BFG's GeForce 9800 GT OC, and preliminary thoughts
BFG sent us some shots of its GeForce 9800 GT OC Edition.
Most models, we believe, will ship with a 512MB frame-buffer, just like this one.
BFG's OC clocks in at 625MHz for the core, 1,566MHz for the shaders, and 1,800MHz for the GDDR3 memory, compared with 600MHz/1,500MHz/1,800MHz for the default-clocked version. It's a conservative overclock, given the 55nm process used.
If we didn't know any better, and perhaps we don't, this is an exercise in like-for-like replacements.
A single SLI connector means that you can attach another card and run two-board SLI.
Twin dual-link DVI is the norm these days, so nothing really different here.
Early thoughts
There's nothing much to say about the GeForce 9800 GT that hasn't been covered with the GeForce 8800 GT. We hope that el-cheapo models come in at around £80, and pre-overclocked SKUs from £90.Retail pricing of the Radeon HD 4850, starting off at £110, is such that it makes little sense for NVIDIA's partners and etailers to charge more than £100 for any model: AMD's is a faster, better-featured card, after all.
An addition that won't be met by the same kind of fanfare that GeForce GTX 280 was, GeForce 9800 GT 512 quietly slips into the catalogue and will assume the mid-range position that was so well-filled by the erstwhile champ, GeForce 8800 GT.
Stay tuned for the full review, including a look at PhysX performance, but if the numbers are much different that GeForce 8800 GT's, I'll eat my hat!
