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Company of Heroes has always been one of our favorite RTS games with visceral firefights and a gripping campaign. Opposing Fronts is the expansion to this great game and it introduces players to British campaign to liberate France from German occupation in the weeks and months following D-Day.
In this test we ran the in-game benchmarking program and pegged all the graphics settings to their highest levels. This was done for both DX9 and DX10 modes and the framerates were averaged after 4 runs.
With the HD3870X2 having issues with AA implementation, the BFG 9800GTX OCX is able to surge ahead when we run the game at 4xAA but it falls slightly behind without AA turned on. Nonetheless, the OCX is once again able to stay a good 10% faster than the stock card in this test.
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts DX10
Here we see that the BFG OCX is able to use its clock speeds to extremely good effect in DX10 by thoroughly trouncing the stock-clocked card. Without a doubt, if you are looking to play Company of Heroes at the highest possible resolution you shouldn’t look any further than this card.
Half Life 2: Episode 2 is the newest installment in Valve’s long running Half Life series and this is without a doubt the best looking game in the series. For this benchmark a typical 10 minute exterior gameplay sequence was prerecorded and then played back using the in-game timedemo feature. The results were recorded with FRAPS.
1280 x 1024
1600 x 1200
2048 x 1536
With the overclock on the BFG 9800GTX OCX, it is able to stay quite far ahead of the stock card but it can’t quite stand up to the performance levels of the HD3870X2. That being said, we can see that the second AA is turned off, nearly every card flies face-first into a little something called CPU bottlenecking.
Other than being one of the first benchmarkable DX10 games, Call of Juarez also received luke-warm reviews but it provides some stunning visuals. To benchmark this game we used the in-game benchmark tool and ran it 4 times to give an average score.
1280 x 1024
1600 x 1200
1920 x 1200
In this ATI-centric game, the 9800GTX OCX is not able to post framerates that far beyond the stock card. One way or another, the difference between both GTXs is next to nothing.
Even though Prey may be a bit older game compared against many of the other ones we are testing, it still provides a workout of even the best graphics cards on the market. This time we have enabled its Graphics Boost feature (Gboost in the charts) and run through a custom timedemo.
It seems like a ten percent framerate increase between the OCX and a stock card is the name of the game in most tests and our Prey benchmark bares this out as well. What impressed us the most was the increase we saw at 2560x1600 resolution.
Unreal Tournament III
With absolutely stunning graphics, this popular online FPS provides great visuals to go hand-in-hand with palm-sweating gameplay.
For these tests we set up a 15 minute Bot Match on the Serenity level and let it play though. All of the results were recorded with FRAPS.
While the BFG 9800GTX OCX is able to use its high clock speeds to good effect at lower resolutions its 256-bit bus seems to hamper it once again at higher resolutions un UT:III. It still maintains a good lead over the vanilla 9800GTX but it can’t beat the 1GB HD3870X2 at 1600x1200 resolution and above.
This is one stunning game. World in Conflict has provided us with some of my most memorable gaming experiences since the first Homeworld game was released and it has not stopped wowing me. In its DX9 form it provides eye-popping visuals and pushes most modern GPUs to their limits. However, in DX10 mode this game will cause nearly every graphics card to beg for mercy.
For this test we used the in-game benchmarking tool.
1280 x 1024
1600 x 1200
2560 x 1600
We once again see VERY respectable gains from this overclocked card at all resolutions in World in Conflict DX9 over the stock card. It seems like DX9 applications really like higher clocks. Let’s see how this card does in DX10.
First of all you will notice that we have not included any performance results at 2560 x 1600 with AA turned on and the reason for this is quite simple: none of the graphics cards were able to run this test at anything above the speed of a glorified slideshow. That being said, where it seemed like DX9 benefits quite a bit from the higher clock speeds of this card, we can’t really say this about DX10. The BFG 9800GTX OCX is only able to squeeze out very slim (some may say negligible) increases in performance due to the architecture-stressing nature of DX10.
For this test we loaded the core of the 9800GTX with 3dMark06’s Batch-Size rendering test at the highest triangle count with a resolution of 1600x1200 and 2xAA. This puts a constant high load on the core for the indicated time. All temperatures were recorded with nTune’s temperature logging program.
