Nvidia NV38 vs. ATI 9800XT
Posted by: Newsfactory on: 10/01/2003 01:17 PM [ Print | 14 comment(s) ] · 4442 views
The guy's over at AnandTech have thrown up their Fall 2003 Video Card Roundup Part I - ATI's Radeon 9800 XT article! which includes benchmarks for Nvidia's NV38 (Drivers used 52.14) against ATI's 9800XT (Catalyst 3.7 ) and were run on a Intel Prescott 2.8GHz CPU! Here's a rip.
The XT line of Radeon 9x00 cards is specifically targeted at the very high end of the gaming market. With AMD and their Athlon 64 FX, Intel and the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, it?s not too surprising to see even more companies going this direction. With an ultra-premium part like the Radeon 9800 XT the profit margins are high and more importantly, the PR opportunities are huge ? claiming the title of world?s fastest desktop GPU never hurts.
Finally we have the NV38, NVIDIA?s Fall refresh part; we won?t see NV40 and R4x0 until next Spring so both companies are bringing out higher clocked versions of their current cards in order to compete during the holidays.
Just like the Radeon 9800 XT, the NV38 is basically a higher clocked version of the NV35 (GeForce FX 5900 Ultra) with a new cooling system. Now running at 475/475 (950MHz DDR), the NV38 boasts a 5% increase in core clock and an 11% increase in memory frequency. The card will officially be launched next month but we?re going to be able to bring you a preview of the NV38?s performance today.
Nvidia NV38 vs. ATI 9800XT
The XT line of Radeon 9x00 cards is specifically targeted at the very high end of the gaming market. With AMD and their Athlon 64 FX, Intel and the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, it?s not too surprising to see even more companies going this direction. With an ultra-premium part like the Radeon 9800 XT the profit margins are high and more importantly, the PR opportunities are huge ? claiming the title of world?s fastest desktop GPU never hurts.
Finally we have the NV38, NVIDIA?s Fall refresh part; we won?t see NV40 and R4x0 until next Spring so both companies are bringing out higher clocked versions of their current cards in order to compete during the holidays.
Just like the Radeon 9800 XT, the NV38 is basically a higher clocked version of the NV35 (GeForce FX 5900 Ultra) with a new cooling system. Now running at 475/475 (950MHz DDR), the NV38 boasts a 5% increase in core clock and an 11% increase in memory frequency. The card will officially be launched next month but we?re going to be able to bring you a preview of the NV38?s performance today.
Nvidia NV38 vs. ATI 9800XT
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The_truth Unregistered |
#47816 Posted on: 10/01/2003 02:00 PM
One of the worst reviews anad has done for a while. No image quality comparison (yet). Using unreleased, unofficial nvidia drivers which have issues in some games is very suspect. Who knows what they do to give good performance ? We have to be realistic, nvidia isnt that trustworthy in that department recently. As with all these reviews dont make a judgement on the XT until the cat 3.8s are out. I think ATI made a mistake not releasing the cat 3.8s and the XT together. |
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markOpoleO Unregistered |
#47819 Posted on: 10/01/2003 03:24 PM
mmm, it was one of best ones they have done. Seeing as they were the first to post benchmarks of the new nvdia offering before anyone else. Lets face it, no drivers ever had a huge increase in fps, its just graphics glitches that don't effect the final benchmarks of a game. The fact is the drivers they used WOULD reflect the performance even if they had offical drivers. They were rushing it just to get it in, that is why they are releaseing more in the coming weeks. |
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Devourer Unregistered |
#47820 Posted on: 10/01/2003 03:55 PM
"I think ATI made a mistake not releasing the cat 3.8s and the XT together" ATI has already stated that the 3.8s will not offer major performance improvements. So the 3.8's are not a huge deal in this benchmark. The nVidia drivers on the other hand, we have no clue as to what sort of tricks have been pulled since that seems to be there game as of late. I think ATI totally wasted every1s time with the XT. The only benefit from the XT I can see is that hopefully it will make the price on the 9800 Pro drop. Looks to me as if any1 could buy a new 9800 Pro, slap some better cooling on it, get a 3rd party OC utility & viola!! You would most likely get better speeds then the XT. As far as the NV38. It looks as if nVidia has finally made a card that can at least keep pace with ATI's top line but then again this is only the first review & surely some1 will bust nVidia again on yet another driver optimization scam.. I would certainly hope nVidia has stopped cheating but they haven't given any reason to not have suspect of them this past year. Conclusion.. Both of these cards look like a huge waste of money.. I certainly will be waiting for the next round.. My 9700np is more then fine for the next 6 months. |
