The GeForce 9800 GTX cards hit the market on the 1st of April, but things really got interesting on the 8th of April when NVIDIA gave an official nod for their partners to start selling overclocked cards. EVGA is one of the companies that wouldn't let such an opportunity pass by, and on that day we found out the clocks of their fastest EVGA e-GeForce 9800 GTX SSC edition card. The super superclocked GeForce 9800 GTX runs at 770MHz, which is super high compared to reference 675MHz. We've seen other partners offering overclocked cards but none of them, including EVGA, dared to go further than 770MHz. And after all, Maserati might not be the cheapest car, but definitely a great choice. - FudZilla

EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB SSC Version Review

EVGA, together with some other partners, overclocked the G92 chip to a magical 770MHz and so the speed race ends. We might see some other water cooled GeForce 9800 GTX running faster, but so far we're not aware of such a product. The GeForce 9800 GTX cards are built around the G92 chip manufactured in 65nm and packing 128 stream processors. We've already seen it on the GeForce 8800 GTS and GT cards, cards so popular that we had to wait a month or so just to buy them. The new GeForce 9800 GTX is nothing but an improved version of the GeForce 8800 GTS, but NVIDIA still decided to make it a 9th generation.

This card is to replace the GeForce 8800 GTX, but it's unlikely that any GeForce 8800 GTX owner will decide on abandoning their pets in favor of the new GeForce 9800 GTX. Reference GeForce 9800 GTX card's speed is only 25MHz higher than the G92 based GeForce 8800 GTS, but it's the memory that gives this card a nice boost. Although the card packs only 512MB of GDDR3 memory, it runs at 2200MHz, compared to the GeForce 8800 GTS card's 1940MHz or the GeForce 8800 GTX's 1800MHz memory speed. Despite the similarities to the GeForce 8800 GTS, this new card has a different board design and a different cooler.

Two SLI connectors on this card separate this card from the rest based on G92 cores. In order for this card to run in 3-Way SLI you will need two more SLI connectors. The NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX uses the new NVIDIA HybridPower technology. This enables combining integrated GPU on your motherboard with discrete graphics. When the GeForce 9800 GTX is not used, the card powers down and leaves non-demanding tasks, such as high definition video or 2D operation, to the integrated graphics core. Of course, the GeForce 9800 GTX packs DirectX 10, PureVideo HD technology for high definition video reproduction.

We checked numerous cards based on the G92 core, and saw that NVIDIA's new chip is a great performer, so it will probably continue making the competition's lives miserable for a long time. The GeForce 9800 GX2 is in top of NVIDIA's offer, whereas the best single chip card based on the G92 is without question the GeForce 9800 GTX. Today we've seen what this chip can do, and EVGA was bold enough to launch the GeForce 9800 GTX overclocked by no less than 95MHz. The GeForce 9800 GTX SSC runs at 770MHz, compared to reference 675MHz. Not bad at all and certainly a major leap on the competition.

We already had a chance to see and speak of it, but the GeForce 9800 GTX can easily be overclocked to 800MHz. Still, no one dares to sell cards factory clocked to over 770MHz, mostly for safety reasons. However, there's no gift game with our card, so although it's the fastest GeForce 9800 GTX card money can buy, $450 seems a bit steep. Still, if you've already decided on buying a GeForce 9800 GTX, that's great for gaming and multimedia, and you can afford it without frowning at the price, EVGA's e-GeForce 9800 GTX is the best single chip card and we recommend it as the best choice.