ray_gillespie

This is the first time I've had a top-end graphics card since my Geforce 2 back in the day. Since then I've always had mid-range products like the Ti4200 or the 6600 but yesterday that trend came to an end when I installed my brand new EVGA 9800GTX, which was quite exciting! (My girlfriend didn't see it that way though!).

Anyway, my initial thoughts. Well, for me this was a really good buy. I know it's not much better than an 8800 Ultra but then this only cost me £215 inc. postage, so I reckon I got good bang-for-the-buck from this one.

My first thought was "Oh my word, is this going to fit in my case?!" but thankfully, with a bit of wire maneouvering, it did. It does look very sleek though.

The second thing I noticed was that I didn't see any pre-POST video card information - where it used to state the type of card, amount of RAM etc, I just don't get any screen at all, it goes straight to the POST.

The third thing I noticed was that this thing is very loud! Fortunately, it became very quiet while idle in Windows after a few seconds and it's not got anywhere like as loud as it did since, even when gaming. Perhaps it was just getting the fans going for their first time, I'm not sure, but I was quite worried for a second.

Once things had settled down I loaded up UT3 - now this game was unplayable on my old graphics card at full detail etc, getting about 15 - 20 FPS on average. Now, it's maxed out (because of v-sync) at a solid 75fps and it looks amazing. I will have a go with v-sync disabled at some stage to see where I get but needless to say, I was very happy with that.

The fan did get quite loud while playing UT3, which is kind of annoying but actually I couldn't hear it when the game sounds/music etc were on. I then quit UT3 and the fan was still quite loud for a few seconds but then slowed down to be quite quiet and remained that way.

So overall I'm pretty pleased with my new graphics card.

Pros:
The graphics power
The appearance
Good price

Cons:
Loud fan
HUGE card

I wouldn't really recommend one to anyone with an 8800GTS or above, I'm not really sure how it stacks up against the 8800GT 512MB, but for anyone using an 8600GT or less I think this would be a great purchase.

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Dark Atheist

the fans will be loud while booting up windows a the drivers for the card aren't loaded till windows starts

ray_gillespie

Ah no, strangely this was after everything had finished loading - the fan was quiet at boot and then got louder and louder after windows had finished loading. After about 5 seconds it went back to normal and it's not done it since.

What's stranger is that I don't get the pre-POST video card info. Is this anything to do with using the DVI socket with a VGA converter?

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Electronic Punk

I think its just a switch in the firmware of the video card, nothing to worry about

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LordOfLA

temperature controlled

BTW high performance parts have loud fans

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GoNz0

if you can hear it over your case fans, you dont have enough case fans lol

it may be making so much noise because of the heat its spewing back into the case.

the fan would have gone to 100% the 1st time you got into windows as it had to install the card.

ray_gillespie

Fortuntely it's quietened down considerably now, not much louder than my old 7600GT

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Lauzyguy

You can also control your fan speed with a third-party software like rivatuner, which I use currently. The huge fan is also so that there would be less noise but more air.

Mizzle

Nice write-up. I really enjoyed reading it, and congratulations on your new graphics card

Lauzyguy

I still don't get y there is so much hype going on about the 9800GTX. It is basically a slightly improved and overclocked version of the 8800GTS (G92). Thats prob y i recently bought a 8800GTS (G92). You also get to save yourself about $80 to $100.