9800m GTX SLI Benchmarks (complete)

Just got my second 9800m GTX in today. (Ordered my NP9262 before it was available in SLI hoping to upgrade later)

System Specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 @3.0 ghz
4 GB 800 mhz DDR2 RAM
2x 9800m GTX in SLI both OC'd 630 1566 850 stock V1.00
3x 200 GB 7200 RPM HDD all in RAID 0
1920x1200 display
Windows Vista 64 bit

UPDATE: Adding scores with my maximum OC (690 1675 850). Also, installed new drivers (180.43) and received some very different scores. Old drivers used were 179.15.

To get down to it:

3dmark06:
15218 SM2.0: 5951 SM3.0: 7192 CPU:4294

3dmark06 w/ single 9800m GTX:
~12300

3dmark06 w/ 180.43 drivers:
15049

3dmark06 scores went down with the new drivers. Interesting...

3dmark Vantage:
P9581 GPU: 8934 CPU 12235

3dmark Vantage w/ single 9800m GTX:
~P5700

3dmark Vantage w/ 180.43 drivers:
P11354 GPU: 9393 CPU 30392

3dmark Vantage w/ 180.43 drivers and max overclock:
P11633 GPU: 9617 CPU: 31344

The scores are so much higher with the new drivers is mainly to do with the way the new drivers manage physX operations (which is represented in the CPU score in Vantage). Interesting to note that even the GPU score went up by approximately 450.

The maximum OC did not do much for the 3dmark Vantage score, despite the increase in core and shader frequencies by 60 and 109 respectively. The CPU score did go up by almost 1000, which would maybe mean that OCing impacts physX a large amount? (at least, when compared to the GPU test)

Crysis:
AVG FPS all settings Very High (DX10), 1920x1200 res: 22.3

Crysis w/ single 9800m GTX:
AVG FPS all settings Very High (DX10), 1920x1200 res: ~11

World in Conflict:
All settings Very High: AVG 30 FPS, low 21 FPS

World in Conflict w/ single 9800m GTX:
All settings Very High: AVG 21 FPS, low 11 FPS

World in Conflict w/ 180.43 drivers:
All settings Very High, AVG 38 FPS, low 21 FPS

An increase of 26% in a game that does not take advantage of physX with just a driver update! The low scores here are limitted by the CPU and probably won't go much higher with my current CPU (if any).

Notes: A bad card only let me OC the memory on it no higher than 850 mhz (any higher would cause a crash during or shortly after Vista startup).

Keep in mind, all game benchmarks were made using the default benchmarking utility that came with the game (including Crysis, which was done in 64 bit mode). Also, I have no idea why a second GTX would result in 100% increase in framerate. I realise that 100% improvement is ideal but never in real life benchmarks. Does anyone know why Crysis would act this way?

CPU is very much the bottleneck in 3dmark06 with my current setup. I read recently in an article that a QX9650 (arguable the same CPU I use with an unlocked mutliplier) with a single stock 9800 GTX (desktop) is limited by the CPU up to 3.6 ghz. With the same CPU and a single GTX 280? An estimated 4.8 ghz.

3dmark Vantage score receive an increase of about 60% with the addition of the second GPU. 3dmark Vantage obviously scales well with SLI. Keep in mind, the score for the single card is based soley off my own memory. (It's close though) Also note that the CPU isn't the bottleneck in Vantage, which would explain why it scales fairly well with SLI.

Crysis was almost playable at all very high settings and 1920x1200 resolution. Intense fighting would cause the game to become slightly choppy, enough to where it became harder to aim. Also, keep in mind, and it may be due to the way the Crysis benchmark works, the lowest FPS displayed was around 16 FPS which is close to it's AVG of 22.

World in Conflict was very playable at very high settings (DX10) at max resolution. The intense explosions created by the benchmarking utility did not affect so much in real life game play. And even still, 21 FPS for a second is hardly something to cry about.

With the new drivers, I received a significantly lower score in 3dmark06 than with my older drivers, even though in all games I receive a boost in real world graphics performance (27% in WiC). I am starting to lose my trust in 3dmark06..

There was no real gain in the maximum OC on either benchmarking utility. I forgot to take a screen shot of the 3dmark06 scores but I remember them being only a gain of about 100.

teh pwnish3r

 

Hi, can yuo post screenshot of GPU-Z at 9800GTX SLI with frequency standard?? thank yuo

 

Install the 180.43 drivers and all your dreams will come true. Literally!

Good scores though! Congrats!

 

My dreams will come true? All benchmarks here are done with 179.15. With 180.49 I got a 3dmark06 score of 15049. And how do I post pics on these forums? I've seen it done before but not sure on how.

teh pwnish3r

 

Doh.. double post... Anyway... I have pics of my clocks, temp, and scores that I will post as soon as I can figure out how.

 

Eh? Big Bang is supposed to increase sli capabilities substantially. Most (myself included) get a good 10-30% increase in performance by using the 180.43 drivers. They are very good!

Do you have PhysX turned on? I get 23,000 CPU score in vantage with PhysX.

 

Hah now you've got me interested. Tried again and following scores are:

3dmark Vantage:
P11354 GPU: 9393 CPU: 30392 (!!!)

