9800 GX2 Specifications

With its “9800” moniker, you’d naturally expect the GPU behind the GeForce 9800 GX2 to be based on a next-generation architecture, or at least an enhanced derivative of an existing GPU. Unfortunately this isn’t the case, as the GeForce 9800 GX2 is based on the same G92 GPU that was originally launched in the GeForce 8800 GT last October. The dual G92 GPUs inside the GeForce 9800 GX2 share some specifications with the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and some with the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. The following chart summaries the key features found in the 9800 GX2, and how they compare to the rest of NVIDIA’s GeForce lineup:

GeForce Series Comparison
	GeForce 9800 GX2	GeForce 8800 Ultra	GeForce 8800 GTX	GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB	GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
# of Stream Processors	256	128	128	128	112
Core Clock Speed	600MHz	612MHz	575MHz	650MHz	600MHz
Shader Clock Speed	1500MHz	1500MHz	1350MHz	1625MHz	1500MHz
Memory Clock Speed	1000MHz	1080MHz	900MHz	900MHz	970MHz
Memory Size	2x512MB	768MB	768MB	512MB	512MB
Memory Interface	256-bit	384-bit	384-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	128GB/sec	103.7GB/sec	86.4GB/sec	62.1GB/sec	57.6GB/sec
Texture Fill Rate	76.8 Gigatexels/sec	39.2 Gigatexels/sec	36.8 Gigatexels/sec	41.6 Gigatexels/sec	33.6 Gigatexels/sec
MSRP	$599-$649	EOL	EOL	$299-$349	$199-$249

As you can see, the graphics core and shader speeds of the GeForce 9800 GX2 are the same as the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB: 600MHz core and 1500MHz on the stream processors. Where the 9800 GX2 surpasses the GeForce 8800 GT is in the number of stream processors: 128 per GPU (for a grand total of 256 combined stream processors on the 9800 GX2 card) in the 9800 GX2 versus 112 for the 8800 GT. With 1GB of memory running at 1GHz (512MB per GPU and 2.0GHz effective clock speed), the 9800 GX2 also boasts faster memory than either the GeForce 8800 GT or the 8800 GTS 512MB.


Based on these raw specifications, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should run faster than any single GeForce card NVIDIA has produced to date, but with its slower clocks the 9800 GX2 shouldn’t be able to keep up with a GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB SLI setup. This is where NVIDIA’s Quad SLI technology comes in.

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is NVIDIA’s second-generation Quad SLI part. In theory when two GeForce 9800 GX2 cards are combined together for Quad SLI, you should see nearly double the performance of a single GeForce 9800 GX2 card in some applications. Unfortunately Quad SLI benchmarks are still under embargo so we can’t present those numbers for you just yet, but we will soon. And for those of you worried about power consumption, a single GeForce 9800 GX2 draws a maximum of 197 watts according to NVIDIA. (NVIDIA recommends a 580W PSU at the minimum for a single GeForce 9800 GX2 card.)

HybridPower

Speaking of power, one new feature that the GeForce 9800 GX2 supports is NVIDIA’s HybridPower technology. With HybridPower, the GPU can be completely turned off when not in use. Then, when a game is loaded, the graphics card powers up for maximum performance.

Instead of relying on the external graphics card for 2D tasks like browsing the web or watching an HD movie, HybridPower utilizes the integrated graphics built-in to the motherboard’s chipset. The first motherboards to support this technology will be NVIDIA’s nForce 7 series chipsets for the AMD platform, including the nForce 780a SLI, nForce 750a SLI, nForce 730a, and the GeForce 8200.

NVIDIA will release the first HybridPower-compliant chipsets for Intel CPUs later in Q2.