Introduction

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Today NVIDIA launches the GeForce 9800 GX2. As the name suggests this card is a dual GPU design, just like the AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2. Compared to the latter there is a big design difference, NVIDIA uses two seperate PCBs with one GPU each. This allows much easier signal routing and helps signal stability allowing higher clocks. As cooling solution a new ingenious approach is used. The GPUs are facing each other, with one cooler in between. This helps keep the fan noise down, also the whole card is lighter and is cheaper to manufacture.

When looking at the specs it becomes clear that the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 is really not much more than two 8800 GTS cards glued together and running in SLI. What should be noted here is that the GeForce 9800 GX2 will work in any system with PCI-Express, an NVIDIA chipset is not required for operation.
Zotac's card follows the reference design to the letter, with the only exception being a Zotac sticker on the card's cooler. Zotac is working hard with NVIDIA to release a higher-performance Amp! Edition, but at the moment NVIDIA does not allow any changes to the card and its settings.

<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th></th>
<td>Radeon 
HD 3850 </td>
<td>Radeon 
HD 3870</td>
<td>GeForce 
9600 GT</td>
<td>GeForce 8800 GTS</td>
<td>GeForce 
8800 GT</td>
<td>GeForce 
8800 GTS</td>
<td>Radeon 
HD 3870 X2</td>
<td>GeForce 
8800 GTX </td>
<td>GeForce 
9800 GX2</td>
<td>GeForce 
8800 Ultra </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Shader units </th>
<td align="right">320</td>
<td align="right">320</td>
<td align="right">64</td>
<td align="right">96</td>
<td align="right">112</td>
<td align="right">128</td>
<td align="right">2x 320</td>
<td align="right">128</td>
<td align="right">2x 128</td>
<td align="right">128</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>ROPs</th>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right">20</td>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right"> 2x 16 </td>
<td align="right">24</td>
<td align="right">2x 16</td>
<td align="right">24</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>GPU</th>
<td align="right">RV670</td>
<td align="right">RV670</td>
<td align="right">G94</td>
<td align="right">G80</td>
<td align="right">G92</td>
<td align="right">G92</td>
<td align="right">2x RV670</td>
<td align="right">G80</td>
<td align="right">2x G92</td>
<td align="right">G80</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Transistors</th>
<td align="right">666M </td>
<td align="right">666M</td>
<td align="right">505M </td>
<td align="right">681M </td>
<td align="right">754M</td>
<td align="right">754M</td>
<td align="right">2x 666M </td>
<td align="right">681M </td>
<td align="right">2x 754M</td>
<td align="right">681M </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Size</th>
<td align="right">256 MB </td>
<td align="right">512 MB </td>
<td align="right">512 MB </td>
<td align="right">320 MB 
640 MB </td>
<td align="right">512 MB </td>
<td align="right">512 MB </td>
<td align="right">2x 512 MB</td>
<td align="right">768 MB</td>
<td align="right">2x 512 MB </td>
<td align="right">768 MB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Bus Width </th>
<td align="right">256 bit </td>
<td align="right">256 bit </td>
<td align="right">256 bit </td>
<td align="right">320 bit </td>
<td align="right">256 bit </td>
<td align="right">256 bit </td>
<td align="right">2x 256 bit </td>
<td align="right">384 bit </td>
<td align="right">2x 256 bit </td>
<td align="right">384 bit </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Core Clock</th>
<td align="right">670 MHz </td>
<td align="right">777 MHz </td>
<td align="right">650 MHz </td>
<td align="right">500 MHz </td>
<td align="right">600 MHz </td>
<td align="right">650 MHz </td>
<td align="right">825 MHz </td>
<td align="right">575 MHz </td>
<td align="right">600 MHz </td>
<td align="right">612 MHz </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Clock</th>
<td align="right">828 MHz </td>
<td align="right">1126 MHz </td>
<td align="right">900 MHz </td>
<td align="right">800 MHz </td>
<td align="right">900 MHz </td>
<td align="right">970 MHz </td>
<td align="right">900 MHz </td>
<td align="right">900 MHz </td>
<td align="right">1000 MHz </td>
<td align="right">1080 MHz </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Price</th>
<td align="right">$170</td>
<td align="right">$210</td>
<td align="right">$200</td>
<td align="right">$260 
$350</td>
<td align="right">$215</td>
<td align="right">$289</td>
<td align="right">$449</td>
<td align="right">$439</td>
<td align="right">$599</td>
<td align="right">$650</td>
</tr>
</table>

Packaging & Contents

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The package is typically Zotac. A metal cyborg (I think?) poses on the front of the bright orange package. The back lists additional details about this card, even in multiple languages.