Interestingly, the BFG 9800GTX OCX stays cooler than the stock card despite its increased core and memory clocks. This runs contrary to conventional thinking which says that higher overclocks yield higher temperatures. What can’t be shown here is that BFG has equipped this card with a different fan speed profile in its BIOS which tells the fan to spin up once temperatures reach 69*C. Once temperatures hit this peak, the fan begins to increase its rotational speed which then brings the temperature down to around 60*C and then spool down to a lower RPM. The process is then repeated again when temperatures hit that magical 69*C again. Thus, the core IS putting out more heat but it is kept in check by increased fan speeds.
This “pulsing” nature of the fan where it spins faster and slower at relatively equal intervals when you are gaming leads to an overall larger acoustical footprint but not once does the noise it produces become annoying. If you are a low-noise fanatic you should look elsewhere but for everyone else this fan should be more than quiet enough for you.
Power Consumption
For this test we hooked up our power supply to a UPM power meter that will log the power consumption of the whole system twice every second. In order to stress the GPU as much as possible we once again use the Batch Render test in 3DMark06 and let it run for 30 minutes to determine the peak power consumption.
Naturally, as a card is overclocked it consumes more power and this is what we see here with the BFG OCX. We are seeing an 18W peak increase in load consumption over s stock card which really isn’t too bad considering the 10% overclock.
We would recommend a good 600W power supply if you are running this card with a quad core processor.
Overclocking the BFG 9800GTX WILL void your warranty.
Max Overclocks
Core: 825Mhz Memory: 2476Mhz (DDR)
If you have a good memory, you may remember that our reference-clocked 9800GTX reached clocks of 807 / 2448 on the core and memory and believe it or not, the BFG 9800GTX OCX got a bit further. Since it uses the same core and memory as a reference card, we believe these increased overclocks are simply due to some mundane reasons. The higher core clock is probably due to the increased cooling potential afforded by the higher fan speeds while the memory overclock is probably due to luck of the draw with the memory modules. Just remember: overclocking experiences may vary so our clocks may not be repeatable with every BFG 9800GTX OCX.
The BFG 9800GTX OCX is one hell of a card since it offers jaw-dropping performance in a package which is both compact and quite efficient. The 65nm manufacturing process has been exceedingly kind to Nvidia since they have been able to refine and respin the ever-present G92 core into the 9800GTX which is the current single-GPU flagship of the Nvidia lineup. What BFG has done is take this already great-performing card and massaged it so it offers even greater performance potential in some of today’s most popular games. To some of you a 10% increase over the stock 9800GTX will be something you will turn your noses up at but you have to consider the overclock on this card is completely covered by BGF’s Lifetime Warranty. So, for people who don’t want to go into the trials (no matter how trivial they may be to seasoned veterans) of overclocking this BFG card will offer the perfect opportunity to get a smoother gaming experience without having to look at the $600 9800 GX2.
Reviewing a pre-overclocked graphics card is never easy because there are always tradeoffs to be made in the never ending competition to produce the fastest possible product. Usually one of the major tradeoffs is the cost of admittance and the BFG 9800GTX OCX is no different since its price is slightly inflated over that of a stock card. With a price of nearly $400 the premium it carries over a bone-stock GTX, many potential customers will probably gravitate to the cheaper option than pay the extra money for a somewhat slight difference. However, while we can discuss performance versus price until we are blue in the face what really needs to be touched upon is the accessory package included with this card. I’m not sure about what the rest of you think but I don’t want to have to buy an overclocked card to have access to the “optional” HDMI and SPDIF connectors. While it may be that there are not many people who will actually use these connectors, I find myself wishing that BFG would follow many other manufacturers and include these connectors with their stock cards.
In the end what we have here is a more expensive 9800GTX which offer some amazing performance while being backed up by one of the industry’s best warranties. You get all the bangs and whistles with the HDMI and SPDIF connectors and even have the potential of higher overclocks with a fan profile which keeps the card a bit cooler than stock. What more is there to ask for? Well, the price is higher and the card itself is a bit louder but that doesn’t stop this card from being highly recommended for those of you who want a great PC gaming experience.
Pros:
- Great performance
- Included HDMI and SPDIF connectors
- Runs cooler than stock
- Lifetime warranty
- Trade-up program
Cons:
- Price
- Availability
- Slightly louder than stock card
- Increased power consumption
Thanks to BFG for providing us with this graphics card
