9800 GX2 EOL and thinking of switching GPU

[mhouck]

Let me start off by saying that I don't have a problem with the GX2's performance as far as FPS or display quality in general. It's been a great step up from my 8800 GTS. (TYVM EVGA)

However, from the beginning my card has been hot. I've worked with overclocking my system and monitoring temps. I've noticed that on start up the 2 gpu's are roughly at 65 and 63 degrees to start and climb from there. They end up in the mid 70's during any game. (Crysis, FO3, Grid) The card is so big and it's right near my southbridge that I am concerned what the heat may do to the rest of my components considering the way the ventilation system was designed.

I originally wanted to buy a waterblock for it and call it a day but now that the card looks to be nearly discontinued (if not entirely) and the cheapest block that I would consider is $180. I'm beginning to think that money is not so far away from a 200 series card or a 4870.

Would anybody suggest getting the waterblock and holding on until the DX11 card come out in the next gen? Should I just sell the card and upgrade in Jan when the new 55nm cards come out and the prices drop on everything else? Is there any card that I would notice a performance difference? Not looking for a duel card replacement so that excludes the 4870x2.

Thanks your suggestions.

 

[thilanliyan]

Keep it until the new cards come out. The GX2 is a very fast card so I doubt you'll see a huge increase with any other single GPU.

 

[zerocool84]

What kind of case do you have?

 

[error8]

EOL or not, this GX2 is still a very fast card, kicking GTX 280 ass, when drivers help and it scales as it should. You don't have any temperature problems with it, so throwing away 180 $ for a water block is worthless. The hot air coming from your videocard is not going to kill your system components, as long as you have a case with a good ventilation in it.
As I see it, the only cards you can get is GTX 280, GTX 260 core 216 and 4870 1 gb. But when the GX2 scales, all those three cards are just way slower. So by upgrading to a single fast card, you could actually make a downgrade, so it's totally not worth doing this.

Best thing for you to do, is wait for other cards to come out. Only the 4870X2 is faster then your current card.

 

[masteryoda34]

Yeah, wait for the 40nm GPU's in H1 2009.

 

[mhouck]

Thanks for the replies.

Zerocool- I have a full tower thermaltake armor case with watercooling set up on my cpu and NB currently. The only fan I have running in my case right now is the 120 mm right below my PSU. Seems like I should be able to better ventilate the base of the chasis where the GPU is.

To everybody else- Thank you for confirming my thoughts. The benches I saw when the 280 first came out have the GX2 doing better in Crysis and a majority of the other games on the market. I does what I want it too now. Like I said in my first post, I currently am very satisfied with the cards performance in the games I have.

However, I am concerned with gameplay is the future with driver support and scaling. I don't have FC2 but the original benchmarks where not kind to the GX2. (That may be fixed now I haven't looked because I've been immersed in FO3) The same issue in Cyrsis:WH. I was reading numerous posts about people with SLI set ups having horrible drops in frame rate and yet some users with 9800gtx and 260's were (supposedly) having no trouble. (Yes, I did run it in DX9) Is this waning driver support for my hardware a legitmate concern?

Also, at what temp range should I be concerned? My 8800GTS never went about 68 when overclocked about 760.

 

[error8]

If Nvidia won't produce any 9800GX2s anymore, that doesn't mean that they will not support it in the future. From what I've seen, if a game has some scaling problems when it's released, those will certainly be fixed with a future driver update. I don't think Warhead has problems in SLI today. Nvidia fixed those by now.

75C is not that high for your card. If you were hitting over 85C, then that would have been a problem. But you are right where you should be with those temps.

 

[Leyawiin]

Mid 70s celsius for a 9800 GX2 at load is not too hot. What you force on the rest of your system by OCing the various components doesn't reflect on the card. My 8800 GTX would almost touch 80 at load and its still running strong after 20 months.

 

[mhouck]

Thanks Error and Leyawiin for the responses. I was just a bit miffed at the extra 10 degrees over my old card and wanted to be sure that all my temps are good for the longevity of my system.

It's good to know that I'm not pushing it beyond a safe range. Now that I know it's doing alright, it's Rivatuner time!