Although it has been less than two months since the launch of NVIDIA's G92 based GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB and GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB cards, the retail market has been flooded with competitively priced stock GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 9800 GX2 versions, as well as overclocked editions of both cards as various manufacturers attempt to out do each other be it in the pricing area or in actual performance. What we have in our labs are XFX's most coveted and nimble graphics cards, the XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black edition and the XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black edition. According to XFX, only a limited number of these cards are produced, giving them a little more elite status. - VR-Zone

XFX GeForce 9800 Series Black Edition Cards Review

Both the XFX GeForce 9800 Black edition cards come in black boxes. The layout is the same as that of the non-Blacks, but we have totally redesigned graphics for the Black editions' packaging. It's pretty neat, with the model number and key information on the front, while the back contains a short summary of the graphics card. The XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black edition is based completely off the reference NVIDIA design. What differentiates this card from the rest of the GeForce 9800 GTX bunch are only the Black edition sticker on the plastic shroud of the heatsink, and the XFX logo on the fan hub.

With NVIDIA touting its new chipsets and graphics cards with 3-Way SLI capability, naturally the GeForce 9800 GTX will also be able to perform 3-Way SLI, with another two GeForce 9800 GTX cards. The dual 6-pin PCI Express power connectors design was brought over from the GeForce 8800 GTX, since the G92 based GeForce 9800 GTX draws about the same, or less power than the previous generation GeForce 8800 GTX. There were vents along the shroud for the GeForce 8800 GTX design, which allowed hot air from the graphics card to be recycled within the casing, though fixed with the revised cooling design.

Again, like almost all GeForce 9800 GX2 cards on the market, we have a reference NVIDIA design. It can be noted that XFX is paying attention to the smaller details such as appearance of the card, so as to make a visual impact on prospective buyers. Taking from the time of the XFX GeForce 8800 GTS and GTX till today, the latest XFX GeForce 9800 family still look impressive. We can confidently say that XFX are consistent in outputting one of the nicest designs around. That said, we're not too keen on their custom heatsink designs on their own PCB's unfortunately, so it is a nice change for these versions.

The Black Edition cards from XFX are excellent products, be it in terms of outlook, out of the box performance or overclocking prowess. Unlike many other manufacturers which bundle a little dated, or not so popular games, with XFX we get the latest game, Assassin's Creed bundled in both our Black packages. Not only that, factory overclocked performance is very impressive, and both cards hold one of the highest factory overclocked speeds out there in the market. Overclocking on both Black cards is second to none. We were a little surprised we could get that much out of a reference NVIDIA cooler.

With the introduction of the Black Edition series, the other overclocked variants of the base model seem rather out of place. Perhaps XFX should just have two lines of products, the base variant and the overclocked Black edition? We would like the idea of XFX marketing future Black Edition as a premium product for gamers and enthusiasts who just want the best out there, while the factory default version would be seen as the product to buy by the mass consumer, given the fact that default NVIDIA reference clock models are the cheapest and XFX has a tradition of impressive packaging and game bundles.