ASUS EN9800GX2 review - first look at 9800 GX2

Written by Димитър Динчев a.k.a. Veseliq

Monday, 24 March 2008

 

Page 3 - 9800 GX2 in pictures

Multirama supplied us with ASUS EN9800GX2, a fully referent, meaning that the design, cooler an frequencies of the card matches the NVIDIA's recommendation to the last letter. Since the card was available to us for a brief period, and the unfortunate fact that we were fresh out of thermal paste, we never took the two kilogram cooler of it. On the following picture you can see what hides under the metallic carcass of the monster.

First impressions are solely on how enormous and heavy is the card! It's 26 cm long, just as long as a referent 8800 Ultra or HD3870X2. It weights a whooping 2 kilograms (much more then above mentioned two models) and just like the 7950GX2, 9800GX2 is made from two PCB's, so 9800 GX2 is much thicker than the previous leading AMD and NVIDIA models. This is due to fact that both chips are on each side and the fans are hidden under metal blowing against open-air radiator.

As usual when reviewing a card (ASUS EN9800GX2 for today) we begin with the bundle.

This ASUS child is packed in typical for the high-end huge box. The box itsel is properly decorated, emphasizing on the game included in the bundle - Company of Heroes. Beside it in the box you'll find all the necessary books, cables, driver CD's and a CD case to for all them disks.

the referent NVIDIA design is unusual. The card, though frightening is looking esthetically fine - with somehow right and well organized form. There is a cover even for the SLI bridge. We are witnessing something new for NVIDIA too, as far as powering the card goes - for the first time the 8 pin connectors are used in GeForce based card officially. Connecting two connectors (6 and 8 pin) to the card is obligatory for the system to work, and the bundle prowides all adapters should your PSU be older and lack enough or any 8 pin connectors.

The card has as a standard two DVI connectors (one for each chip), as well as one HDMI too. More would just raise the price, while offering little or no benefit.

And now to the rest of the review where we'll compare this card to some others, including some combining too. But for the test results to be reliable you must know how we tested.