For better or worse, I pulled the trigger on the EVGA setup program for my 8800gts (512M) I picked up this December. They extended things an extra 30 days, which gave me the option of stepping up to the 9800gx2. The old card just needed a little bump to game on a 30" monitor, so banzai.
This was the first time I've ever tried the 'trade up' program. For the most part, it worked out well enough. Paid full retail for the 8800gts when it came out, but they applied credit for the full amount when I updated the card. (Mind you, I started the trade up a few days before they announced the 9800gtx were available, so not sure if I'd do the same thing today...) I registered for the trade up, they put me in a queue, and when my number came up they sent me a PDF shipping label. They could have improved things by *cross shipping* the bloody card. I installed an old 7900gto and switched everything over to a smaller monitor and turned all of the eye candy off. (Lots of quality time as Engineer the last few weeks... blah)
A few days before the new card shows up, I noticed folks mentioning an 8-pin power connector was required. Well, nuts... Sure enough, my trusty old 500W FPS blue storm only had the 6-pin connector. I figured I was probably already living on borrowed time since I only had one 4-pin power connector plugged into my 8-pin (4+4) mainboard adapter, and the resent editions were probably pushing the old PS a bit too hard. Put in an order for a PC Power and Cooling 750W power supply and waited another week.
Thursday, all of the pieces were here.
And while the new power supply had a connector that fit the video card, there was a minor issue with the new power supply fitting the case. This thing was enormous!
Fortunately, the top rail was removable, so I'll have to figure out how to do cable clean up later. Just as a size comparison, this is the older FPS power supply on top of the new PC Power and Cooling supply.
The power supply is not modular, so I've got cables tucked everywhere. Cleanup later, once I have all of the HDDs mounted property. Notice the blue power LED on the mainboard - the machine is not plugged into the wall! Must be some serious capacitors in there, because even after pulling the cord and hitting the power button, there is juice going to the mainboard. No more dropping screws. Looks like the raptor needs to move - way to tight of a fit behind the power supply now.
And now for the reason I had to get a new power supply. See that 8-pin power connection? Yuck nvidia! The power supply uses a 6+2 pin configuration that slides into this squirrelly configuration.
Now the 780i mainboard supports tri-SLI, but there is only one SLI bridge on the 9800gx2, which means quad-SLI rather than hex-SLI loving with this card. Not that I would want three iFurnaces in my chassis... The card really runs hot. I'm going to need to do a bit of duct work, because I can keep my coffee warm by setting it above the video card. Might have to water cool. While things have been rock solid, I'm not comfortable with that much heat in my chassis.
Which brings me to SLI and muti-head configuration. Got to pick multi-monitor *or* multi-gpu (internal SLI). Amazing that they never got around to splitting SLI output between two monitors. Figured Supreme Commander would drive this sort of thing. I added a second video card (old 7900gto) to run my secondary monitors when working, and just left the 9800gx2 on SLI to run the primary monitor. Need to make a batch script or something to toggle between the settings.
The card itself has three outputs - two DVI, one HDMI. I tend to run my computer in single monitor mode when gaming, and dual head when coding. The HDMI interface is just gravy at this point. Card makes too much noise to ever consider it for a home theater machine three to five years down the road. Rumors have it that it will run a third monitor in 1080p resolutions... so that might be interesting.
I've not performed any actual benchmarks, but TF2 is smooth as butter with all the eye candy turned on @ 2650 x 1600. COD4 was unplayable with the 7900gto, which also showed up while I was upgrading my system. Further research is required.... heh...
This was the first time I've ever tried the 'trade up' program. For the most part, it worked out well enough. Paid full retail for the 8800gts when it came out, but they applied credit for the full amount when I updated the card. (Mind you, I started the trade up a few days before they announced the 9800gtx were available, so not sure if I'd do the same thing today...) I registered for the trade up, they put me in a queue, and when my number came up they sent me a PDF shipping label. They could have improved things by *cross shipping* the bloody card. I installed an old 7900gto and switched everything over to a smaller monitor and turned all of the eye candy off. (Lots of quality time as Engineer the last few weeks... blah)
A few days before the new card shows up, I noticed folks mentioning an 8-pin power connector was required. Well, nuts... Sure enough, my trusty old 500W FPS blue storm only had the 6-pin connector. I figured I was probably already living on borrowed time since I only had one 4-pin power connector plugged into my 8-pin (4+4) mainboard adapter, and the resent editions were probably pushing the old PS a bit too hard. Put in an order for a PC Power and Cooling 750W power supply and waited another week.
Thursday, all of the pieces were here.
And while the new power supply had a connector that fit the video card, there was a minor issue with the new power supply fitting the case. This thing was enormous!
Fortunately, the top rail was removable, so I'll have to figure out how to do cable clean up later. Just as a size comparison, this is the older FPS power supply on top of the new PC Power and Cooling supply.
The power supply is not modular, so I've got cables tucked everywhere. Cleanup later, once I have all of the HDDs mounted property. Notice the blue power LED on the mainboard - the machine is not plugged into the wall! Must be some serious capacitors in there, because even after pulling the cord and hitting the power button, there is juice going to the mainboard. No more dropping screws. Looks like the raptor needs to move - way to tight of a fit behind the power supply now.
And now for the reason I had to get a new power supply. See that 8-pin power connection? Yuck nvidia! The power supply uses a 6+2 pin configuration that slides into this squirrelly configuration.
Now the 780i mainboard supports tri-SLI, but there is only one SLI bridge on the 9800gx2, which means quad-SLI rather than hex-SLI loving with this card. Not that I would want three iFurnaces in my chassis... The card really runs hot. I'm going to need to do a bit of duct work, because I can keep my coffee warm by setting it above the video card. Might have to water cool. While things have been rock solid, I'm not comfortable with that much heat in my chassis.
Which brings me to SLI and muti-head configuration. Got to pick multi-monitor *or* multi-gpu (internal SLI). Amazing that they never got around to splitting SLI output between two monitors. Figured Supreme Commander would drive this sort of thing. I added a second video card (old 7900gto) to run my secondary monitors when working, and just left the 9800gx2 on SLI to run the primary monitor. Need to make a batch script or something to toggle between the settings.
The card itself has three outputs - two DVI, one HDMI. I tend to run my computer in single monitor mode when gaming, and dual head when coding. The HDMI interface is just gravy at this point. Card makes too much noise to ever consider it for a home theater machine three to five years down the road. Rumors have it that it will run a third monitor in 1080p resolutions... so that might be interesting.
I've not performed any actual benchmarks, but TF2 is smooth as butter with all the eye candy turned on @ 2650 x 1600. COD4 was unplayable with the 7900gto, which also showed up while I was upgrading my system. Further research is required.... heh...
