The nVidia GeForce 9800 GX2 is here!

The nVidia GeForce 9 series of graphics cards is here and nVidia is kicking off the show by flaunting its dual-GPU monster – the GeForce 9800 GX2! This release comes in to compete with AMD/ATi’s Radeon 3870 X2 and packs quite a punch.

The last time nVidia made a dual-GPU graphics card was the GeForce 7950 GX2, which was not a big hit in terms of performance compared to single-GPU alternatives that quickly succeeded it. However, the GeForce 9800 GX2 is based on the same double PCB architecture as the GeForce 7950 GX2 and, although is not clocked as fast as a single GeForce 8800 Ultra, it definitely makes up for two GeForce 8800 GTSes.

Imagine running two of these cards in a quad-SLI configuration! Hopefully, with improved drivers, multi-GPU setups should be able take more advantage of this raw GPU processing power. In addition to its great performance, the GeForce 9800 GX2 is also the first nVidia graphics card to support nVidia’s HybridPower technology, which essentially should allow for dynamic power management depending upon 2D or 3D load.

Read reviews of the GeForce 9800 GX2 at the following links:

• Tomshardware.com
• [H]ard|OCP
• TweakTown.com

The nVidia GeForce 8800GT is here!

This story is probably a few days (or even a week) old by now, but I thought I should publish something, not really to announce its launch (since many have done a great job with this), but to throw my opinions in.

If you are a hardcore gamer, you know that when it comes to getting the best in the graphics department, your graphics card is more than likely the most important component in a computer setup. So far nVidia was leading the graphics card wars against AMD/ATi with their GeForce 8×00 series of chipsets. Even though AMD/ATi tried to compete with their Radeon HD2x00 series of chipsets, nVidia’s GeForce 8×00 chipsets were performing better overall when compared to similar AMD/ATi Radeon offerings of the same class. The GeForce 8800 Ultra is still nVidia’s top-of-the-line graphics card for extreme gaming, but the manufacturer recently released a sibling of the 8800 Ultra which performs quite close to its bigger brother, but comes at almost half the price!

The GeForce 8800GT sits at the sweet spot for gamers on a upper mid-range budget. Several sites such as TechReport.com and TomsHardware.com have full reviews on the performance of this card when compared to other nVidia and AMD/ATi offerings. You will definitely come to the conclusion that this card is indeed a great performer for the money!

I was considering upgrading my own graphics card (a Radeon X800XL) to a GeForce 8800GT and probably get another to match the first and activate SLI! My desktop motherboard is an ASUS A8N SLI-Deluxe running on a AMD Athlon64 3500+ socket-939 CPU. However, this upgrade would also require upgrading the PSU and CPU, but since socket-939 seems to be completely dead, it will take some time to find those components. Furthermore, my gaming rig has a permanent home in The Bahamas, whereas I am away in Canada at university most of the year, so upgrading that now may be pointless.

I do plan on building a Small Form-Factor gaming system sometime soon and this time, I’m going with Intel over AMD. It is definitely a better investment since Intel sockets are usually backward compatible with a lot of their older CPUs. By then, there may be a new graphics card to replace the 8800GT, but I believe this little power-house will be around for a while. Let’s hope!