[First Look] Nvidia GeForce 9800GX2

[Azza]

Oh dear....


Sauce

- installed tail 6 - PIN and 8 - PIN power connector, the official minimum recommended system power demand of 580 W (+12 V power A request for 40).

- support PCI-Express 2.0, DX10 and SM4.0, OpenGL 2.1, PureVideo HD ,128-bit HDR, 16X AA, as well as built-in HDCP HybridPower energy saving technology, at this stage, whether they have updated VP3 or maintain existing VP2 technology is still uncertain, but we can not yet confirm DX10.1 and SM4.1 support for a new generation of imaging technology, the loss is expected to be a major marketing campaign, at the same time opponents will be part of this attack.

- leading GeForce 8800Ultra effectiveness of the game can be as high as 30 to 50 per cent

- GeForce 9800GX2 estimated price of 449 US dollars, time for the launch of their products on February 14, slightly late ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 the January 28

...Ive made a mess.

equipped with a dual-DVI HDMI video and S / PDIF audio output holes

You can wack one in your HTPC for a media player and a seriously powerfull gaming rig.



Estimated $450 USD... £300-£350 then.

Hopefully £300... and its release is close enough to the 3870X2 to see how they fair againt each other.

[HSK]

damn, looks like a chunk-a-beast.

[roorooroo]

Look forward to seeing how this performs!

[staffsMike]

$450 means about .. £450 lol (maybe a bit less)

it looks like it will replace the ultra's position in the line up and probably take it's price point as well.

[iranu]

580w 12v 40A is there no end to this? I thought we may have peaked with regard to power requirements for gfx cards - seems not.

[Swat]

Im looking forward ti one of those.

[oralpain]

580w 12v 40A is there no end to this? I thought we may have peaked with regard to power requirements for gfx cards - seems not.

Well, it is essentially two 8800GTS 512s slapped together.

Even if we assume they underclock each GPU a bit as they did with the old 7950GX2, that still leaves a peak power draw of over 100 watts per PCB. if youve got a card drawing 20A, and a powerful multi-core system, the 580w/40A recommendation does not seem out of line.

I'm sure people with well thought out systems and quality PSUs will have no trouble getting buy with fewer watts/amps, but given the garbage some people insist on using it's far better for NVIDIA to overstate the card's needs.

[NightshadowUK]

Motherboard design's gonna have to change quite a bit if cards like this become common place...

Can't... reach... USB / CMOS / fan pins...

[HSK]

give it a few more years a graphics card will be as big as a mothreboard.

or i might just being silly

[gurpz1]

give it a few more years a graphics card will be as big as a mothreboard.

well they're not getting any smaller or cooler.

i know this is a bit off topic but i can't see why they can't introduce a GPU that plugs directly onto the motherboard like a CPU i mean how much easier would that be to upgrade and would save companies the trouble of designing PCB's etc..

[Hunain]

well they're not getting any smaller or cooler.

i know this is a bit off topic but i can't see why they can't introduce a GPU that plugs directly onto the motherboard like a CPU i mean how much easier would that be to upgrade and would save companies the trouble of designing PCB's etc..

I think those will come too, at some point in time, perhaps they are actually working on those right now, but they wont let us in on those untill they completely juice these designs and concepts, then move on to the next one, but not giving us everything in one product, always keeping something for the next, or maybe im paranoid/too sleepy

[RoBe]

can't say much for the design, but it looks bloomin' powerful

especially with the amount of power it draws

[Main]

Nvidia seem to like putting plastic covers on their graphics cards these days - that can't be good for heat dissipation by radiation. That shroud is also hiding something interesting about the design, look at the top down photo:



Compare that with the 7950 GX2:



Notice a difference? the new board has the 2 circuit boards mirroring each other (look at that big gap in the middle) rather than stacked on top of each other, allowing for that one big fan it has that appears to push air between them.

Still, I probably won't ever buy one, especially not at UK prices...

[Lucio]

It's a nice idea, but quite frankly, we don't *need* them yet when the 8800GT is such a strong performer. Even Crysis, whilst still staggeringly demanding, will run on an 8800GT.

[pauldarkside]

So who's going to be first in testing nVidia's 3 way SLi using 3 of these cards? 6 GPUs! Do we even have a display that can take advantage of this?

[oralpain]

Nvidia seem to like putting plastic covers on their graphics cards these days - that can't be good for heat dissipation by radiation. That shroud is also hiding something interesting about the design, look at the top down photo

The configuration of the heatsink and PBCs is evident from almost any angle. fromt he back of the card you can see the two power connectors with clips pointing inward, from the front you can see that the DVI ports are not mounted with the same top/bottom, ect. It's not very hidden.

As for the shroud, I doubt it hurts much, if at all. Radiationg heat into the case is not the goal with this card. It's supposed to be blown out the back.