Upgrade to the 9800 GTX?

[Howard B]

My current system specs are:

[HarvesteR]

well, i see you're running a geforce series 7 there... so that step up is usually a good deal...

on the other hand, you are running a triple head setup there, and having one myself i know how high the resolution is (3.9MP) and the amount of hardware you need to run it... and SLI does help with high resolutions, which your current GX2 has (i assume that the GX2 suffix in the 7 series also stands for 2 cards stuck together in SLI, just as with the 9 series)

so... i'm not sure... maybe someone that knows these cards better can give you some more conclusive information...  ;)

Cheers

HarvesteR

[MadWings]

Hello Howard,

Best Graphics Cards for the Money: June 08
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-cards,1942.html

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX Review (also testing FSX performance on page 4)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-9800gtx-review,1800.html

Nvidia's GeForce 9600 GT Tested
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-9600-gt,1780.html

To quote the review above: The 9800 GTX "limits high resolution/antialiasing performance in certain games, and cancels out the advantage of installing the card in an SLI or triple SLI configuration - even though it supports SLI."

I'm no specialist for the triple monitor setup, but to my ears, that doesn't sound very recommendable. From what I've read about video cards recently, I'd say a GeForce 8800 GT (or two 8800 GTs in SLI) provides high performance for reasonable money; you might also consider the GeForce 9600 GT or the Radeon HD 3870, which are cheaper and a little less powerful, but still a reasonable step forward from your aged VGA.

I found TomsHardware to be quite resourceful when looking for hardware, but before you decide to buy, I'd recommend to back up your decision by also looking at reviews from another source.

Hope this helps. (Don't hesitate to ask again if it didn't. )

Kind regards

[NickN]

You have to love the reliability of Toms Hardware

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvi ... 800-4.html

Note the 1920x1200AA+AF


Now look at this one

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvi ... 53-15.html


The truth is, in FSX the 8800GTX/Ultra are the best cards for the highest performance in FSX. If you do not know how to overclock or want to the Ultra will deliver the best FSX performance. If you know how to clock the GTX will deliver the same performance as the ultra.

So the bottom line is, new cards will be coming out later this year and they may very well wipe them all so to spend money now is going to put you into a card that may be old news by as early as the end of the summer and no later than the end of the year.

If this is a dedicated FSX system I would suggest spending less and planning on buying at the end of they year to get the most out of the money spent over time

[MadWings]

Hello Nick and everyone,

I noticed that, too: same hardware setup, same video card, but different performance in the two reviews. However, there is one difference between them: the driver versions.

- The 9800GTX review uses ForceWare 169.44 beta (GeForce 8 series) / 174.53 beta (9800 GTX) and Catalyst 8.3 (Radeon cards).
- The GTX 260/280 review uses ForceWare 175.16 (GeForce 8 and 9 series) and Catalyst 8.5 (Radeon cards).

One might think this shouldn't make a big difference. But it does. With each new driver update, NVIDIA and AMD (usually) try to improve performance by optimizing their drivers for the various titles out there (e.g. Crysis, World In Conflict etc.)

But it seems it can also happen the other way round, and TomsHardware noticed this themselves. In a Nov'07 review, they experienced a 7% performance loss of NVIDIA cards when they updated the drivers from ForceWare 169.01 to 169.09. (See this page for the perplexing results.)

I'm not saying NVIDIA does this on purpose to make you buy new video cards. And just for the record, I've also seen these little variations of performance in other reviews, also in established, trustworthy magazines. Anyway, you shouldn't consider benchmark frame rates as set in stone. While we get ever-changing drivers, they are more of a snapshot, giving you an idea of the performance of a video card, also in comparison to its "rivals". Nothing more, and nothing less.

Hope this helps. Kind regards.

[NickN]

I am well aware of the driver changes..

I am also well aware of Toms slight of hand moves in test results

A perfect example is when they tested FSX with all the cards but gosh darn it, they forgot the GTS/GTX and Ultra?

I dont think so

Why? Because someone did not want those new expensive cards Nv is trying to sell to be upstaged so we made sure the slower DX10 GPU cards and the 7xxx series was compared to the 8800GT and 9000 series but left out the REAL cards that work best in FSX

[MadWings]

I agree, you're probably right about that. I wouldn't exclusively rely on TomsHardware, and prefer websites and magazines that earned my trust with long years of competent, plausible writing. That's why I said:

before you decide to buy, I'd recommend to back up your decision by also looking at reviews from another source.

All hardware issues and no play makes Jack a dull boy...

[Howard B]

Thanks a LOT!  I think I will hold off a while and see how the drivers mature on the newest series of cards.