Alright ive been reading about the new 9800 GX2 video card. So far it seems to perform well but with AA enabled performance suffers horribly. I read toms review and he said that it was because the 9800 GX2 only has 512mb memory. I dont understand that, each card has 512 mb memory is the 9800 GX2 not capable of addresses all 1 gb of vram? Basically this card seems useless if u cant use high res with high levels of AA on it considering the cost.

What res you talking about? At 2056xwhatever resolution it seemed that the card really suffered from AA, but I don't buy it that it is only from memory. I think some of it maybe drivers or some other issue. If you're playing a 1920x1080 (or similar) than I don't think the card suffers that bad from AA.

Oh yeah, the card is basically SLI on one card. You don't add up each cards memory in SLI, so therefore the card effectively has 512mb of memory per GPU.

you sure about that? I think each GPU has 256Mb

EDIT

Went and looked it up for some clarification

I thought you were saying they were selling the card as a 512mb card. but I see now.

also I think this is complete garbage how nvidia is marketing this making the card sound like it has 256 stream processors. when IT does but ... its between 2 cards in actuality and just slapped together VIA SLI and they are calling it one card.

I think that a TRUE SINGLE GPU with 256 stream processors would KICK THE CRAP out of the 9800GX2

"Geforce 9800 GX2 is the first complete high-end card, at least that's how Nvidia describes it in its own words. Let's not look back at all the shortcomings of the 8800 Ultra, but take a peak at what the 9800 GX2 has to offer. This is the fastest graphics card ever made, but in fact it's two graphics cards stapled together. Nvidia will probably say that the 9800 GX2 combines the power of two 9800 GPUs with a grand total of 256 stream processors and an earth shuddering 1GB frame buffer (512MB per core). Obviously, the card is a dual slot design and it looks sexy, but also elegant, as it is encased in an all metal body."

"The 65nm GPUs have 1508 million transistors in total, if we combine them. They are clocked at 600MHz with a Shader clock of 1500MHz and these numbers are similar to those we already saw on 8800 GT cards. It has a total of 256 stream processors (128 per GPU). The memory is clocked slightly higher than on previously seen G92 cards. Geforce 9800 GX2 uses memory clocked at 1000MHz, slightly more than the 900MHz and 970MHz seen on the 8800 GT and GTS, respectively. The memory bus is 256-bit and the card packs 2x512MB of GDDR3 memory."

One thing that you might have to consider is the fact that it's going thru the one PCI-E slot. The maximum bandwidth would be cut in half compared to a 2 Separate Card Setup.

No it doesnt work like that. It has an onboard chip that connects itself to the second card.

But it will limit it to PCI-1

so basically the card can address 1 gb of vram? or not.