I wouldn't go so far as to call this card a ripoff, it's a lot of card for $600. The 3870 X2 is also a lot of card for $430...
My main concern is with both NV and ATI's multi-gpu tech... In the past few weeks I've owned a 3870X2 and an 8800GT SLI rig, and I wasn't overly impressed with my experiences with either of them. At this point I've opted to run an 8800GTX probably until a new, faster, single core is introduced.
Now, all of my opinions/observations here are subjective, but they are based on what I experienced with my own rig built with my own money.
Benchmarks aside, the X2 performs almost identically to an 8800GTX except when it comes to increasing AA to 8x... The only two games that I had installed with all three cards that will run with 8x AA are HL2:EP2 and WoW. EP2 runs great on both the GTX and the X2 at 8xAA. WoW runs pretty sluggish on the X2, and runs fine on the GTX.
The X2 and the GTX perform similar in Crysis. They really feel identical. In Crysis, it is also easy to tell if a multi-gpu setup is working because r_displayinfo = 1 flag will indicate "MGPU".
Only the 8800GT SLI really offered a noticeable performance boost in Crysis over the other two. Definitely the smoothest gameplay of the bunch. Still playable on the other two at the same settings.
The GTX is my choice for UT3 between 8800GT SLI and the GTX. The SLI setup performed identical to a single 8800GT, and the highest AA I could run smoothly was 2x. 4x caused hitching every time a new weapon was picked up or when any sort of action was going on... Really difficult to play at 4x, at 2x it was fine and looked decent. I'm guessing that SLI wasn't working properly.
The GTX is also my choice for WoW by a longshot as well. It's the only card out of the bunch that allows 8x SStrAA... In WoW again, the 8800GT SLI setup performed absolutely no different than a single 8800GT. The GT and GT SLI setup were playable with 4x SStrAA, but frames plummeted down to the single digits when 8xSStrAA was enabled. The 3870X2 was somewhat different in WoW. The frames appeared to be decent with 8x SSAAA, but the game felt very choppy. This would immediately go away with 4x SSAAA.
For the two games that didn't appear to work any different with two 8800GTs over one, this is what I tried to get SLI working...
Forceware 169.25 (WHQL for 8-series from NVIDIA)
169.44 (beta - from EVGA, available on nvidia.com as well)
174.31 (modified .inf drivers from start64.com)
The two 169.xx drivers allowed SLI to be enabled, but showed "single GPU" as the NVIDIA preferred option for every single game. I was able to select different options though, and Crysis showed an improvement over a single GPU with both 169.xx drivers. For WoW and UT3, selecting single, SFR, AFR, or AFR2 made absolutely zero difference in game play.
The 174.31 (not actually officially released for the 8-series) worked the best. The preferred NVIDIA option for SLI actually wasn't "single GPU". I don't know what is was because it is just listed as "NVIDIA preferred", but Crysis showed that SLI was working and gameplay reflected this as well. WoW and UT3 still showed no differences between Preferred, Single, SFR, AFR, and AFR2.
Driver sweeper was run in between each driver install, so this whole process took me hours to do. The whole process was pretty much a pain in the ass, and not very rewarding. I spent way more time installing drivers and mucking around with the control panel and nHancer than I did anything else, so I got rid of it and went with a single 8800GTX. It works, but my whole experience with the X2 and 8800GT leaves me somewhat concerned for the future of multi-gpu.
Edit: I almost forgot... Yeah, I installed KB936710 and KB945149 as well.
So, for the moment, I just can't bring myself to even consider the 9800GX2... Sorry for the overly long (and somewhat rambling) post, but I figured I'd add some context to my opinion.
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