BFG 9800 GTX 512MB Review Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

Today marks the day we get back onto the GPU review bandwagon and with it comes the launch of the 9800 GTX. BFG was kind enough to send us one of their production cards so sit back and enjoy the review.

You can find the review here:

BFG 9800GTX 512MB Review

ENJOY.

And happy April Fools. (Yes, this is a real review)

[tom.mullie]

It does well, but never seems to get more than 10% on the 8800GTS, except when AA is cranked at high res and neither is really playable anyways. it costs at least $360, versus $280. 29% more $ for 10% more frames... I'm sorry I ever defended this thing.

[SKYMTL]

Personally, I think its a good value since it comes with more features than your average 8800GTS 512MB card and consistently runs 10% to 15% faster than the 512MB. Remember, we have not yet seen this card on sale and prices are a bit inflated on launch day + a week. IMO, once prices settle down a bit you will see the Canadian pricing around what Newegg is selling their 9800GTX cards for: $315 to $ 329.

[magictorch]

Great review SKY-lots of useful contrasts.
Very nice card indeed and fantastic value for money-although Im not sure about the GTX branding- as this used to be reserved for the decadent high-end and:- really should be something like a GTS special. I guess they didnt go for a die shrink and memory upgrade on the original 384bit GTX as it was just too expensive to produce....but those extra bits on the old GTX really keep it in the game though...I can only imagine what it would be like with a smaller core at 850 mhz, 2000shaders, and faster 2400 mem.

[SKYMTL]

Just think of it: 16 months ago there were upcoming and already-released games that NEEDED the 8800 GTX. These days all nearly all the present games (Crysis aside) get absolutely murdered by the 9800 GTX so there really isn't a point to release anything else. Personally, I think we are seeing the result of the slow decline in the PC games world finally starting to affect hardware.

[magictorch]

Yes thats a great point SKY-although I really "hope" its not true.

Yes --whats the point in building on the ultra-high end segment at the moment- when theres nothing really challenging on the horizon for a while. I just hope the fall brings more challenging games soon, since crysis was released I haven't even bothered to see whats available. It takes so long for them to develop games and they never seem to release on time. Theres a few Im looking forward to in the fall though.

Lets just hope the appeal of the PC as the customizable all in one wonder machine wins the day once developers finally get their head around +focus on DX10 and drop DX9.

[SKYMTL]

It als has to do with the very slow adoption of Vista by gamers. IMO, the GPU companies had high hopes that everyone was going to be falling head over heals for DX10 games which would have brought on a swift upswing in the hardware requirements (hell, look at the WiC DX10 tests) but now most people are still content with DX9.

[thenewguy001]

I don't think it's the fact that people are content with DX9. It's just that DX10 is tied to vista as a marketing gimmick and people vehemently hate vista. People are resisting DX10 because they are resisting vista. I know I am. The whole new mobo = new vista purchase and having to call india for every installation is absolutely ridiculous.

I ain't upgrading until 1) XP is no longer supported and there are major unpatched security flaws or 2) they've ironed out most of the bugs and performance issues in vista and I can get an OEM disc with SP2 on there by default. Even then, I'll probably keep XP as an offline gaming partition and use ubuntu or something for web browsing. I'm not buying a new OS for every new mobo. I just don't see that happening.

[magictorch]

mmm-I think ill go out and get vista then...run in dual boot.

[SKYMTL]

From my personal perspective, I play games on Vista and I avoid DX10 because I feel it gives next to zero increase in graphics quality.