OC3D Review: XFX 9800 GTX Black Edition

name='Kempez' said:
And the people wanting to have overclocked, hand picked GPU's backed up by an excellent warranty and support package

Yeah I`d go along with that tbh.

It`s a great review, and I have to be honest with ya`ll, my experiences of oc`ing the 8800GT alpha weren`t the best - and I don`t really put it down totally to the hardware, more the tools required to do it also.

I`d probably be more inclined, in the current climate (things can change of course) to get something above the reference clock and see what minimal % I can go higher than that.

Looking at the price, I don`t think it`s too bad. I can remember my card be around £225 on release.

Good stuff. Good single card imo.
 
Nice in depth review Kempez. Strange results in FEAR Max fps lol:eek:.

Cue Hudson with his Alien motion tracker : 'It's reading right man look'...

Hicks : 'Well you're not reading it right!'

:D
 
Agreed, but all cards were tested using the exact same hardware and tested three times so it's hard to argue with what I got. I did also re-test several games again to ensure accuracy

Sometimes you just get one or two results that seem a little odd, but I think generally the results show how fast the card is :)
 
What weirds me out is when u goto the nVidia driver download thing and there`s a new one - and top of the list of fixes will be something like "9800 cards will now work better with Crysis" - wtf ?!?!
 
It's not uncommon for developers and manufacturers to work together to improve game performance, that's what Nvidia pay all their coders for :p
 
name='webbo' said:
Alot can depend on the config settings, not just the res and AA/AF which affects fps..

Very true but my guess was that they used stock menu options and stuck on 4xAA via COD menu.

My point still stands that the card does not seem to perform very well from what i can see when compared to the lowest 88xx series card.
 
I think you'll find that the cards held back a little in CoD 4 by the fact that the engine's not exactly a toughie. Gameplay was smooth and silky throughout, but then it will be on all 88XX and 98XX series
 
name='Kempez' said:
I think you'll find that the cards held back a little in CoD 4 by the fact that the engine's not exactly a toughie. Gameplay was smooth and silky throughout, but then it will be on all 88XX and 98XX series

Indeed the engine is a bit strange i just would have expected to see some form of improvement.

Maybe this is as im hunting for the ability to get 125fps constant at 1920x1200 with AA which atm just aint possible.
 
Well you see an improvement in the graph from my own benchmarks over the 8800's, just not much

The engine is good which is why so many cards can cope, but no your not going to get that level of FPS, although I would possibly attribute that to CPU/Memory as well
 
name='Kempez' said:
I would possibly attribute that to CPU/Memory as well

I'd agree if the engine took advantage of Quad's! But my port Q6600@3.3ghz cant even start to sweat with this and yet cant handle the FPS :(

The COD/Quake III Engine has a bug in it that lets you jump further depending on FPS you see and 125fps is the sweet spot.

I'll just keep running at 800x600@4AA on my 24" TFT :S dont actually look that bad!
 
Strange - in the 780a chipset review I did cod4 managed to run on the onboard 8400gs/8500 chip @ 1024x768 with 40fps+ albeit without AA. Testiment to Kempez's view that the engine allows most GPU's to run it ok.I'm surprised you're finding it hard to get a decent fps with the GTS.

76fps and 125fps are as you say the 'sweet spots' so with your screen you would perhaps be better upping the res and lowering the AA and setting the max fps to 76. I have found that on my 3007WFP-HC the AA is barely noticeble at 2560x1600 and certainly not noticble enough that it would warrant me dropping the res.
 
I have a 8800GTS and was running at 125fps more of less constant at 1920x1200 without AA and with some basic tweaks to remove un-needed rubble.

When playing at a high level the slightest FPS drop does become annoying so although i limit at 125FPS really im after 250FPS constant to make sure theres not drops at all.

My system can more than handly it, just inital was stating that im shocked at the lack of improvment from my low end 8800 to this 9800
 
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