Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the fastest desktop graphics card of them all? Right now, that's a toss-up between the Radeon HD 3870 X2 or the GeForce 8800 Ultra. And NVIDIA is clearly not happy that AMD is back at the top of the performance tree. The green team had a seemingly unassailable performance lead since the inception of the G80 based GeForce 8800 GTX. So ATI had to leverage two Radeon HD 3870 GPU's on one single PCB to ensure that it was punching in the heavyweight division. Adopting a tactic that will become pervasive for the high-end sector, NVIDIA is now doing the same with the GeForce 9800 GX2, to regain the title of undisputed graphics card champ of the world. - Hexus

Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Graphics Board Review

Given the nomenclature, GeForce 9800 GX2, it would be reasonable to assume that the newest GPU would be a technological evolution somehow from the slew of GeForce 8 series cards currently plying the mid to high-end market. Rather, the GeForce 9800 GX2 amalgamates two G92 cores such as use don the GeForce 8800 GTS onto one board, pre-SLI's them, and that's about all. Built on a 65nm fabrication process, the DirectX 10 compliant, PCI Express 2.0 based GeForce 9800 GX2 is literally two PCB's bundled together. Each PCB carries an identical G92 class GPU which incorporates 128 stream processors.

NVIDIA reckons that housing two GPU's on two PCB's and then arranging them in a face-to-face manner is better, thermally, than having them situated on the same PCB as like the Radeon HD 3870 X2, and that's why there's no outward sign of cooling. The cooling enclosure, which completely covers the card and hides the innards concurrently cools both GPU's, with the heatsink sitting in-between. The card is large, like the GeForce 8800 Ultra cards, and the size means that it only takes up an extra slot than normal. Zotac's card, like practically all, is reference and manufactured on behalf of NVIDIA.

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 power supply adapter will be added immediately. On a similar note, the twin molex connectors are far from ideal, knowing how certain power supplies are wired with respect to 12V rails, which the molex connect to. All Zotac cards are backed by a five year warranty that begins of the date of purchase. The warranty is currently not transferable, should the card be sold on, though. The original warranty period was for two years, but the extension is available for owners who register within two weeks of purchase.

The new GeForce 9800 GX2 1024MB graphics card is absolutely, undeniably the fastest single card solution available today, if our limited games' selection is, as we believe, a decent indicator of gaming performance at large. It doesn't just squeak by the post, barely eclipsing the GeForce 8800 Ultra and Radeon HD 3870 X2. It batters them into submission in each and every benchmark. Indeed, the other two video cards do well to get to two-thirds of the GeForce 9800 GX2's performance. The card opens up what was previously the territory of SLI'd setups, where one would need an SLI certified motherboard for such a feature.

On top NVIDIA will shortly release a further driver that optimises two card GX2 performance, for Quad SLI rendering, to provide the fastest graphics system around. Tentatively priced at $550, the GeForce 9800 GX2 arrives at roughly the same price point as the incumbent, but hard to find GeForce 8800 Ultra. And the performance is the most important criterion at this portion of the pricing spectrum, and the GeForce 9800 GX2 delivers it in SLI encrusted spades, as our benchmarks show. We cannot see the performance crown slipping from NVIDIA's shoulders until ATI unveils its next iteration of GPU's and dual-GPU config.

Zotac's card is based entirely on the reference design and, as such, everything written above applies to it too. We really like the fact that the company now offers a five year warranty on its range, and should it be priced favourably compared to other default clocked models, it's certainly one to put on the short list. As a bootom line, the fastest single card graphics solution ever released. Its appeal is to a niche market, but if you happen to be in that market, look no further.