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You will receive:

Graphics card
Instruction Manual + Driver CD + Lost Full Game
2x DVI Adapter
HDMI cable
PCI-E power cable (2x 5.25" to 6-pin PCI-E)
PCI-E power cable (2x 6-pin PCI-E to 8-pin PCI-E)
SPDIF cable for HDMI+Audio

The Card

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When you hold this monster card in your hands for the first time it feels like more than just a graphics card. I think the cooler design gives the card a "product" feel, which is a bit different than just "component". Also the weight of the card leaves its own impression with 1.1 kg, which is more than twice that of a 9600 GT (470 grams).

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The card is just the same size as the 8800 GTX. From left to right: HD 2900 XT, 8800 GTX, 9800 GX2, HD 3870 X2.

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Even though the card looks really big it is "just" a two slot design, so it should fit all boards easily.

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To protect the cooler from scratches or fingerprints it is covered with a transparent foil that can be peeled off.

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The black high gloss paint is a fingerprint magnet. All I did was turn the card around once after peeling off the foil (no I don't have sweaty hands). Maybe the package should include a pair of cotton gloves for handling.

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I think this is the first time that a video card manufacturer includes an HDMI port on the card's reference design. The HDMI port is HDCP capable and can also support audio. Unlike the AMD solution, you have to feed the audio signal via SPDIF cable to the card which will then encode it into the HDMI stream.
The two DVI outputs are both dual-link capable, but only the one next to the HDMI port can be used during bootup to show the POST screen. If you still have an analog CRT you can use one of the included DVI adapters to connect it.

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Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site. Or just ask us to publish your voltmod article here.

Card Disassembly

Since the disassembly of this card is so complicated we decided to give you one extra page with step by step instructions. Assembly is done the same way in reverse.

I found the whole disassembly process to be incredibly complex and difficult. If you don't have the right tools you can get frustrated quickly (frustration = $600 paperweight really fast). Overall it took me about one hour to take the card apart, take pictures of the process and custom-make some tools.

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First you release the screws on the bottom (where the PCI-E connector is) that hold the backside plate in place. There are also two screws near the back of the card under two rubber covers that need to be removed. Once the screws are gone you have to pull the backplate above the PCB, a long metal tab makes this quite difficult, you need some force.

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Next you remove the second plate by removing its screws and pulling it off over the 8-pin PCI-E power connector. Here you will also need some force and gently bend the metal a bit so it will go over the power connector.

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Phew, done. Here is the card without the outer shell, which has no real function other than to cover the components and make the card look nicer. It probably also helps with the airflow but does not cool any component directly.

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Next you have to remove the PCI slot cover because the DVI connectors hold the two sides together. As first step you remove the two screws going through the PCB that hold the slot cover in place. One way is to go through the second PCB with your screwdriver. Be advised that the screws are tightened with an insane torque, the cheap screwdriver you see in the first picture broke. Another method is to release the screws from the sides.

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Now you can remove the four screws holding the connectors in place on the front, and the PCI slot cover is gone.

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Next you release the screws on the back of one card that fixes it to the cooler. Be advised that the screws require a very very small screwdriver and are tightened down really hard. After breaking one screwdriver and a screw I dremeled down a screwdriver tip to make it fit.
With all screws gone you can carefully lift off the PCB off the cooler, be careful not to rip off the SLI/PCIE flat cable.

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Do the same for the card on the other side and remove its PCB too. Mission accomplished!

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To give you an idea how complex the disassembly is, here is a photo of all the parts that were removed during the card disassembly.

