Introduction

Brochure of the GeForce 9800 GTX by NVIDIA on 1 April 2008, it was among other things, the combination of two observations that clip not only us read: convinced the two reference copies made available by an exceptionally high Übertaktungspotential, factory there was overclocked video cards however to see not only. Only known not just for overclocked graphics cards manufacturer Foxconn presented three higher taktende maps on the web site in addition to a reference model, to buy them were not but for the time being.

On the Board, the willpower to bring GeForce 9800 GTX cards with higher clock speeds on the market, it was however. Rather, it had prohibited its customers to NVIDIA, the 8 April, 2008 the public to present such variants. From a performance don’t two, one might think. Today, manufacturers are now allowed to bring overclocked graphics cards in trade from House. A policy that already in the past from time to time by NVIDIA used came, from outsiders so obviously but still not observed.

Now that the line has been eased, it can not take the usual suspects such as EVGA, XFX and co. to throw modified GeForce 9800 GTX cards on the market, to draw to the attention of the clients, which certainly limited works with the reference design.

Kindly ZOTAC could us a copy of the GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition to provide for a test. We will answer the question of whether one should access to the faster variant, or rather the “veteran” reference design, in the following short review.

The card

The ZOTAC card that you want to use the clock potential of a conventional GeForce 9800 GTX and thus put out the remaining derivatives listens to the name “GeForce 9800 GTX AMP!” “Edition”. The show is currently for just under 270 euros over the counter and thus about 30 Euro costs more than a normal GeForce 9800 GTX.

Externally it is possible the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Different Edition not from other partner cards. Only a small sticker with the card ID and of course the large logo on the cooling system make it clear who is the graphics card. Apart from this, there are visually no differences. The graphics card as a result measures 28 cm in length and fits into it without major difficulties in the most available housing.

Because so is already the reference design with a maximum power of 160 watts and the performance hunger at the ZOTAC adaptation is certainly a little higher, you must also mount two six pin power plug on the run for the smooth running. The cooling system differs 9800 GTX in any way from that of a conventional GeForce. The ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition works under Windows therefore pleasantly quietly, under load, but unnecessarily turns on.

ZOTAC increases the frequency of TMU domain on the GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition to 81 MHz to 756 MHz. The 128 Shadereinheiten run at 1890 MHz which corresponds to an increase in the clock of 215 MHz. The 512 MB GDDR3 memory produced by Samsung with an access time of 0.83 ns, runs with 1150 MHz instead of 1100 MHz. While the memory so is quite moderate overclocked with an increase of 50 MHz, ZOTAC the as ALU frequency increases and a fair bit percentage further.

ZOTAC mounted two dual-link enabled DVI outputs, which are HDCP compliant and can apply copy protection even in high resolutions like 2.560 x 1,600 on the bracket. One way to such as the Radeon HD 2000-as well as the HD-3000-series of ATi play the sound without a further cable over a special DVI-to HDMI adapter, looking on the GeForce 9800 GTX unfortunately to no avail. In addition, it can connect a commercially available television via HDTV output with the video card.

The facilities of the GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition white to please. In addition to two PCIe power connectors ZOTAC of video card sets a DVI to D-SUB-as well as with a DVI to HDMI adapter. A S-video to S-video/YUV breakout cable and an SPDIF cable also found in the box. The software is not just high-quality, but at least a game lies with “Lost”. While this is not top-facilities, for the desired price you can commend but quite ZOTAC.

Benchmarks

The following benchmarks were identified with our new test system based on an Intel Core 2 extreme QX9770. It is operated with a frequency of 4 GHz unnecessarily slow the cards. As a driver came for all measurements (including power and volume) of the ForceWare 174.16 (GeForce 8800 Ultra) or the ForceWare 174.44 (GeForce 9800 GTX) used.

Although the percentage increases in clock promise still more, on average the ZOTAC GeForce can be 9800 GTX AMP! Edition by eight percent from a GeForce 9800 GTX reference design issue and offers quite an incentive to prefer a conventional copy the overclocked graphics card. The difference between the direct counterparty fails not greater than two reasons: first of all was the 512 MB memory limited memory bandwidth only marginally increased and secondly in some games in certain quality settings.