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The_truth Unregistered |
#47821 Posted on: 10/01/2003 04:00 PM
Sorry i have to disagree on that. Some nvidia drivers do give a huge boost to framerates, but usually with a reduction in IQ, this makes this test pointless, and just because a driver is official it doesnt make it good. Nvidia have yet to release a fast and high IQ set of drivers for the FX. With this article anand were more interested in the scoop than in the hard facts. All this shows is that the nv38 is faster than the nv35, it doesnt show how it compares to the 9800xt because we dont know what those drivers are doing. |
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The_truth Unregistered |
#47822 Posted on: 10/01/2003 04:06 PM
The cat 3.7s dont support the XT properly, neither do they have the dynamic OC option. Trust me the cat 3.8s will help the XTs performance, but not the current range so much. The XT is slightly better at shaders than the pro is clock for clock, wait for HL2 and doom3 benches ! |
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hinkle Unregistered |
#47825 Posted on: 10/01/2003 05:09 PM
sorry to wake you up from your dream but the 9800XT has absolutely the same core than the 9800 Pro. Only difference is the clockspeed (VPU as memory) and the PCB layout. No architectural changes were made and the current catalyst driver (3.7) fully support the XT version. |
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The_truth Unregistered |
#47826 Posted on: 10/01/2003 05:27 PM
how do you know this ? I love the arrogance of people on here who think they know because they read it somewhere ! Actually the core is largely unchanged but does have a few minor tweaks to the shader engine, little more than improved efficiency. |
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hinkle Unregistered |
#47828 Posted on: 10/01/2003 05:54 PM
prove? read any review and they all state the same: only clockspeed changes. I love the arrogance of people on here who think they know because everyone else is stating the exact opposite and they don't want to follow the official news... |
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The_truth Unregistered |
#47829 Posted on: 10/01/2003 06:03 PM
Since when have hardware sites known everything ? Hardware sites said the nv30 would be fast ! The changes made are not news worthy. They are simple rearrangements, but nonetheless they have changed the core. The 3.7s do not FULLY support the XT, the 3.8s do. I have both.. do you ?? |
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hinkle Unregistered |
#47830 Posted on: 10/01/2003 06:12 PM
I give since you seem to work for ATI and I don't. Just strange that ATI themselves don't know that they made core changes. But that must be the reason why they called the R360 core 9800XT and NOT 9900  |
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BetrayerX Unregistered |
#47831 Posted on: 10/01/2003 06:18 PM
There are reasons why games that are not benchmarks should not be used. OF course, judging on the cheating fiasco around they seem to be the best option. But I havr to agree, this review lacks something on it. Is not the usual 4-5star work we expect from Anandtech. |
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BetrayerX Unregistered |
#47832 Posted on: 10/01/2003 06:21 PM
I agree. It's better to get a cool 3rd party cooling solution and squeeze the difference out in O/C. Or a better CPU and MoBo. And that won't cost you $500. |
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The_truth Unregistered |
#47833 Posted on: 10/01/2003 06:24 PM
when did ATI say there were no core changes ? There is also an on-die thermal sensor. All you really need to know is that the 3.8s show the XT in a better light. I seems to me that ATI have taken a leaf out of valves book and messed up this launch somewhat. |
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El_Coyote Unregistered Posts: 503 Joined: 2002-12-18 |
#47834 Posted on: 10/01/2003 06:41 PM
the r360 is slightly different from the r350 (its spin A11) and the paths have been changed to optimise for higher clock speed. |