A Closer Look

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NVIDIA's cooler is pretty symmetrical from both sides. Each side cools one GPU, memory and voltage regulators. The only difference is that the side with the PCI-E connector also cools the PCI-Express bridge chip. In the middle of the cooler there is just one fan which cools both sides equally well. It is connected to a fan controller chip and adjusts it speed according to temperature.

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The SLI connector is covered by a little plastic piece. It is easily removed to give you access to the connector. Zotac's GeForce 9800 GX2 is compatible to any other 9800 GX2 card. To run two cards in Quad-SLI you need to have an SLI capable motherboard. To run one card (with two GPUs) you do NOT need an SLI capable motherboard.

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The power plugs are covered by a sticker (for aesthetic reasons I guess). For operation you need to connect a 6-pin and an 8-pin power cable. You need both and two 6-pin cables will not work. Inside the package you find a number of adapter cables should you have an older PSU without those connectors.
Under another plastic cap you can see the SPDIF audio input for HDMI+Audio.

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To make the power installation easier for the end user, NVIDIA has included some status LEDs behind the power plugs. When one or both light up red, something is wrong with the power setup. I actually thought the pretty green and red colors are just some visual bling effect and wondered why the damn card wouldn't work (no I don't read manuals).

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Like on all current NVIDIA cards, GDDR3 is used. The Samsung chips carry the model number K4J52324QE-BJ1A. Even though they have 1.0 ns latency (= 1000 MHz) we saw a stable memory overclock of over to 1100 MHz.

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In order to connect the second GPU to the rest of the system, a PCI-Express bridge is used. The markings BR04 reveal that this chip is the nForce 200 PCI-Express 2.0 to PCI-Express 2.0 bridge used on the nForce 780i motherboard designs for example.
Unlike AMD, NVIDIA builds this chip themselves and won't have to buy it from external sources. Also the chip supports PCI-Express 2.0 (and 1.0, 1.1), where the AMD solution does not support PCI-E 2.0.
Please note that the bridge-like interconnect transports both SLI and PCI-Express signals, it's actually two cables stacked on top of each other.

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The two GPUs are of the G92 flavor which has been used on a number of GeForce 8800 parts already. It is made at TSMC in a 65 nm process with 754 million transistors.
One GPU is installed the normal horizontal way, while the second one is rotated by 90 degrees. Probably to make the board design easier.

Test System

<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="150" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33 GHz (Conroe, 2x 2048 KB Cache)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Gigabyte P35C-DS3R Intel P35</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 1024MB A.DATA DDR2 1066+ CL4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">WD Raptor 740ADFD 74 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">OCZ GameXStream 700W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Drivers:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">NVIDIA: 169.04 GeForce 9600 GT tested with 174.12 GeForce 8800 GS tested with 169.32 GeForce 9800 GX2 tested with 173.67 ATI: Catalyst 7.11 3870 X2 tested with Catalyst 8.1 v8.451.2 </td>
</tr>
</table>

We test on Windows XP because that's what the majority of gamers use. According to our GPU-Z results database, only ~25% use Vista, which is actually more than I expected but still nowhere near some serious market share.

The "single" result was achieved by disabling SLI in the NVIDIA control panel.

All video card results were obtained on this exact system with the exact same configuration.
All games were set to their highest quality setting

Each benchmark was tested at the following settings and resolution:

1024 x 768, No Anti-aliasing, No anisotropic filtering. This is a standard resolution without demanding display settings.
1280 x 1024, 2x Anti-aliasing, 8x anisotropic filtering. Common resolution for most gamer flatscreens today. A bit of eye candy turned on in the drivers.
1600 x 1200, 4x Anti-aliasing, 16x anisotropic filter. Highest non-widescreen resolution available to a wide range of users. Very good looking driver graphics settings.
2048 x 1536, 4x Anti-aliasing, 16x anisotropic filter. Highest non-widescreen resolution available to any consumer video card. Very good looking driver graphics settings.

