Up Close, a Dual Turning Spotlight...

As already mentioned the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 is quite different from the earlier Quad SLI capable GeForce 7950 GX2 cards. At the basics however both cards are quite similar in design, with both featuring a total of two PCB's put together to form the GX2. To get this all packed up as one physical graphics card NVIDIA has outfitted only one board with the PCI Express connection and fits both PCB's firmly to each other. And the new GeForce 9800 GX2 is no different, still following the same logic of using two PCB's each featuring its own graphics unit processor. This is not as what AMD has done with their dual-GPU graphics card version, namely the Radeon HD 3870 X2 edition. In the end it doesn't matter that much as both cards are long and huge.

Each individual PCB has its own power circuitry, heatsink cooling and NVIDIA G92 processing chip and 512MB of GDDR3 memory. So for a full Quad SLI system you will need to pair up two of these cards in SLI, which lead of having four G92's and a total of 2GB total memory as frame buffer space. The GeForce 9800 GX2 requires some extra power, in addition to the power that is supplied via the PCI Express slot which is common for a high-end graphics card. Notice that for the GeForce 9800 GX2 two power connections are available. The GeForce 9800 GX2 is a quite big card due to having two PCB's but isn't any longer than any other GeForce 8800 Ultra based card. This is quite an achievement, as the GeForce 9800 GX2 comes with two GPU's though doesn't take up more than a GeForce 8800 Ultra, which is only a single GPU based graphics card.

When taking a closer look, we have to point out that there isn't a lot visible as such of the card itself as it is enclosed in cover that hides the two PCB's completely. That means that is visible will attract our attention first and that means the extra power connections as well as the SLI connection. To power the GeForce 9800 GX2 we actually get the power via the PCI Express 2.0 interface but on top this high-end card also requires additional power which is provided by a 6-pin and 8-pin power connection. This isn't new, since we saw the same on the previous performance monster from NVIDIA, and by that we mean the GeForce 8800 Ultra. So, if we take a step back and think about that, it means that you can power two G92 chips with similar power as the older single boosted G80 chip. But don't forget that the new GX2 comes with the more advance PCI Express 2.0 which is already providing more power via the PCI Express interface.

And yes a close up is something we couldn't resist to show the main items that you can see on the GeForce 9800 GX2 and also an extra connection which we had not enough time to check out the exact purpose. But surely it will have something to with audio of some sort. The SLI connection is nicely protection and tucked away, and actually we removed the clip that was covering this interface. And yes, with the GeForce 9800 GX2 we will see that NVIDIA is giving the Quad SLI technology another go. Of course as the GX2 itself is already a dual-GPU based video card; it means that you need a lot of processing power to really fully utilize the graphics capabilities. It also means that going for such a card has some side effect, as you will also need a decent CPU to support this monster. Yes, that means going for the latest dual or quad cores is highly recommended.

The casing of the GeForce 9800 GX2 is very solid and durable, and will need to hold the card together. As mentioned previously the GX2 is a dual-PCB design fit into one physical graphics card. To hold these two PCB's together NVIDIA has opted for a complete different design since the introduction of the GeForce 7950 GX2 edition, and has chosen to take more solid approach. This time they have made a metal casing that will fit around the video card and holding it firmly together. The metal casing is quite tick and is soft metallic painted to offer a more soft feeling. And shiny the looks are as the black metallic painting is reflecting light and does look very impressive. The reference design from NVIDIA comes with their logo, though a bit limited to only a partly view of it. Still we could easily recognize it and that is exactly what the purpose is of a company logo.

With the case removed the GeForce 9800 GX2 does resemble at all to the previous GX2 version that NVIDIA released in the days of the GeForce 7 series. What we get this time is that at both sides we got the actually PCB's which are facing towards each other. And what we get are two back sides, with the front sides turned inwards. Between these two PCB's you will find the cooling solution that will service both PCB board at the same time. This is the first time we see this approach and we are not certain if this can keep the GX2 card running cool and smoothly. But certainly it is once again an innovative design keeping the card in shape, taking up only two expansion slots.