HybridPower

Ad

Supporting the latest version of PureVideo HD, a first for a very high end NVIDIA board, and Quad SLI (it’ll be possible to pair two 9800 GX2 on an NVIDIA platform when the drivers allow it, meaning next week), the 9800 GX2 is the first card to support HybridPower. This is one of two technologies supported by Hybrid SLI (with GeForce Boost for entry level boards), HybridPower is the most interesting of the two. It can totally deactivate the 3D card when using office applications, thus only using integrated graphical circuits in the event where a 790i is on the motherboard. Even if 3D cards have made some progress over the years, they still waste much energy when you’re not running 3D applications, which is most of the time for many users.

The GeForce 9800 GX2 has some additional components that wake up a deactivated card (NVIDIA refused to say more). Requests to activate or deactivate a card are sent through the SMBus on the PCI Express bus. This is the first time this bus has been used and a graphics card must be compatible to respond to the requests. It must also have upgraded power supply stages and the capacitors, so it can react very quickly. Even though we weren’t able to verify it due to a lack of a compatible platform, we were able to see that it did work well a few months ago with beta drivers. At that time, the order to activate or deactivate the cards had to be given manually and a delay of a dozen of seconds was necessary.


Talkback
darthpoik 19/03/2008 01:32
Hide
-0+
darthpoik
Doesn't inspire much. I might stay with my 8800 gtx and just overclock it.
dobby 19/03/2008 02:26
Hide
-0+
dobby
some nice footage comparing the 3870X2 and the 9800GX2

i like the nvidia chip here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
two bit hit 19/03/2008 05:01
Hide
-0+
two bit hit
Wow, Rick Rolling Dobby, nice and mature. The card looks great, I'm tempted to shell out for a good 24" monitor now.
kye3k1 19/03/2008 11:56
Hide
-0+
kye3k1
I dont know whether I should blow all my money on this card or buy a 360

Tough choice
blazer666_uk 20/03/2008 02:45
Hide
-0+
blazer666_uk
Ill keep my 8800GTX and wait a bit longer
BobWya 20/03/2008 01:58
Hide
-0+
BobWya
I don't like the design of the 9800 GX2. Aircooling for it is a disaster.. How can you watercool this beast?? The performance is rubbish given the amount of room it takes up!!

I think most people were expecting the 9800GTX to be a 1Gb card with similar architecture to the 8800GTS but with a 512bit memory bus like AMD/ATI. A big disappointment about the memory architecture. Nvidia need a die shrink ASAP and a move to wider buses like ATI...

The problem of course is AMD/ATI not delivering in the processing power department with the 3870 (X2). Therefore there is no incentive for Nvidia to leap-frog a really powerful ATI GPU (like the X1900XTX situation).

Bob
Mugz 20/03/2008 04:50
Hide
-0+
Mugz
It's cute. I was wondering when nVidia was going to do a DX10 dual-chip card.

*checks wallet*

*has wallet shot*
leexgx 25/03/2008 05:38
Hide
-0+
leexgx
its realy 2x 8800gt cards in there not sure why thay called it an 9800 GX2 when it should realy be 8800 GX2 as its not useing the 9600 tech

1 9800 GTX card should be Close to this card perfoamce wise (seen what the 9600gt does and it only has 64 SP the 8800 gts has 128 SP)

Note You are going to post a comment as anonymous.



  •
Submit my comment
Google Ads