9800GX2 is woefully expensive
CeBIT 2008 Sometimes you don't get what you pay for
THE NVIDIA 9800GX2 is turning out to be a pretty huge joke, and it is not even out yet. I can't wait to see the fanbois on the forums bragging about how much they got taken for, prepare for laughs.
Why am I down on this card? Several reasons, the main one is price. It is absurdly expensive for what you get, and what you get isn't all that much.
We printed the numbers a few days ago, here if you missed it, and they are pretty woeful. Lets assume the worst for the 3870X2, call it 13,500 3DMark06, and lets assume the best for the the 9800GX2, with a driver drop and other hacks, say it hits 15K. A little math (15,000/13,500 = 1.111) tells us that it will be about 11% faster than the 3870X2. No problem so far.
The funny part? It is going to retail for $599 US, you read that right, $599. The X2 is at $449, 75% of the price. A bit more math tells us that the price performance (3DMark/$) of the X2 is 30/$ and 25/$ for the GX2. That is one hell of a difference, and it is based on best case assumptions. To put it in different terms, you could get a 3870X2 AND a 3870 for a three way for around the same money.
Don't look for this thing to come down in price much, vendors are telling me they are getting charged $425 +/- $25 for kits depending on who they are. When you add a box, trinkets and shipping, you end up with something that can't be sold for much less than that MSRP.
Before you think that the price will go down with volume, don't hold your breath. The numbers I was quoted for allocation are laughably low. Two PCBs, cutouts, bridges and assembly are not cheap, and expensive is not something OEMs like. Neither are dual PCB solutions.
In the end, you have a hot and expensive card that can't justify it's exorbitant cost. With muc h faster and cheaper 3870X2s arriving in short order, there seems little point to the GX2. Who was it that said something about not launching a product unless it was 20% faster than the competition? I guess that quote will have to be airbrushed from the corporate database before the 18th. µ
Comments
3dMark, who cares?
Yeah.. let's assume some score for Geforce 9800 GX2 and base story on that assumption?..and how many will be more intrested of 3dMark performance than performance in games? For example HD3870 X2 wins 9600 GT SLI by 10% in 3dMark, but in games Geforce 9600 GT SLI wins HD3870 X2 by 10%.
Now you were claiming that 9800 GX2 would win HD3870 X2 by just 11%? Well then they have serious driver issues since 9800 GX2 has 128SP and 64 TMU's more and still wouldn't gain any advantage from that comparing to 9600 GT SLI?
in addition
If 9800 GX2 should perform like 8800 GT SLI (GX2 has 32SP and 16 TMU more + higher mem clocks) it would pull 0-60% difference in games compared to HD3870 X2; difference is small in old games, and new games have that bigger difference.Performance difference would be around 40% if you calculate those games that will put so much stress to these cards that differencies start to show (and it's not bottlenecked by processor). Price difference would be 33%, initially
ugh....
i was hoping this card would retail at 499$.too bad. i guess the 9 series might end nVidias huge lead. better luck on the next series.
cynicism towards nVidia, WHY...?
Why every time I read an INQ article about nVidia or Ati/AMD do i seem to get the feeling the Inq really doesn't like nVidia. AMD/Ati though, well the sun shines out of their arses. nVidia on the other hand to put it more politely your rather more cynical towards them. All i want to know is why...?Lets face the facts nVidia still hold over 45% of the market share, with your favourites Ati only having a meager 25%. nVidia must be doing something right. Is it the fact the the geforce 8 series absolutely slaughtered anything Ati/AMD could offer for the most part of 2007. I like the Inq site but this favouritism in your articles towards ati/amd is starting to put me off visiting this once superb site.
Ignorance is Bliss?
From now on, let's all pretend to think that a product's 3dmark score is *any* indication of its actual worth. Then, just for laughs, let's also pretend that GDDR4 brings anything significant to the table.No? I guess not.
3dMark06?
Since when was 3dMark06 a good way to compare AMD and NVIDIA products??What's so crazy about this price?
Since when it is news you get screwed when you decide you must have the absolute best possible performance?From the headline, I thought they'd be charging something crazy like twice the price of ATI's product. There are plenty enough fools who think they have to have the fastest hardware who will pay it.
I suspect high end GPUs are priced based on yields, if your yield is lower raise the price, if your yield is better price it a little lower. No point in having more demand than supply, that just shows you priced it too low!
Not a stupid Nvidia....
I think Nvidia knows exactly what it is doing. People will buy it, REGARDLESS of the price (while it isnt too much faster than the X2, it is the fastest card to date and those who want the best will get the best). We've already been through this with the Ultra and look how many are around. Not an @$$ load, mind you, but plenty enough. Nvidia will pull a few bucks from this card and the only one stupid is the buyer.3Dmark???
Lets wait and see performance in real games ok? If 2X9600GT can beat 3870X2 I imagine 9800GX2 will absolutely destroy it.hahahaha
We shouldn't prepare for laughs for 9800GX2's launch. We have already laughed at it enough. We should prepare for laughs when rv770/R700 debute which is going to kick nvidias ass hard. What will make us laugh even more, is when GT200 comes out, if it is not MUCH better than R700! Something tells me it will not be that much better. Rumor already suggests both products to be around 2gflops.The only difference is ATI card will hit the market three months earlies. Good riddance nvidia.GOOD ONE
Love the article! You simplify the fanbois attitude towards this product in the correct dim lightNvidia fanboys
LOL, the Nvidia fanboys are having a hissy fit over this article. You said something bad about their beloved company.The stupid card still doesn't even support the latest OFFICIAL dx 10.1 or shader 4.1. And they expect people to fork over $600 for it. ATI is MUCH farther ahead in technology...
benches out, whoops x2
benches out on a legit chinese review site, crysis and cod4 benchmarks show the gx2 being 60-70% faster, based on pure fps. Sorry charlie if this holds true the gx2 costing 33% more based on your msrp analysis of 599 vs 449.. so a card say even 50% faster for 33% more money is a good choice.. If these end up being able to scale well used in SLI mode (quad sli, four cores) the gx2 will be a great option for people who only have 2 16x slots, and basically makes the need for a board with more then 2 16x slots a waste of money. IMO this is a much better solution then cramming in 4 separate cards.my last tidbit, all 3dmark06 scores are done in the programs default res of 1280x1024.. At that res most of todays 'top' cards will score closer together vs when they are pushed more to their limit by higher resolutions. Then the gap increases on which card truly holds more performance.
you are an idiot
ok, thats the 3dmark score of the entire system is it not? so 25% difference on the cost of the graphics card is NOT directly comparable to the 3dmark score, if you have a system for $900 with a 3870x2 in and a system for $1000 with a 9800gx2, then thats an 11% difference in price along with an 11% difference in performance. Also, look at any price/performance chart... for anything... cars. A VW Golf will do 140mph on a good day, a bugatti veyron will do 253mph, a VW golf costs ~£15,000 while a bugatti veyron costs nion £1,000,000. Somehow sir, i think you should get your IQ of 32 back into the hole it came from.not that bad
I remember buying ATI Radeon X1900 XT for more than 350 pounds (in UK). I've seen this new Nvidia Card on Ebuyer for about 350 pounds. And sorry, but that Radeon was real waste of money, because after one year X1900XT was worth less than 100 pounds, and I do not believe It is going to happen to 9800GX2. If we mention overpricing.