Supposedly eco-friendly products continue to roll out at a feverish pace, and the latest comes from Hong Kong's ZOTAC in the form of the GeForce 9800 GT Eco.
The card, pictured below, is for all intents and purposes an underclocked GeForce 9800 GT, but it promises to help out with the power bill by offering up to 40 per cent greater power efficiency when compared to a stock-clocked alternative.
In order to help deliver those power savings, the card's GPU is slowed from 600MHz to 550MHz and its 112 stream processors are clocked at 1,375MHz - down from 1,500MHz. There's 512MB of GDDR3 memory onboard, clocked at NVIDIA's reference 1,800MHz, and a single SLI finger allowing for two-way SLI setups.
We're all for power-saving components, and here's a decent-performance card that'll lower the bills a little and most probably run a tad cooler, too. Trouble is, many of these eco-branded parts reach retail with price tags that eclipse their standard counterparts.
ZOTAC's GeForce 9800 GT Eco edition will need to be priced comfortably below the quicker Synergy edition if it's likely to entice buyers, we reckon. The frequently-used "you'll make your money back in power saving" argument just isn't winning us over.
Official press release: ZOTAC Unleashes More Power Efficient GeForce® 9800GT Eco
