Asus 9800 GTX 512MB EN9800GTX

Introduction
 
Nvidia have been piling the pressure on ATI recently with a swathe of high spec, high speed cards. Today sees the launch of yet another speedster, the 9800 GTX. With a super-clocked GPU running at 675MHz and the 128 stream processors clocked at 1688MHz, the GTX really is cranked up a notch. Nvidia also saw fit to grab some GDDR3 that weighs in at 2200MHz, not bad.
 
g92 9800 gtx gpu
 
Asus sent us a 9800 GTX to put through its paces in the labs so we grabbed the usual benching suspects off of the shelf and started to bench it.
 
Read on to see how it gets on.
 
Packaging
 
Asus are returning to the CGI character style packaging with the box of this stock clocked GTX. Its bright lime green should stand out from the crowd but for the sake of the environment: please Asus: make the packaging smaller!
 
asus 9800 gtx packaging  asus 9800 gtx packaging rear
 
The inside is the usual Asus affair with a lot of room and a decent amount of packaging to ensure that the GTX stays safe.
 
asus 8800 gtx inside box
 
Now onto the bundle…
 
 
Package
 
The package with this particular Asus 9800 GTX is pretty sparse and doesn’t seem to come with much out of the box at all.
 
We have:
 
* 1 x Leather CD wallet
* 1 x Quick start guide
* 1 x Driver CD
* 1 x CD-based instruction manual
* 1 x DVI to VGA connector
* 1 x Dual molex to PCI-e 6PIN power
* 1 x S-Video to component out
 
asus 9800 gtx package
 
The Asus 9800 GTX is a stock clocked example of the 9800 GTX, so perhaps you can forgive Asus for a slightly sparse bundle. I’m sure a “Top” Edition will be out there with a game bundle and an armful of hardware floating around inside that capacious box.
 
 
Specifications
 
The specs on the 9800 GTX are as follows:
 
  GeForce
8600 GTS
Radeon
HD 3850
Radeon
HD 3870
GeForce
9600 GT
GeForce
8800 GTS
GeForce
8800 GT
GeForce
8800 GTS
Radeon
HD 2900 XT
GeForce
8800 GTX
GeForce
9800 GTX
GeForce
8800 Ultra
Shader units 32 320 320 64 96 112 128 320 128 128 128
ROPs 8 16 16 16 20 16 16 16 x2 24 16 24
GPU G84 RV670 RV670 G94 G80 G92 G92 R600 G80 G92 G80
Transistors 289M 666M 666M 505M 681M 754M 754M 700M 681M 754M 681M
Memory Size 256 MB 256 MB 512 MB 512 MB 320 MB
640 MB
512 MB 512 MB 512 MB 768 MB 512 MB 768 MB
Memory Bus Width 128 bit 256 bit 256 bit 256 bit 320 bit 256 bit 256 bit 512 bit 384 bit 256 bit 384 bit
Core Clock 675 MHz 670 MHz 777 MHz 650 MHz 500 MHz 600 MHz 650 MHz 742 MHz 575 MHz 675 MHz 612 MHz
Memory Clock 1000 MHz 828 MHz 1126 MHz 900 MHz 800 MHz 900 MHz 970 MHz 825 MHz 900 MHz 1100 MHz 1080 MHz
The 9800 is basically an 8800 GTS with a bit more horsepower. Nvidia keeps the 256bit bus which many feel hinders the G92 chips, but we’ll see how it goes.