Company Of Heroes

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The real-time strategy game Company of Heroes is set during World War II where you take two American companies through several fights all over France to liberate the country from German occupation. Company of Heroes is the first game to use Relic's next-generation engine "Essence Engine" which includes support for HDR lighting, Shader Model 3.0, normal mapping, dynamic lighting and shadows. You are able to zoom in from the tactical view of the battle field to see the individual units fighting. Often you catch yourself admiring the detailed animations of the soldiers while the fight around you is raging. We tested the DX9 version of the game at maximum details.

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Crysis

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After the tremendous success of Far Cry, the German game studio Crytek released their latest shooter Crysis in 2007. The game was by far the most hyped and anticipated game in 2007, the forums were full of "Can my system run Crysis?" threads because of the high hardware requirements of this game. Just like in Far Cry the plot evolves on a small island with a thick and richly detailed jungle world. A lot of attention has been given to small details like correct physics. For example when you fire on a tree trunk, it will shatter and the tree will fall over leaving a stump behind. Enemies in a car can be stopped by shooting the tire of the car. The game graphics are by far the best ever seen in a PC game so far, yet the game still runs well on most computers. We tested the DX9 version with graphics set to "High", which is the highest non-DX10 setting in the game.

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Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

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The first-person shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is set in the science-fiction universe of Quake and requires several classes to work together to achieve certain goals on a map. In the campaign mode you gain experience which you can use to buy upgrades for your class. The player gets to pick from five classes of either the Global Defense Force or the Strogg faction. As underlying game engine, the successful id Software Doom 3 engine has been licensed, but several features like MegaTextures have been added, giving the outdoor world a much more detailed appearance. We tested the DX9 version of the game at maximum details.

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Far Cry

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Far Cry was released in early 2004 by the new development studio Crytek. It quickly became a massive success because it was one of the first titles to take you in a beautiful 3D outdoor world. Far Cry was one of the most demanding games at its time. Even with today's video cards you can still see big differences in frame rates, especially at the higher resolutions.

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FEAR

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The first person shooter F.E.A.R, developed by Monolith Game Studios, was released in Fall 2005 and has a great 3D engine that uses a large number of shading and shadow effects to accurately model the game world. In addition to that it features a realistic physics engine that lets you interact with many objects in the game world. The game was voted game of the year by several publications.

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Prey

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Prey is based on a highly modified 3D engine made by id Software. This first person shooter brought a completely new way of gaming to the genre. In many levels you find yourself walking upside down or on the walls. This adds a completely new aspect to the gaming experience in this genre.

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Quake 4

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The Quake titles are among the most successful first person games. Developed by id Software, the famous game studio that brought you DOOM, you find yourself in a scifi world that is full of aliens and shocking effects. The main focus of the game is the single player story line. Quake 4 puts you on the home planet of the Strogg. In a number of missions you and your fellow marines will encounter all sorts of enemies, including some really huge aliens.

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Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory

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The Splinter Cell Series is endorsed by popular book author Tom Clancy. In the 2005 title Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory you play the NSA agent Sam Fisher who has to use stealth and finesse to make his way through a number of levels mainly set in eastern Asia. The game is based on a modified Unreal 2 engine with support for HDR, normal mapping, parallax mapping and soft shadows. A patch added Shader Model 2.0 support for ATI in addition to the Shader Model 3.0 support which was already part of the original shipping game.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

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Before its release in 2007, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was one of the most hyped games of the last years. This RPG/FPS hybrid game is set a few years in the future, after a nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The release of radiation causes strange things like mutations in the nearby area. You take the role of a Stalker who seeks fame and riches in the contaminated area around Chernobyl. The game engine features all the latest buzzwords like HDR, bullet physics, skeletal animation, soft shadows and weather effects. Stalker's vast outside world is richly modeled, you can interact with a large number of objects in the game thanks to the physics engine.

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Supreme Commander

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If you hear people talk about a real-time strategy game with "massive numbers of units fighting" you can be sure they are talking about Supreme Commander. The unofficial successor to the Total Annihilation Series completely redefined some aspects of the RTS genre. In Supreme Commander you can zoom out so far that you can see the whole map on your screen and units are just little blips. This is much needed in fights when several hundred units go at each other. Supreme Commander is also one of the most demanding RTS games with support for up to four CPU cores - a dual-core system with high-end graphics is recommended for optimum game play.

