We've looked at a couple of graphics cards based on nVidia's 9800GT GPU and thought it would be a good idea to check the SLI performance of these graphics cards that basically reside towards the bottom of the "high-end" chain of graphics cards. For this test we've used an ASUS and a Zotac 9800GT card- both operating at stock speed.
Besides using a single 9800GT to see how much performance is gained in SLI, for comparison, we've selected a few other SLI setups such as the 8800GT and the 9800GTX as well as AMD's Crossfire setups with the 4850 and 3870 GPUs. We've also thrown in some single higher-end cards to see how the SLI'ed 9800GT stacks up. These include the 4870 from AMD and the GTX 260 from nVidia. Lets get rolling by looking at the testbed.
Testbed
CPU:
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2GHz
Memory:
2 x 1GB OCZ DDR3-1600MHz Memory Modules
Motherboard:
ASUS Striker II Extreme
Optical/Hard Drives:
Generic 8X DVDRW, Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM/8MB Cache SATA
Monitor:
BENQ 24" LCD with 1920x1200 Resolution
Operating System:
Windows Vista Ultimate - 32bit
PSU:
1000W Silverstone PSU
For comparison, we've taken most of the mainstream single card solutions. These include the 9800GTX+ from nVidia and the 4850 and 3870 GPUs from AMD. Also, we have used the latest Physx powered 177.83 drivers by nVidia for the 9800GTX+
Benchmarks
Future Mark:
Latest versions of 3DMark 2003, 3DMark 2005 and 3DMark 2006 running at default settings
Crysis:
Direct-X 10. Using built-in benchmark
ET: Quake Wars:
Direct-X 9: Using timedemo
Half Life 2 Episode 2:
Direct-X 9: Custom timedemo
Lost Planet: XC:
Direct-X 10: Built-in benchmark
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:
Direct-X 9: Using timedemo
Unreal Tournament 3:
Direct-X 9, Using custom timedemo
Word in Conflict:
Direct-X 10 built-in benchmark
If you would like for us to add any additional benchmarking software, please email us at suggestions@tbreak.com
