9800GT Roundup Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

Well, my quick ASUS card overclock with a sub-4Ghz overclock on the CPU netted me 2nd place on the HWBot 9800 GT list:

http://www.hwbot.org/quickSearch.do?hardwareId=GPU_1357

[magictorch]

Another detailed contrast of some decent cards there..you must have a whole draw full of GPUS by now!

As for the PC game industry it does seem to have stalled a bit this year.

The Xbox360 and PS3 are starting to age now while the core2 line and Intel boards have suddenly brought cheap powerful hardware to the table which can run these now powerful and relatively cheap GPUs. Add that together and people can now buy a much more powerful PC gaming machine than the consoles for just a little more $. Every day almost, there are new members building PC gaming machines here, so hopefully the PC gaming industry will start to grow well again as the consoles struggle to keep up.

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

Then add all of this economy BS to the fact (yes, I will admit it) that the PC gaming industry is slowly going downhill. This is no small fault of ATI and Nvidia alienating the vast majority of everyday gamers by continually increasing the price of their hardware. That overpriced yet powerful hardware meant that game developers were able to take the easy (and lazy) road of not optimizing their games well enough to run on slightly older hardware. What this meant is that PC gamers who wanted to play the latest game needed to run out and buy a new GPU every few months. On the other hand they could buy a $500 console which would be around for a few YEARS and play the latest titles. Guess which one they picked?

[SKYMTL]

Another detailed contrast of some decent cards there..you must have a whole draw full of GPUS by now!

You have no idea....

Expect some of these cards to go up for sale in the Charity thread tonight since there is relaly no point in me keeping them around. Probably going to be the two Palit cards and the Gigabyte with the ASUS to follow after going for a few more records.

The Xbox360 and PS3 are starting to age now while the core2 line and Intel boards have suddenly brought cheap powerful hardware to the table which can run these now powerful and relatively cheap GPUs. Add that together and people can now buy a much more powerful PC gaming machine than the consoles for just a little more $. Every day almost, there are new members building PC gaming machines here, so hopefully the PC gaming industry will start to grow well again as the consoles struggle to keep up.

The problem I see is piracy on the side of the PCs. Just look at Spore; it isn't even released and I count at LEAST 4 trackers for it already. There is just no money to be made from developing for the PC but hopefully that will change. Since if it doesn't my hobby of hardware reviewing will have to change to something else...

[Eldonko]

Yeah it seems these days the only pc games that are really successful have some sort of online component that flags non legit games.

[miggs78]

Nice review SKY, you chose the Gigabyte's version of 9800GT as the winner with the new looking icon :p.. However I thought the Asus did quite good, but disappointed with the power consumptions and temperature tests. In lots of tests it managed to beat both the 4850 and 9800GTX.

But nonetheless fantastic review..

[SKYMTL]

Actually, Gigabyte got the Dam Innovative Award while the ASUS card got the Dam Good Award. IMO, that makes ASUS the winner.

[cegras]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

Well, my quick ASUS card overclock with a sub-4Ghz overclock on the CPU netted me 2nd place on the HWBot 9800 GT list:

hwbot.org - GeForce 9800 GT specifications and performance analysis.

But that's not really a 9800 GT. More like a 8800 GTS 512 with those unlocked shaders. I would consider that a fake score.

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

Believe it or not, to a certain extent I agree with what Nvidia is doing. Since it would have gone above and beyond the context of the review, I may as well put it here.

Let's all just take a step back and look where we are at. The economy is in the shitter and gas prices are on the rise which means people like you and I just don't have the money left over to think about buying a $400 luxury such as a high-performance graphics card. Many people take for granted the fact that they have the money to buy something like the 9800GTX and GTX 260 while others who USED to be able to buy these types of cards can't anymore because gas is costing them $150 a week, food prices have gone up and their mortgage just took a hit.

Then add all of this economy BS to the fact (yes, I will admit it) that the PC gaming industry is slowly going downhill. This is no small fault of ATI and Nvidia alienating the vast majority of everyday gamers by continually increasing the price of their hardware. That overpriced yet powerful hardware meant that game developers were able to take the easy (and lazy) road of not optimizing their games well enough to run on slightly older hardware. What this meant is that PC gamers who wanted to play the latest game needed to run out and buy a new GPU every few months. On the other hand they could buy a $500 console which would be around for a few YEARS and play the latest titles. Guess which one they picked?

Whether they like it or not, a slumping economy affects ATI and Nvidia's bottom line as much as it affects consumer's spending habits. While they both may be multi-billion dollar companies, they have to watch out where their money goes and right now flushing hundreds of millions into R&D to exponentially increase GPU processing power is a bad investment. For all of the reasons I mentioned above.

When you add all of this together, you come to the realization that both ATI and Nvidia have FINALLY come to: people don't want to buy a $400 GPU to play the latest games. Most of them want (and can afford) a sub-$200 card which can play everything out there at reasonably high settings. THAT is why you haven't seen any leaps in mid-range performance.

As for the name change, yes it frustrates me just like you but it will work out for the best. The Nvidia lineup will finally be clearer once stock of the 8800GT dries up and the 9800 GT gets some much needed (albeit optional) features. I would have just much rather seen the 9800 GT released as a 55nm card from the get-go.

Actually, it's their fault for living on credit too much. America lives for one thing: and that's credit. It's funny (especially on XS) to see people waiting for their paychecks so they can blow it all away on some new hardware or skulltrail or whatever.

Unfortunately, their philosophy is 'fun now, pay later.'

My mom heads the processing department at a company. They charge a monthly fee for their services and have recently expanded to the US. They're also sending a ton more accounts to collections (guess: US accounts) - which I happened to process.

You know what one customer said?

"You're going to collections."

"Go ahead, I've already been sent to collections!"

Your other points stand true though. Their prices are simply ridiculous. Not to mention intel charging $1000 for a CPU that simply has an unlocked multiplier - but you don't see those 'overclocker geniuses' complaining.

For the record, I think that 'sport' is pathetic. But its got it's own micro economy to go with it, so I'm not surprised many companies want to cash in on it.

[DK2]

Maybe a little perspective is needed.
I remember paying $1100.00 for a PC. 8088 8MHz processor, Mono graphics, and 2 360K floppy drives. The 10Mbyte HDD I got from work.
Those PC text graphics games put the console pong games to shame.
I make 4 times what I did then, and you can build a pretty damn good PC that can play Crysis for $1000.

[baov]

Why should i buy this over a 4850 that cost the same and performs better than the 9800GTX+? If only ATI would let their desktop chipset have powerXpress.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by cegras

But that's not really a 9800 GT. More like a 8800 GTS 512 with those unlocked shaders. I would consider that a fake score.

Actually, it IS a 9800 GT since according to Nvidia the 9800 GT cards can use either 112 or 128 shaders. There will be other 128SP cards from other manufacturers as well depending on who still needs to get rid of their 8800 GTS 512MB cores.

Just like some BFG 7900 GS cards could unlock and generate higher scores which were accepted.