For the NVIDIA chipsets are all but downgraded in the past week or so by ATI, with the GeForce 9 series going to replace the ailing 8 series, we; the public might expect that it may be the successor of the 8 series. For much they have made the 9 series, the 9600GT being the only great success, then follows the 9800GT in a later month and the high-end graphics of the 9800GTX and the GX2. With a number of problems show that it did not perform as fast as the previous version or way too expensive when it came out. And again with the GTX series, high prized and a dead proposition to be an improvement side of things. For much of the disappointment NVIDIA is making improvements in the graphics cards by rearranging and renaming the graphics cards with the new GTX200 as the high-end the main stream and budget GT200 and GS100. Or another alternative; by improving the memory chip and the core fabrication, I give you the 9800GTX+ with a plus sign to add in the name.
XFX is fast to adopt the new 9800GTX+, having the same G92 chipset but the fabrication went from 65nm to 55nm. And bigger improvement for a cooler graphics card and also gives about 1-5% more performance from the 9800GTX plus the memory and the core clock shades are been over-clocked by about 45MHz; good for those people who want a pre-stock over-clock. Plus the help of XFX’s own lifetime warrantee with modder friendly options, a return and repair policy to much of the range of XFX graphics. The cooler itself is a reference design of the original 9800GTX cooling it in a measly 45 at idle and around about 50 degrees at load, for the noise is the bright side in NVIDIA, keeping a silent whirr at about 35dBA in idle and 40~43dBA when the fan is at max rpm.
For the performance however, it does have an edge in some games in low res, but in Hi-res, where the CPU cannot help it anymore cannot keep up with the 4870 and even with the 4850. But with a two way battle against the original 9800GTX it pretty nails it there, by about 5-8fsp difference with the 9800GTX. For the usability of the 9800GTX in SLI or even Triple SLI in both AMD and Intel platforms, are much better than the GTX 260 and especially the 280, with some driver problems, the 9800GTX is a better choice in SLI solutions that can keep up with the 4870X2’s raw performance.
The XFX version of the 9800GTX+, as an over-clocked version, with the prize, about $30~$60 more expensive, but having the extras of modder friendly warrantee, is a great plus. With the thing cannot keep up with the newer versions and real world applications, this may be discontinued in about a month or two. But if you rig it into SLI mode, you can achieve a bit more on most high end games, and definitely Crysis in high-res but driver revision, fixing the problem that plagued in the GTX SLI, may itself make a 9800GTX+ SLI to be underrated. However the 9800GTX is not an all out lose situation, it can still play most high games and all of NVIDIA’s Physics engine games, even beating some of the offerings in ATI.
Even the 9 series are in its last legs, it is still not a bad option.
