NVIDIA Adds the 9800 GTX+ and PhysX
On Thursday, the same day that AMD unveiled - early - its 4800 series of cards (because some etailers were already selling the card), NVIDIA decided it just had to unveil its own new card, as well as some other good news.
NVIDIA's new card is the GeForce 9800 GTX+ GPU, an overclocked 9800 GTX, but really the 55nm refresh of the G92. NVIDIA increased default clock/shader speeds: from 675MHz to 738MHz and from 1688MHz to 1836MHz respectively. Memory speeds for this card will be 1100MHz, similar to the existing 9800 GTX. The MSRP will be $229, and it will hit store shelves in mid-July.
At the same time the 9800 GTX's price will be dropped to $199, matching AMD's 4850 MSRP.
The really good news: PhysX for the GeForce 9800 GTX, 9800 GTX+, and GTX 260/280 cards will be enabled by the ForceWare 177.39 driver, timed to launch with the GTX+. And NVIDIA says it will gradually roll out PhysX support to the full GeForce 8/9 line. As the above graph shows, GPU accelerated PhysX could offer a significant performance increase, in games that support the technology. The UT3 PhysX map pack for example, which was used to gather the data above, shows a major boost with GPU accelerated PhysX enabled.
NVIDIA's new card is the GeForce 9800 GTX+ GPU, an overclocked 9800 GTX, but really the 55nm refresh of the G92. NVIDIA increased default clock/shader speeds: from 675MHz to 738MHz and from 1688MHz to 1836MHz respectively. Memory speeds for this card will be 1100MHz, similar to the existing 9800 GTX. The MSRP will be $229, and it will hit store shelves in mid-July.
At the same time the 9800 GTX's price will be dropped to $199, matching AMD's 4850 MSRP.
CPU vs GPU PhysX In UT3
The really good news: PhysX for the GeForce 9800 GTX, 9800 GTX+, and GTX 260/280 cards will be enabled by the ForceWare 177.39 driver, timed to launch with the GTX+. And NVIDIA says it will gradually roll out PhysX support to the full GeForce 8/9 line. As the above graph shows, GPU accelerated PhysX could offer a significant performance increase, in games that support the technology. The UT3 PhysX map pack for example, which was used to gather the data above, shows a major boost with GPU accelerated PhysX enabled.
