Is the 9800GT EE the fastest Pci-E card pulling less than 75w with no Pci-E 6-pin?

[Farfrumhumpn]

I'm looking for the perfect game capable HTPC card and was wondering if the 9800GT EE was the fastest Pci-E X16 GPU without the need for a 6-pin Pci-E connector or if someone like Gainward made a GTS 250 or something else that pulls 75w or less.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

It basically is.

 

[Zap]

Just FYI the BFG GeForce 9800 GT EcoIntelligence peaks at 66W at stock clocks.

 

[jvroig]

was wondering if the 9800GT EE was the fastest Pci-E X16 GPU without the need for a 6-pin Pci-E connector

According to this thread, yeah, pretty much.

 

[Farfrumhumpn]

Just FYI the BFG GeForce 9800 GT EcoIntelligence peaks at 66W at stock clocks.

Yeah, I googled arround a bit and the board power of a 9800GT EE is supposed to be 66w. Thats probably for the ones using reference clocks of 600/1500/1800.

 

[jvroig]

Just FYI the BFG GeForce 9800 GT EcoIntelligence peaks at 66W at stock clocks.

Pretty low power, I'm amazed. How much performance do I sacrifice versus a "normal"/"classic" 9800GT? 5% or less?

 

[Farfrumhumpn]

Pretty low power, I'm amazed. How much performance do I sacrifice versus a "normal"/"classic" 9800GT? 5% or less?

Looking arround, if you pick the XFX one it seems a lot of people get 700/1750/2000 out of them which should put them damned near 8800GTS performance. Given OverClocking is always varried but those speeds seem to be the base line of the norm for the XFX 9800GT EE. Of course you'll probably be pushing 75w at that point which is probably what limits OverClocking these cards.

Provided you don't OverClock though, another trend I noticed while looking at the 9800GT EE is that they tend to be 1 - 3% slower clock for clock over a regular 9800GT.

 

[jvroig]

Provided you don't OverClock though, another trend I noticed while looking at the 9800GT EE is that they tend to be 1 - 3% slower clock for clock over a regular 9800GT.

Only 1 - 3% performance penalty? That's a great deal considering it means being able to use such power even in less than ideal gaming PSU scenarios.

 

[TemjinGold]

Only 1 - 3% performance penalty? That's a great deal considering it means being able to use such power even in less than ideal gaming PSU scenarios.

Err... he said "clock for clock," meaning that's the penalty if the two are clocked at the same speed. The EE cards are clocked lower, so that's an additional penalty.

 

[jvroig]

Err... he said "clock for clock," meaning that's the penalty if the two are clocked at the same speed. The EE cards are clocked lower, so that's an additional penalty.

Ah yes, I missed that "clock for clock" statement, I guess I was too focused on the 1 - 3% figure. So if it's 5% clocked slower, and 1-3% slower still clock for clock, how slow would that make it? How does that work exactly... around 7%?

 

[Farfrumhumpn]

Ah yes, I missed that "clock for clock" statement, I guess I was too focused on the 1 - 3% figure. So if it's 5% clocked slower, and 1-3% slower still clock for clock, how slow would that make it? How does that work exactly... around 7%?

Unlike CPU's, a 5% reduction in the speed of a GPU does not mean 5% lower performance as there are more factors in the big picture than just the GPU frequency. If you are indeed talking about one of the downclocked cards then the difference would probably be 5% or so.

There are cards like the XFX card I own which has the same 600/1500/900 of a reference 9800GT and as such would only be 1 - 3% slower than a regular 9800GT.

You could always do a perfectly safe OverClock like 625/1562/925 Core/Shader/Memory which should negate the performance loss the EE cards seem to suffer.

I'm so CPU limited by my stock clocked 4200+ x2 939 CPU that I'm not even remotely worried about OverClocking my card although I did test it at 715/1788/1025 without Artifacts which goes to show that EE or not some of these cards have the potential to best even the fastest production 9800GT's.

 

[Ichinisan]

I just got a PNY 1,024MB "EE" 9800GT for $69.99 on clearance at Best Buy...with my HTPC in mind (killer deal, right?). I haven't gotten to do anything with it yet, but I believe it's perfect for an HTPC except for the fact that you have to use an adapter for HDMI.

 

[sawtx]

Yeah 9800GT until the Go! Green 5750 launches.