NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT Review | 118 Data compared

The Zotac GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB graphics card is a factory-overclocked, 55 nm "G92b" budget GPU that closely matches the performance of ATI's 40 nm Radeon HD 4770, lagging just 1.1% behind it while easily outperforming the Radeon HD 4670 and HD 4830. Priced around $100, Zotac boosts the card's processing muscle by increasing the GPU clock rate to 660 MHz (up from the 600 MHz reference speed) and pushing the shaders to 1,600 MHz instead of 1,512 MHz. Built with a narrow fan that allows it to easily fit into a single expansion slot, this DirectX 10 card features 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at an unaltered 900 MHz clock rate. Additionally, the retail box offers strong added value by including a variety of physical accessories, such as a DVI-to-HDMI adapter, internal SPDIF audio cable, and power/video splitter cables, alongside a full copy of the game XIII Century: Death of Glory. However, the card suffers from notable drawbacks regarding power, heat, and acoustics due to its low-profile cooling system and lack of power management. Because the card...

The ASUS EN9800GT Matrix 512MB is a custom-cooled, factory-overclocked graphics card based on NVIDIA’s G92 architecture. While the underlying GPU is essentially a rebranded 8800 GT, ASUS attempts to differentiate this model from reference cards by offering a premium, home-theatre-style packaging experience and an incredibly lightweight physical design. It features an aluminum fin heatsink with heatpipes, a single 6-pin power connection, and the proprietary "Super Hybrid Engine" chip on the back, which enables advanced software control over custom clock speeds and fan profiles. A major highlight of the card is its exceptional, versatile connectivity layout, which includes native HDMI, dual-link DVI, HDTV output, and an optical digital audio output. The custom cooling setup keeps the device exceptionally light, and its over-spec clock rates deliver great gaming performance for the price. However, the card has notable drawbacks: the fan becomes very loud at high speeds, and there is only a single DVI port, which creates a multi-monitor headache because ASUS fails to include an HDMI-to-DVI adapter in the box. Additionally, despite physically featuring a second SLI connector, the card does not...

The TechPowerUp review of the Zotac GeForce 9800 GT AMP! Edition highlights a pre-overclocked card (700 MHz core/1000 MHz memory) based on the G92 architecture that provides excellent out-of-the-box performance and additional manual overclocking headroom. Pros include a distinct orange PCB, support for Hybrid Power, and inclusion of a full game, offering a faster alternative to the standard reference design. Conversely, the card is essentially a rebadged 8800 GT with no new architectural innovations, featuring the same 65nm technology. Significant cons include high noise levels under load due to an aggressive single-slot cooler, higher power consumption than the standard model, and a lack of separate 2D/3D clock states, causing it to remain loud while idle.

The APH Networks review evaluates the Gigabyte GeForce 9800GT 512MB, highlighting that the GPU is essentially a rebranded 65nm G92-based 8800GT with minor updates. Pros include its solid, consistent mid-range gaming performance across benchmarks like F.E.A.R., Prey, and Half-Life 2, landing just behind factory-overclocked 8800GT variants out of the box. The card boasts high-quality build components through Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 2 implementation and features an aftermarket Zalman heatpipe cooler. Additionally, it exhibits excellent memory overclocking potential, with its Samsung GDDR3 chips safely pushing from the stock 900MHz up to 1140MHz. However, the card suffers from notable cons regarding its cooling and architectural novelty. The review criticizes NVIDIA's deceptive branding, noting that this specific Gigabyte model utilizes the older 65nm G92 architecture rather than the newer, more efficient 55nm G92b core found on "true" 9800GTs. A major drawback of the custom hardware design is its loud acoustic profile. The PCB lacks the necessary circuitry for automatic fan control or fan RPM monitoring, forcing the Zalman cooler to run at a constant, noisy maximum speed during both idle and high-load conditions. Lastly,...

The HotHardware GeForce 9800 GT review evaluates two mid-range graphics cards—the Gigabyte GV-N98TZL-512H and the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB—which are primarily rebranded 8800 GT GPUs updated with HybridPower and HDMI audio support. The pros of the Gigabyte card include its compact, shorter PCB design, excellent factory cooling provided by a custom Zalman heatsink, and highly impressive overclocking headroom that yields a 16-17% performance boost. Conversely, the pros of the Palit card include a larger 1GB frame buffer and an extensive custom cooler utilizing dual heatplates to manage memory thermals. The cons of both cards center on the fact that they offer virtually identical performance to the older 8800 GT, rendering them poor upgrade options for existing owners. Specifically, a major con for Palit's Super+ 1GB is its higher $160 price tag and lackluster overclocking headroom; testing revealed that its extra 512MB of VRAM failed to deliver any tangible performance advantages over the Gigabyte card, resulting in a dead heat where Gigabyte often held a slight edge. For the Gigabyte card, the primary con noted by reviewers is that...

The Galaxy GeForce 9800 GT 1024MB is a highly customized budget-to-mid-range graphics card based on an architecture heavily refreshed by NVIDIA, tracking its roots back to the successful GeForce 8800 GT and slated for a future rebrand as the GTS 240. Retailing at an aggressive street price of $129 to $135, this 1024MB variant stands out by offering double the memory capacity of the standard 512MB models for roughly the same price. Built specifically for users gaming at monitor resolutions ranging from 1024x768 to 1600x1200, the card is designed to deliver a highly optimized and fair gaming experience across hot DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 titles of its era. A major pro of this Galaxy edition is its heavy hardware customization, featuring a non-reference custom PCB, a tailored cooling solution, a custom bracket, and an integrated HDMI output alongside a black DVI port and backplate. It also provides exceptional value by giving buyers a significant "bang for the buck" through its tweaked architecture and generous 1024MB frame buffer. On the con side, the underlying technology is heavily recycled, relying on...