BUT! 3dmark06 are as follows:

14893 SM2.0 5889 SM3.0 6874 CPU results were not given for some reason. Total score fell by over 300.

Even GPU score rose by well over 400 in Vantage (due to use of phys-x in their GPU tests maybe??). I can assume CPU scores stayed about the same in 3dmark06.

teh pwnish3r

 

here is a review of the drivers. You know its good if a set of drivers have a dedicated review...

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/605061/nvidia-unveils-forceware-180-big-bang-ii-driver.html

Every game I run is faster or smoother compared to the latest 178.xx drivers. Crysis scores went up about 3-4fps on Very High, which is saying something...

 

As relates to real world with upgraded drivers..

Crysis:
AVG FPS 23, low FPS 18

World in Conflict:
AVG FPS 38 (!!!), low FPS 20

The low FPS in World in Conflict is obviously due to the CPU bottle neck. It comes during a huge explosion with lots of flying debris. A gain of 27% is not bad at all for a driver update. Will update main post this afternoon. Also, will update scores with my max OC, although it is not my permanent OC. (have to go to bed now) Thanks for the advice, Mike!

One more thing I noticed. Crysis uses 883 mb of VRAM during the benchmark.

 

From what I'm aware of, that mem usage in the bench is normal RAM.

 

another member of the 15k club. nice!

 

I tried the 180 version drivers and slightly dropped my 3dMark06 scores but actual game play has improved!

 

can you run crysis gpu benchmark with wuxga and all high settings this time? i am curious how well that does.

 

yeah, can you run it when you get it again ikas.... i dont have gt's anymore so i can't re run it.

off topic
hummm, that was interesting...was watching the futuremark competition and it was all 4870x2. then right before the end of the competition 5 gtx280 jumped in and took 1,2,6,7 & 12th place... when it wasn't one gtx280 in the top 20 anything the for 98 percent of the competition...*LOL* wonder what was up with that.....

 

Sorry, but I don't have Crysis anymore.
It's great to see that both ATI and Nvidia are unleashing really great GPU's, now we at least have a choice!

 

Funny, thought my 9800m GT SLI only score from 13k to 14k under VISTA 64, they reach 15k under XP....

Did anyone try 9800M GTX SLI with lastest drivers under XP and ran 3d Mark06...i am curious. About 3 to 5% faster for 700 dollars ? hum hum

 

i got 15.6 under xp with dual 9800m gt's

 

So what hapenned Johnkss , why is it handicapped?

 

either one of 3 things
1: bad card
2: bad cable
3: bad parent or daughter card slot.

 

The thought might have crossed your mind, I`m sure...
but, what about OCing ?

 

hahahahaha, i was still testing in normal mode when it happen. i got like 3 hours in when it started acting funny.

 

Wonder if i can get 15.5k in Vista 32bit what i can get with xp..

Is it worth it though drop directx10 to go back in Directx9 for a minor fps/3dmark increase?

Atm i believe no..

 

we should be able to break 16k in xp. i just gave that a once over with the 9800m gt's

dx10 is better than dx9

and pretty soon, you wont be recognized when getting high marks in xp, since it's not the new os.

and for vista...it should be possible...a few people have broke into the 15.3 to 15.6.

and if that's a 15k in vista you have...then 15.6 should be no problem....

 

Atm im getting 15.5k-15.6k average in Vista 32bit,as i said i got 15k out of the box and now with a minor o/c im around 15.5k-15.6k,if i o/c more i can get 16k in Vista 32bit(i have posted scrnshots of my 3dmarks in another thread).

The thing with xp is that theres no game at the moment that you will need to run it in xp to get smoother gameplay than Vista with max settings with my D901C to make it worth it,in the future if i need then i will but for now im ok with Vista and DirectX10 even if i am a XP user for many years..

To the topic,grats for youre system mate,excellent machine,im sure as time passing by you will realizing how good purchase was youre D901C..

As for benchs Im not impressed from 9800GTXs performance and im sure if nVidia was giving the option to the user to choose from GT/GTX with the current prices 95% would choose the GT over GTX,im glad that ATi is making a comeback in the market because nVidia's marketing policy is like theres no competetition(forcing sales of GTX's),i expect soon(max in 1-2months)the GTX's price will drop dramatically with more ATi cards in the market.

 

well, i have done both. started with dual gt's then went to gtx's and the gtx's run games a lot smoother at high res. probably due to the more memory. (my personal opinion)

yeah, i spoke on the ati forcing nvidia to drop it's beverly hills pricing antics. (gtx280 dropped 250 bucks on the release of the new ati cards) now hey are working their way around to the mobile division... time will tell once the 4870's hit the market.


edit:devlred, did you ever get crysis to work where you could see your log files. and if not, did you ever take a picture of the screen while running it?

 

The ATI 4850 from visiontek sold more cards than any other in the month of September. Also, I think these results were collected from retail stores. Now knowing most power users purchase online (I know I do), the total sales gap must be much bigger than this. Especially considering the GTX 280, 260, 9800 GTX are no where to be found on this list, which to me seem to be the competitors to the 4850 and 4870. Just thought I'd share.

I'd post a link to the article but it says I need 15 post to do so! Anyway, it's on x-bit labs (do a google search, as again, I cannot post URLs) under wednesday's news.

Back to the topic! You say 13-14k in vista 64-bit? I scored 15.3k. Do not own XP or I would try it. Either way, it's more than 5%.

 

I didnt managed to get it to work but i will get some screenshots for the bench while running tonight and sent them to you later when i finish from work john.

 

thanks allot red.