Palit NE/9800TXT302

It's a great time for those in the market for a new video card, in just a few short months we've seen the debuts of over half a dozen different boards. At the high-end, high-priced segment Benchmark Reviews has showcased such great offerings from NVIDIA as the GTX 280 and ATI/AMD's HD 4870x2, while at the other end of the spectrum the mainstream budget cards releases are almost too plentiful and mediocre to mention. Though the high-end may grab the headlines, where the real interest lies, for buyer and manufacturers alike, is in the highly profitable mid-range market. Recently either NVIDIA has been releasing a competitor to an ATI/AMD card or vice versa intended to saturate every price point at this level. These seemingly constant releases from both titans also has the unintentional side effect of spurring drastic price cuts, for NVIDIA as much as 40% in some cases, resulting in never before seen price to performance in this segment.

This brings us to today's review of the mid-range Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB Video Card 9800TXT302 from NVIDIA. In the recent clamor of releases NVIDIA has quietly slipped in the 9800 GT, seemingly from nowhere and without much publicity. Essentially a re-packaged 8800 GT (last year's fan favorite), the 9800 GT has a few added features and a new very attractive price. Apparently the 9800 GT has become quite popular and seemingly gained enough market traction from consumers for ATI/AMD to notice and even have a competitor lined up for early fourth quarter this year.

Featuring NVIDIA's popular GPU, codenamed "G92", the Palit 9800 GT shares the same 65nm technology as its predecessor the 8800 GT - as well as core, shader, and memory clocks. Why the change in naming then? The 9800 GT has two notable updates from the 8800 GT. The first is the added HybridPower technology that brings greater energy-saving ability to the desktop, allowing the PC to switch off the discrete video card when not needed in favor of the intergraded built in motherboard GPU. And the second is the planned transition to a more efficient 55nm manufacturing process expected in September - just as the 9800 GTX was transitioned to 55nm with the iteration of the GTX+.

This die shrink will theoretically give the 9800 GT all the same perks as the GTX+ (i.e. cooler temps, higher overclocks, and 3-way SLI). This begs the question then: Why is NVIDIA still using 65nm parts when they already have 55nm chips ready? Our best guess would be that NVIDIA is trying to clear inventory of old stock before they begin shipping new parts. However, this creates an obvious problem for current 9800 GTs made at 65nm, and it will be interesting to see how NVIDIA plans to handle the transition without creating a lottery where customers either get the new or old GPU by luck. Perhaps we'll see a 9800 GT+...

In addition to the new HybridPower technology the 9800 GT enjoys all the same features of the 8800 GT Benchmark Reviews covered last December. Read on as we take a closer look at an update to a favorite, and show just what makes the Palit 9800 GT Super+ 1GB such an attractive mid-range solution.

About the company: Palit Microsystems Ltd.

Established in 1988, Palit Microsystems Ltd. is well-known for manufacturing stable, excellent, and innovative graphics accelerators and motherboards. As one of the top PC components manufacturers, Palit continues to provide top-to-button graphics cards and motherboards with stable and excellent quality to the world. With headquarter in Hong Kong, factories in Mainland China, and branch offices in Germany and Taipei, Palit has developed worldwide sales network and cooperated closely with our customers.

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