NVIDIA GeForce 9800GX2 Review: Core i7 920 Update

I wanted to share some data to update my original Widescreen and Surround Benchmarking Suite. I'm in the process of updating my entire rig, and thought I would pass along benchmarks from the first phase. Next phase is a GTX 295, which I have sitting in a box on the floor.

You can hit the original article to see my original system specs, but it was a Core2Duo E6700, GeForce 9800 GX2 and 4GB of RAM. One unique thing to note is that my old E6700 and i7 920 both ran at 2.67GHz.

As of now, my rig stands at:

• GeForce 9800GX2 Reference Board from NVIDIA at 600MHz Core and 2000MHz Memory
• EVGA X58 Tri-SLI Motherboard
• Intel i7 920 at 4x2.67GHz
• 6GB G.Skill DDR3 RAM
• 2x Samsung 320GB T-Series HDD (one for the OS and games; one for swap file and FRAPS)
• LG Super Multi Blu (HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Player)
• Onboard audio
• Enermax Infiniti 720W
• Antec Skeleton
• Dell 3007WFP
• Matrox Digital TripleHead2Go
• 3x Dell SP2008WFP
• Logitch G15 Keyboard & G5 Mouse

The Benchmarks

I cut back on the games to bench. More than ever, time is of the essence in my life. So, I cut out a few of the games, as follows:

• Company of Heroes - Built in benchmarking tool is crap. It is an anamorphic 16:10 rendered movie, with a 60fps cap
• Bioshock - In the end I felt my original run wasn't accurate for all the time in the bathysphere (with its narrow FOV). It was also a manual run that took a fair amount of time. I could have cut it down to the "active" running part through the water and first lighthouse. But, that would have meant I couldn't compare the scores
• Oblivion - Overall disappointment the first time around. The run was super long (6 minutes). The game is pretty, but I still hate the wolves. It has a 60fps cap, and even on the lowest setting still hiccups in the same places.

Performance Summary