NVidia ups the ante in a platform battle with AMD
On Thursday, NVidia introduced its newest graphics processing units and media and communications processors, and it's hard not to notice that the company is adopting a platform-based focus for its graphics product line...perhaps to counter ATI.
The Santa Clara-based company today re-announced GeForce 9800 GX2, joining forces with the GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 9600 GT GPUs; along with the nForce 790i Ultra SLI MCP chipset.
The GeForce 9800 GX2 GPU offers more than 256 processing cores making it up to 60% faster than competing cards, according to NVidia's estimates. For this model, NVidia essentially built one video card with two G9x GPUs connected via SLI.
When compared with the AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2 at resolutions up to 2500x1600 in 14 games demanding high graphics, the 9800 GX2 blew the 3870 X2 out of the water nearly across the board, including in this review last month by Anandtech. The GX2 card is now shipping with a $599 MSRP.
NVidia's GeForce 9800 GTX GPU has 128 processor cores and supports two-way or three-way SLI. That card is available now with a $199 MSRP.
The 9800 GX2, 9800 GTX, and 9600 GT have all been optimized to run with the nForce 790i Ultra SLI MCP, a chipset designed to be overclockable for Intel CPUs. Motherboards equipped with the 790i Ultra will support DDR3 memory and PCIe 2.0 expansion; will be capable of handling current and next-generation CPUs from Intel, and offers two-way, three-way, or quad SLI GPU arrangements. Starting MSRP for NVidia's reference motherboard with the 790i Ultra is $300.
According to NVidia, using its Quad SLI with dual GeForce 9800 GX2 lets gamers play the video game Crysis with DirectX 10 options turned on at high-definition settings.
As expected, both the GPUs and MCP are available through NVidia partners, including ASUS, BFG, Gainward, PNY, eVGA, Gigabyte, and Leadtek.
After AMD's $4.3 billion purchase of ATI in late 2006, analysts and gamers were optimistic AMD would be better suited to compete with NVidia, but AMD has instead faced hard times, having just announced it will cut as much as 10% of its workforce. Meanwhile, NVidia has dominated sales charts, especially among mid-range GPUs aimed at gamers.
[EP's note: This story was re-edited at 1:05 pm EDT Friday, April 11, to reflect corrections pointed out by our readers. As always, BetaNews appreciates the efforts of our readers, and we apologize for earlier errors.]