Asus 9800 GTX 512MB EN9800GTX

Item: Asus 9800 GTX 512MB EN9800GTX
Author: Matthew Kemp

Introduction, Packaging, Package and Specification

Published: 2nd April 2008 | Source: Asus | Price: £223 | Author: Matthew Kemp

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

Most Recent Comments

02-04-2008, 03:24:50

Bungral

Ahhh man gotta go work... no time to read.

Will take a look at lunch.Quote

02-04-2008, 03:27:31

Good review mate.

I'm not very impressed with the 98** series so far, but at least the card is reasonably priced and is a good buy for someone who doesn't currently own an 88** card.Quote

02-04-2008, 06:19:09

firefly

That's a good, well rounded review - much appreciated.

I won't be swapping my 8800GTX - but for for someone buying a card, well... is a much lower priced 8800gt better value?

How would anyone feel spending £210 on this (lowest I've seen), knowing the next gen chips (if they really are next gen) are just a few months away?

It looks quite a good card - but the timing of it's release seems a bit strange.Quote

02-04-2008, 06:35:49

Mr. Smith

I'm in a bit of a situation.

My X2 died a death and it needs replacing. It cost £270.

I was going to upgrade to the GX2 and cough up the extra £120ish as the other reviews I have seen of the gx2 show it smoking crysis etc (they included youtube vids/screenshots to give an idea, mascaras @ xs iirc). That and a few other things sold me.

Now, I have my 88GT atm as backup but it is sold to my mate who is the slowest pc builder in the world so I can't keep it forever.

The 9800GTX is ~£220 so if I got that as a replacement I'd get £50 back.

I demand performance, high res, aa/af etc. I get very angry if my gpu doesn't perform well, conversely I don't like wasting money and the new gpu's are coming, which are probably just die shrinks but who knows...

Does the gx2 justify the extra £170 over the 98gtx? This review suggests no...

Have you just been too nice Matt? I need to read this at lunch or after work... Food for thought.Quote

02-04-2008, 07:02:38

Rastalovich

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Jim'

Good review mate.

I'm not very impressed with the 98** series so far, but at least the card is reasonably priced and is a good buy for someone who doesn't currently own an 88** card.

Very much so.

Nothing established as to the extra 6 pin power requirement ?

If I`m not buying for a new pc, I don`t think I`ll bother. Need to get out of this plateau of similar cards released ~£200.

9800GTX in SLI vS GX2 - that`d be interesting.

Thanks for the review Kemp.Quote

Asus 9800 GTX 512MB EN9800GTX

Introduction, Packaging, Package and Specification

Published: 2nd April 2008 | Source: Asus | Price: £223 | Author: Matthew Kemp

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