Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTX was a high-mark for both the company and for the graphics industry launching DirectX10 with a bang in regards to performance with one of the biggest leaps we've seen in sometime. The bad news is that was back in November of 2006 and Nvidia didn't launch the follow-up until last month. The good news is it is out now and for much less than the $600 price tag or so the 8800 GTX launched with. Let's take a look at one from Asus, the EN9800GTX.

As you might expect Nvidia's 9800 GTX has a lot in common with all the recent cards they've released in that it is based off the G92 core that the 8800 GT, 8800 GTS 512MB, and more recent 9600 GT all share. To sum it up quickly the major difference between this and the G80 core the previous generation of DX10 cards were based on is the die shrink to 65nm to cut down on die size, costs, and power consumption. It features 128 shaders with a default clock speed of 675MHz for the core and 1.69GHz for the shaders with a 2.2GHz memory clock speed with 512MB of RAM using a 256-bit memory bus. This might seem a little odd to some people who know the GeForce 8800 GTX specs as that card featured 768MB of RAM with a 384-bit memory interface, so higher in regards to the GeForce 9800 GTX. That said there were more than likely some efficiency issues in regards to texture management which have been resolved with better drivers and revised hardware but it still seems on paper to be one of the few times a newer product has lower specs than the previous generation. ATI also did this with their Radeon 3870 moving from a 512-bit memory interface to 256-bit and that card was faster than the 2900 XT. The stream processor number holds steady at 128 though the clock speed is 100MHz faster than the default of the GeForce 8800 GTX which was 575MHz compared to 675MHz.
 

A large, dark, plastic shroud covers the entire card with a Darth Vader's helmet sort of look. The fan is a little smaller than on the 9800 GTX and is very quiet. The card naturally works in SLI and also is one of the only two cards that will work in hybrid SLI with 780a/750a/730a chipsets which is a nice extra bonus. This can save quite a bit of power if you happen to have one of the newer boards that support it.

The hardware bundle consists of a DVI-to-VGA adapter, D-Sub adapter, S-Video cable, and a new and improved leather CD wallet from Asus. This one is made of much finer leather and better construction, though still is low on the amount of CDs/DVDs it can hold. No hardware bundle unfortunately.

Specifications:
Graphics Engine: NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX
Bus Standard: PCI Express 2.0
Video Memory: DDR3 512MB
Engine Clock: 675 MHz
Shader Clock: 1.688 GHz
Memory Clock: 2.2 GHz ( 1.1 GHz DDR3 )
RAMDAC: 400MHz
Memory Interface: 256-bit
CRT Max Resolution: 2048 x 1536
DVI Max Resolution: 3840 x 2400
D-Sub Output: Yes x 1 (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor x 1 )
DVI Output: Yes x 2
HDTV Output (YPbPr): Yes
HDCP Support: Yes
TV Output: Yes (YPbPr to S-Video and Composite)
Adaptor/Cable bundled: 1 x DVI to D-Sub adaptor
1 x HDTV-out cable
1 x Power cable
Software Bundled
ASUS Utilities & Driver
Note
Special bundled: CD Leather Wallet
The card size is 4.376 inches x 10.5 inches