Power Consumption And Temperature
Power Consumption
As usual, we measured the power supply’s consumption for these cards (which means that the consumption of the entire configuration is measured). We also gauged the power-supply losses, which are approximately 18% in the range we’re concerned with.
While it requires an additional six-pin power connector, the 9800 GTX’ consumption is actually very close to that of the 8800 GTS 512 MB, which is not surprisingly. The figures were comparable in idle state and just slightly higher under load (running Test Drive Unlimited), as its specifications indicated. Officially, Nvidia specifies 156 W for the 9800 GTX as opposed to "< 150 W" for the 8800 GTS 512 MB, and our results confirmed that.
What that means is that a brand-name 350 W power-supply will be enough to feed a system based on this card. We should mention that despite the reduction in memory quantity and the change in engraving depth, the drop in power consumption compared to the previous generation is nothing to write home about - it works out to only 21 W once you correct for the power-supply losses. On the other hand, the performance/watt yield is obviously much higher (by 52%) compared to the Radeon HD 3870 X2, whose consumption we measured with Unreal Tournament III because it was just too underused with Test Drive Unlimited (We measured 235 W, which was actually less than the 8800 GT).
Temperature
Despite a limit that’s traditionally set at 105°C (the temperature at which the frequencies drop in order to protect the GPU), the rotation speed of the 9800 GTX’ fan has clearly been set fairly high in order to stay as far as possible from that temperature. We registered no temperature above 71°C during our tests - only a few degrees more than the temperature at idle. You won’t have to worry about this card overheating.
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Still no reason to upgrade form an 8800 GT or GTS (512) though
DAMMIT need to pull their finger out, so Nvidia wont fob us of with the "upgrades" and get on with some new research!
The fact the review contains the addition of an LED on the PCB tells you all you need to know...
Unless being an audiophile or wanting to play games at highest resolution with AA on, I believe the performance recap tells you all your need to know. This may well not be a revolution, but it's good bang for the buck.
WHAT! am i the only one who thinks this review is nothing but a load of rubbish?
this is nothing more than an overclocked 8800GTS 512...
shame on you, TH, for that terrible review.
what? why? they have to review it - and they tell us its more or less an OC'd 8800gts
For those who already have an 8800GTX or Ultra, it's about half as fast as desired and of no 'purchasing' interest whatsoever. For everyone else it looks like a well priced buy.
I want a card that uses less power, makes less noise, costs a lot less and get great frame rates.
But; I like the heat mine kicks out as it keeps my feet warm in the winter. I'll need a cooler card summer maybe.
I'll not be getting a new gfx card for a few years, so the above may happen.
There’s no doubt that it’s a good value card, but it really does not warrant the GTX moniker. When the 8800GTX replaced the 7800GTX there was a significant increase in performance. The increase in performance from a standard 8800GTX and the 9800GTX is a bit of a joke. I'm running a BFG 8800GTX OC2 and the 9800GTX in no way attracts my attention. The 9800GTX may run cooler and quieter, but for those of us interested in best in class performance, these are not normally factors that would sway our buying decisions.
I have the new 9800 GTX and i have to say it is well worth the buy, it melts your face running everything on HD a really good card to buy
WATAFAK these cards have better performance with AA AF turned ON than without it?????? Where are we........
u just have to wait till the new comer 9900GTX and 9900GT is out