The Guru3D GeForce 9800 GT vs GeForce 660 GTX Review highlights a massive generational leap in performance and efficiency across a four-year technology gap. Based on Nvidia's user demographic data showing a massive lingering user base for the older card, Guru3D tested how the 2008 DirectX 10-based GeForce 9800 GT stacks up against the 2012 DirectX 11-ready GeForce GTX 660. In benchmarks testing lower, non-memory-constrained resolutions like 1280x1024, the GeForce GTX 660 delivers an incredible 350% to 400% performance increase over its predecessor. This massive leap is driven by a completely overhauled architecture featuring a 980 MHz core clock, a 192-bit GDDR5 memory interface, and a far larger 2GB frame buffer that prevents the severe stuttering and bottlenecking seen on the older card's standard 512MB memory when running modern game titles. The clear "pro" of upgrading to the GeForce GTX 660 is its vastly superior feature set, including DirectX 11 tessellation support, exceptionally low power consumption (drawing around 115W during gaming), and a significantly quieter reference cooler design. However, the primary "con" identified in the comparison lies with the severe...

The HardwareZone Singapore review highlights the GeForce 9800 GT Eco graphics cards from MSI and Zotac as power-efficient variants designed to eliminate the need for a dedicated 6-pin PCIe power connector. The main advantage (Pros) of these Eco models is a massive power reduction, saving up to 10W at idle and an impressive 42W under load while pulling all required power straight from the motherboard's PCIe slot. Because of the revised silicon and power circuitry, these cards also run cooler than stock models—registering temperatures as low as 54°C to 60°C compared to the standard card's 67°C. Additionally, despite lacking an external power connector, they deliver surprising overclocking headroom, with the Zotac model comfortably reaching a 650MHz core clock. The 1GB expanded framebuffer also helps them maintain highly competitive, almost identical performance to the standard card at high resolutions with anti-aliasing active. However, the eco-friendly redesign introduces a few distinct disadvantages (Cons). To achieve these lower power metrics, manufacturers structurally reduced the factory clock speeds by roughly 10%, cutting the core clock from 600MHz to 550MHz and shader clocks from 1500MHz...

The MSI GeForce 9800GT 512MB OC is a factory-overclocked, G92-based graphics card featuring a customized red PCB and a highly efficient, non-reference dual-slot cooler with four copper heatpipes. Running on Ubuntu Linux, this card delivers competitive performance and playable framerates across benchmarks like Nexuiz, OpenArena, and Quake 4 due to its elevated 660MHz core and 1900MHz memory clocks. Key drawbacks include severe instability when using Nvidia's CoolBits for further overclocking under Linux and a lack of dedicated cooling for the Samsung GDDR3 memory ICs. Additionally, the card struggles with demanding engines like Unigine, and the included software bundle is incompatible with Linux.

The ASUS EN9800GT Matrix is a Matrix-themed, all-black graphics card based on the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT architecture. In terms of pros, the card features a unique Super Hybrid Engine chip designed to automatically reduce voltage and clock speeds during 2D tasks, giving it the lowest power consumption among its competitors. It also stands out by offering dual-SLI connectors to support 3-way SLI setups, which is uncommon for standard 9800 GT models. Additionally, it includes useful bundled software like GamerOSD for real-time adjustments and video capturing. However, the card suffers from significant cons that overshadow its features. Its actual gaming performance is bafflingly poor, often scoring lower than reference-clocked 9800 GT cards due to the Super Hybrid Engine failing to ramp up clock speeds during 3D gaming. The bundled iTracker software failed to switch automatically from 2D to 3D mode as advertised, requiring tedious manual tweaking. Furthermore, its custom Hybrid Cooler provides lackluster temperature management, the hardware exhibits strict power supply unit (PSU) incompatibilities, and its weak manual overclocking capabilities top out at 710MHz core / 1960MHz memory. Combined with...

The NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT is exposed as an elaborate rebranding of the older 8800 GT, sharing identical specifications including the G92 core architecture, 112 stream processors, and a 600MHz reference core clock. Consequently, testing shows no significant performance gains over its predecessor, and it consistently falls behind its main competitor, the ATI Radeon HD 4850, especially at higher resolutions and in demanding games like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3. While the reference design offers minimal upgrades, aftermarket variants from Palit (Sonic) and Zotac (AMP! Edition) provide solid value at around S$210 by delivering higher out-of-the-box clock speeds and impressive overclocking headroom up to 750MHz. Conversely, the ASUS Matrix engineering sample tested was a major disappointment, underperforming despite its advertised "Super Hybrid Engine" and failing to stabilize during memory overclocking. The primary pros of the GeForce 9800 GT series include its added support for HybridPower power-saving technology and an incoming transition to a more efficient 55nm manufacturing process. Custom-cooled partner models like those from Gigabyte and Palit also excel at keeping load temperatures down to a chilly 55°C while drawing...