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Review: NVIDIA (ZOTAC) GeForce 9800 GX2

by Scott Bicheno on 18 March 2008, 15:34

Tags: ZOTAC

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ZOTAC's GeForce 9800 GX2

NVIDIA reckons that housing two GPUs on two PCBs and then arranging them in a face-to-face manner is better, thermally, than having them situated on the same PCB - as per the Radeon HD 3870 X2, and that's why there's no outward sign of cooling.

The card is large, measuring in at 267mm x 111mm x 41mm (WxDxH), but, like the GeForce 8800 GTS 512/GTX/Ultra cards, the size means that it only takes up an extra slot than normal.

It needs to be well-screwed-in, however, as it weighs a whopping 1,150g, beating out the 1,037g Radeon HD 3870 X2 in the fatty stakes, which is almost identical in size, too.

ZOTAC's card, like practically everyone else's, is reference, manufactured on behalf of NVIDIA and manufacturer-discernible via the stick that's added to it. As such, it operates at 600/1,500/2,000MHz for the core, shader and memories, respectively.

Designing one in-house would take time and considerable research and development; a no-no if you want to be at market first. As it is, the card is slightly noisy when under 3D load, and doesn't quite match the aural goodness from the Radeon HD 3870 X2's cooler.

Bundle

ZOTAC's bundle is basic, saved by the inclusion of the full-game version of LOST. Given that it's an early sample we expect the PSU adapter will be added immediately. On a similar note, the twin Molex connectors are far from ideal, knowing how certain PSUs are wired with respect to 12V rails, which the Molexes connect to.


Warranty

All ZOTAC cards are backed by a five-year warranty that begins of the date of purchase. We like the fact that the warranty is transferable, should the card be sold on. The original warranty period was for two years, but the extension is available for owners who register with ZOTAC within two weeks of purchase.

ZOTAC has a service centre in the UK. Customers have the option of sending faulty hardware either to the dealer from which they purchased the card from or, alternatively, back to ZOTAC's centre, where the company quotes a 5-10 working day turnaround, and will ship the product back to the customer for free.