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Unreal Tournament 3

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The fourth game in Epic's highly successful Unreal Tournament Series is simply called Unreal Tournament 3. It is based on the all-new Unreal 3 engine which is a major step forward from the previous engine. The game principle is centered about an arena style gameplay where several contestants try to reach a certain kill count or capture a flag for example. As you would expect from a new 2007 title, the graphics are top notch, with large and detailed textures. One major drawback of the way the engine is designed is that there is no support for Anti-Aliasing. While video card vendors like ATI have found ways to force this in their drivers we did all our testing with AA disabled in DX9 at maximum settings.

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X3

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X3 is a space combat/trading simulation game with beautiful graphics. The game world is gigantic and there is always something new to see. Even though the user interface is not that great, the title has found many fans that love to explore the rich content. When you are flying in your spaceship you are sometimes tempted to just stop the action to take a look at the highly detailed ships and planets.

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3DMark03

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Futuremark Corporation is the number one player in the world of synthetic benchmarking. The 3DMark series is the most popular test suite for video card testing and is used by gamers, overclockers and manufacturers alike to determine how fast their hardware is. Even though it is a few years old, 3DMark03 can easily stress today's video cards.

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3DMark05

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Another benchmark from Futuremark is 3DMark05 which comes with four completely new game tests that make massive use of shaders and lighting effects. 3DMark05 is a great test for modern video card architectures - in some tests you are often close to the 30 fps mark, below which your games will feel sluggish.

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3DMark06

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Even though it's based on Futuremark's 3DMark05, the new 3DMark06 adds new tests for Shader Model 3.0 and HDR rendering. It is also the first 3DMark to incorporate a CPU score into the final 3DMark score. All tests have received an overhaul, for example in the Canyon Flight test you can now see beautiful sun glare effects with the help of High Dynamic Range rendering.

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Power Consumption

Cooling modern video cards is becoming more and more difficult, especially when users are asking for quiet cooling solutions. That's why the engineers are now paying much more attention to power consumption of new video card designs.

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<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System</th>
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<tr>
<th width="150" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33 GHz (Conroe, 2x 2048 KB Cache)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Gigabyte P35C-DS3R Intel P35</td>
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<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 1024MB A.DATA DDR2 1066+ CL4</td>
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<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">WD Raptor 740ADFD 74 GB</td>
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<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">OCZ GameXStream 700W</td>
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<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2</td>
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<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Drivers:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">NVIDIA: 169.04 ATI: Catalyst 7.11</td>
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In order to characterize a video card's power consumption, the whole system's mains power draw was measured. This means that these numbers include CPU, Memory, HDD, Video card and PSU inefficiency.

The three result values are as following:

Idle: Windows sitting at the desktop (1024x768 32-bit) all windows closed, drivers installed.
Average: 3DMark03 Nature at 1280x1024, 6xAA, 16xAF. This results in the highest power consumption. Average of all readings (two per second) while the test was rendering (no title screen).
Peak: 3DMark03 Nature at 1280x1024, 6xAA, 16xAF. This results in the highest power consumption. Highest single reading

The idle power draw of the GeForce 9800 GX2 is horrible, there is no effective power management for idle like on AMD's offerings. The card requires much more power, when idle. Under Vista even the Aero desktop is rendered in SLI which is kinda pointless given its modest GPU requirements.
Under load the 9800 GX2 does a much better job thanks to the energy efficient architecture of NVIDIA. But the single GPU results are very surprising. Disabling the second GPU yields almost no power benefit, actually the peak power draw is higher.
In order to properly load the Zotac 9800 GX2 we had to switch to Crysis 2048x1536 for the load and peak test because 3DMark03 Nature did not draw enough power.

Given the power numbers we see here, I am confident that any half-decent modern power supply can run the GeForce 9800 GX2 without any issues.

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Fan Noise

In the past years users would accept everything just to get more performance. Nowadays this has changed with people being more aware of the fan noise and power consumption of their graphic cards.
In order to properly test the fan noise a card emits we are using a Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound level meter (~$4,000) which has the measurement range and accuracy we are looking for.