Nevertheless, it creates the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition of the games selected by us before a significantly more expensive GeForce 8800 to place ultra. Best Crow can the overclocked AMP! Edition in Clive Barker’s Jericho. There she fought themselves without anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering a performance advantage of 10% to a normal GeForce 9800 GTX and can with the quality-enhancing features to expand the advantage even on good 13 percent – then you have to give up but defeated ultra against the GeForce 8800.

The weakness of the graphics card is Crysis. Without anti-aliasing to the ZOTAC derivative acceptable nine percent of the reference design can get away, at the higher picture quality the difference is with four percent but only still very small. The 512 MB memory is the culprit in this case.

Other measurements

The cooling system of the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition behaves like the variation on a traditional graphics card of the same type. On Windows, the accelerator is still pleasant quiet and would are there even for use in a silent PC (A GeForce works 8800 Ultra compared to audibly loud, though the noise level is also not annoying). Under load, however, the fan rotates on significantly and had a figure of 51 decibels. The fan is not really disruptive though, but something else is pleasant.

Here we wonder why, ZOTAC has modified not the fan controller in the BIOS, so that the radial fan under load slightly slower turns. You can massively reduce the volume and nevertheless the temperatures would probably arrive at any time in a critical region. Thus, one would have a graphics card in the portfolio that would suitable even in the stress test for a silent PC.

Slightly confused, we looked in control of the power consumption on our meter, but even after the third attempt and a thorough cleaning of the glasses the result did not change. It seems that ZOTAC have the tensions of the GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition increased in order to achieve the clock rates stable. Otherwise we can not tell us the great difference to the reference design. Not the culprit should actually be the pure frequency differences.

The GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition from ZOTAC achieved but a small surprise at temperatures in roughly same values as the reference design from point of view – given the significant timing and loss performance differences. A GeForce 8800 fails ultra it, however, to the level of the GeForce 9800 GTX. The older G80 chip, which is made in the 90-nm process, is to hot. On Windows, draws more from the direction the ZOTAC adaptation equal to 12 Watt and reaches to a consumption of 177 Watts. Under load, there are more, making it ultra dangerous approximates a GeForce 8800 with the measured 322 W equal to 29 Watt. Nevertheless, the former flagship always yet, significantly draws more from the power line.

Though ZOTAC the clock rates on the GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition has not necessarily soft raised, so that the maximum has not yet reached. We were able to increase the frequency of TMU domain to 820 MHz, while the Shadereinheiten even with 2000 MHz caused no problems. We were able to exactly 100 MHz to 1250 MHz to increase the memory clock. As a result, we achieved an average performance of about six to nine percent, which is dependent on the application. Especially the higher memory clock brings much of the additional service.

Conclusion

Since it is now, the first from House overclocked GeForce 9800 GTX. There were no surprises during the test actually. Only with the high power consumption and low temperatures we da ZOTAC for the GeForce had 9800 GTX AMP! Edition apparently the tension had to increase, not counting. Apart from the significant consumption, can contact the run quite well compared to the reference design scene and placed in an average of eight percent before the conventional map. With a higher memory frequency as during 1150 MHz have been even more in it, yet the GDDR3 memory seems to be not so übertaktungsfreudig like the GPU. ZOTAC manages the GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition not only, to remove from the reference design, in addition to overtaken on average even a significantly more expensive GeForce 8800 Ultra, which still uses the old G80 GPU. But one must say that it depends on the application, which run forward lies.

Apart from the speed and power consumption already mentioned the video card from a normal GeForce differs 9800 GTX. Whether volume, temperature or Übertaktungsverhalten: the differences are minimal.

ZOTAC is called for the GeForce 9800 GTX AMP! Edition a price of approximately 280 euros, but we suspect that the market price will be something lower. This assumption is confirmed by first listings in online stores, who see the video card at nearly 265 euros. It is still unclear for what price the accelerator really travels around the shop counter. The best reference design, which also originates from ZOTAC, costs currently 235 euro, so 30 euros less than the faster AMP!-Edition.

Each must decide whether they are prepared to spend additional 30 euros on eight percent more performance. This price is not unjustified, especially if one takes into consideration the good facilities.