X-bit labs

There Will Be Speed: The Clash of Modern Multi-GPU Technologies (page 8)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko, Anton Shilov

[ 03/24/2008 | 05:01 PM ]

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2: Noise, Temperature, Overclockability, Compatibility

Temperature and noise are very important parameters for every top-league graphics card. It is especially so with the GeForce 9800 GX2 which features a non-standard component layout but is expected to generate more heat than any other card we’ve seen, including the Radeon HD 2900 XT.

The level of ambient noise in our lab was 36dBA and the level of noise at a distance of 1 meter from the working testbed with a passively cooled graphics card inside was 43dBA. Here are the results:

When idle, the GeForce 9800 GX2 is almost silent thanks to the high-quality fan rotating at a reduced speed. In 3D mode the speed management system spins the fan up to keep the temperature within reasonable limits. The card becomes audible even in a closed system case. It can match the notorious reference cooler of the Radeon HD 2900 XT in terms of noise except that you don’t hear the rattle of the fan motor, which makes Nvidia’s cooler somewhat more comfortable.

In 2D mode the GPUs are as hot as 65°C. When you launch a game, the temperature grows up quickly to 81°C even when the side panel of the system case is removed. When we closed our Chieftec LCX-01 case (with a 120mm fan on the rear panel), the GPUs got as hot as 90-91°C.

Our attempt to overclock our GeForce 9800 GX2 was a success. We used the nTune tool to increase the GPU frequency to 710MHz. The shader domain frequency was 1750MHz. The memory chips could be overclocked to 1100 (2200) MHz – that’s a good result for chips with a rated frequency of 1000 (2000) MHz. The card was stable at these frequencies, but we didn’t test it in the overclocked mode due to time constraints.

As for compatibility, the GeForce 9800 GX2 refused to start up on a Intel Desktop Board D925XCV, which is in fact one of the first mainboards with PCI Express support. Unfortunately, this incompatibility prevented us from measuring the new card’s power consumption. The GeForce 9800 GX2 worked normally on every other mainboard with tried it on.