of performance already, but overclocking does improve framerates nicely.
11. Test Drive Unlimited
A. Settings and Location: City Center
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4XAA
Nvidia Control Panel: 16xAF
B. Benches: Stock: (Min)31-(Max)70-(Avg)57.567
OC: (Min)36-(Max)78-(Avg)60.483
C. Problems Encountered: Massive Amounts of stuttering compared to the silky smooth single card I had previously, I really hope this is a driver bug, as I very dearly love this game. High minimum framerates are critical in this game.
D. Overall Experience: This is the first entirely negative experience vis-a-vis the previous single GPU card, the max and avg framerates have improved nicely, but the brief moments of stuttering happen when you want them the least, for example you don't want a stutter when you are passing a car with an oncoming car very close, or you don't want a stutter when you are braking hard and going into a corner way too fast and sideways, it just ruins the experience
12. World in Conflict
A. Settings and Location: Battle for the Pine Valley: In the beginning - Chosen as it is the same map as in the built in benchmark
In Game: All Settings maximum including 4XAA 16xAF; Shadows From Cloud Only available in DX10
B. Benches:
Stock: Fraps (DX9): (Min)39-(Max)71-(Avg)50.55
In Game Bench (DX9): (Min)23-(Max)110-(Avg)50
Fraps (DX10): (Min)23-(Max)69-(Avg)53.5
In Game Bench (DX10): (Min)14-(Max)70-(Avg)36
OC: Fraps (DX9): (Min)43-(Max)78-(Avg)58.75
In Game Bench (DX9): (Min)24-(Max)120-(Avg)51
Fraps (DX10): (Min)21-(Max)74-(Avg)50.733
In Game Bench (DX10): (Min)18-(Max)72-(Avg)38
D. Overall Experience: This game is largely system bound, hence not much improvement from overclocking, though I was able to play with DX10 and Shadows From Clouds, unlike with my previous card. It is quite playable in DX10 mode with full eye candy, Shadows From Clouds settings made a big difference in IQ in the chosen level.
Miscellaneous Observations:
* Yes, it is a hot card. If your system's temps are already on the edge, then this will probably send it over.
* Yes, it is quite loud, BUT only when gaming which doesn't bother me in the slightest. Otherwise at idle it is as quiet as my previous 8800GTS 512MB.
Few Requests and Notes:
* Please try to refrain from postings 9800GX2 is too expensive and 9600GT/8800GT SLI is better value for money, if we didn't have perfectly great and nice overclocking P35-X38-X48 motherboards with fully functional installs we would buy them too.
* I have no bias towards either nVidia or ATI/AMD; I buy whatever fits my needs, and so should you.
* I'm very happy with my well thought out step-up, so please try not to ruin that for me.
* This took me nearly 12 hours of my free time so please consider that in your replies, though don't get me wrong, I would love some constructive feedback, thats how we all learn and grow together.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the very long post.
Ashish