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The tested graphics card is installed in a system that is completely passively cooled. That is passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, passive cooling on the motherboard and Solid-State HDD.
This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified) the measurement is conducted at 100 cm distance and 160 cm over the floor. The ambient background noise level in the room is well below 20 dbA for all measurements. Please note that the dbA scale is not linear, it is logarithmic. 40 dbA is not twice as loud as 20 dbA. A 3 dbA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing is a bit different and it is generally accepted that a 10 dbA increase doubles the perceived sound level.

NVIDIA's new fan design pays off here. The single fan is running very quiet considering it has to cool two GPUs. Great job here, NVIDIA.

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Performance Summary

To create this graph we took all performance results of all benchmarks and all resolutions, threw them together and calculated the relative performance of each card, compared to our review sample.

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Performance per Watt

This graph was created by taking the relative performance numbers and putting them in contrast to the average power consumption results. To offset power consumption of the rest of the system we subtracted 50W from the average consumption.

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Performance per Dollar

If you are looking for the best bang for the buck, then you will love this graph. We looked up the current USD price of each card on the online shop Newegg and used it and the relative performance numbers to calculate the Performance per Dollar Index.

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Overclocking

To find the maximum overclock of our card we used a combination of Rivatuner, ATITool, nTune and our benchmarking suite.

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The final overclocks of our card are 749 MHz Core (25 % overclock) and 1106 MHz Memory (11 % overclock). I was totally surprised by these overclocks. From a dual GPU design like this I expected no, or almost none overclocking at all. This is another fact that NVIDIA's new cooler design works well and is an excellent innovation.

Please note that the core clock of both GPUs is dependent on the PCI-Express clock signal, just like on the GeForce 9600 GT. Please read our article here for additional details.

Temperatures

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For such a powerhouse the card runs very cool and silent, no surprises here either.

Value and Conclusion

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The Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 will retail for around $599. Competing companies will sell at this price too.

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Loads of GPU power
Great overclocking headroom
Low 3D power consumption
Innovative fan and cooler
Quiet
Almost 100% scaling in many benchmarks at high resolutions
Sexy industrial design
HDMI+HDCP+Audio
PCI-Express 2.0 support

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Expensive!!
Uses same old G92 GPU
Performance gains only at 1600x1200 and up
Comes at NVIDIA reference clocks
High idle power consumption

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<tr><th>9.0</th>
<td>Overall the GeForce 9800 GX2 works really well. Installation is just as easy as with any other graphics card. Insert the card into the PCI-Express slot, get the power cables connected and ready you are. After driver installation there is no need to mess around with SLI settings, the two cards are immediately enabled to render hand in hand. 
NVIDIA makes it very clear that this is a premium performance product not for everybody. If you play in resolutions below 1600x1200 there is little gain by using two GPUs, especially when you don't have a really fast CPU. When you crank up the resolution and AA settings however, the SLI performance effect becomes apparent. In many benchmarks we saw close to 100% scaling. The GeForce 9800 GX2's natural habitat is a high-end system with big 2560x1600 screen connected. Here you could use very high AA settings in most games and still have a great playing experience. 
But the price ... a $599 videocard is so 2006. Back then people were ready to pay insane prices for their graphics card. Nowadays most action happens below 300 bucks. Of course you can argue that you get two cards for $600, which is twice $300. But considering recent prices for the GeForce 8800 GT or the 9600 GT, which are both sub-$200 you could buy two of these cards plus an SLI motherboard for the GX2 price. On the other hand the GX2 will work in any motherboard with any chipset, not only NVIDIA chipsets, which will be useful when you just bought this brand-new X48 motherboard. 
The new cooling concept of NVIDIA works extremely well. Placement of the cooler and fan in the middle has so many advantages, I wonder why nobody came up with this earlier. The Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 runs cool and quiet which is something you wouldn't expect from a dual-GPU card. 
Having an HDMI port on this card is definitely nice. Even though the card is way too powerful for just video playback, it will be loads of fun playing games on a 60" screen in full HD and beyond. Overall the GeForce 9800 GX2 is a solid product, but certainly not for everyone.
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