Just a few months ago, somewhat unexpectedly, AMD recaptured the graphics crown. NVIDIA had to find an answer to the Radeon HD 4850 fast, because the card surprised everyone with great performance at an affordable price. The GeForce 9800 GTX couldn't handle ATI's new ace and that's where GeForce 9800 GTX+ comes in. And as the name suggests, this is an improved version of the GeForce 9800 GTX, where the only difference is the new G92b core. A more advanced 55nm production process enabled higher speeds than those on the 65nm process GeForce 9800 GTX. Smaller surface also means lower voltage and temperatures, but there was also some optimization in play. - FudZilla

MSI GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB Board Series Review

After this chip was locked and loaded, NVIDIA decided to slash the GeForce 9800 GTX pricing and position GeForce 9800 GTX+ on the GTX's previous price point. The former GeForce 9800 GTX's G92 core runs at 675MHz, shaders at 1688MHz and the memory at 2200MHz effective. As we've mentioned before, The GTX+ runs at higher clocks, meaning 738MHz core, 1836MHz shader whereas the memory was left unchanged and runs at 2200MHz. Now we know how this card came about, but it was long speculated that launching this card is a fool's errand, as an overclocked GeForce 9800 GTX will perform better in gaming.

This is indeed the case, and you'll see it for yourself today, as we used an overclocked GeForce 9800 GTX card running at 760MHz for comparison. However, the good thing about the new G92b core is that, apart from the higher reference clocks, it's much more overclocking friendly. Looks wise, the new GeForce 9800 GTX+ card is no different from the older GeForce 9800 GTX vesrion. It still features a dual slot cooler, and is actually the same one found as on the GeForce 9800 GTX cards. The cooler is dual slot and efficient, so we had a hard time figuring out why it still runs at fixed speeds, rather than auto control.

The MSI GeForce 9800 GTX+ is priced at over $175, whereas reference GeForce 9800 GTX+ card can be found at $150. The $25 price premium for MS's card is a price you'll pay for the gift game and the higher clocks. The competition is fierce though as the reference Radeon HD 4850 cards can be found at $125. The XFX GeForce 9800 GTX Black edition is replaced by a GTX+ version running at 785MHz so it's quite hard to find the version we tested. The results show that the MSI GeForce 9800 GTX+ gaming series works well compared to the GeForce 9800 GTX cards, but has a hard time against the overclocked Radeon HD 4850.

Power consumption is lower than on the GeForce 9800 GTX cards, which will pay off in the long run. Transition to 55nm process has enabled higher clocks with same or lower temperatures and the dual slot cooler does its job flawlessly. Apart from the overclocked core, MSI will include the game Rainbow Six Vegas 2 as a gift, so it's a nice advantage over the other GeForce 9800 GTX+ cards. Still, that won't give you the upper hand in comparison with ATI's competitive cards, but if you're an NVIDIA fan then there's no reason not to go for it, as it enables playing all the current games and comes with CUDA and PhysX support.