Palit GeForce 9800GTX Review :: Palit 9800GTX Card

Palit used the NVIDIA reference design for their 9800GTX with artwork of a frog in space armor on the left hand side of the card. NVIDIA reference coolers for the 9800GTX are designed with a space-age look to them, with the two-slot cooler flush against the graphics chip. Palit, the manufacturer’s name is on the left hand front of the PCB, and there is a GeForce logo on the top of the cooler.

Front of Card

Side View

Front Side View

Rear View

The 9800GTX has higher power requirements than the 8800GTS 512MB. While the latter card can make do with a single 6-pin power connector, the 9800GTX requires two 6-pin power connectors to operate. Here again, the NVIDIA reference cooler comes into play with the two 6-pin connectors cut out of the top of the cooler instead of sticking out of the PCB as some earlier cards were wont to do.

Top View

Back of Card

Upside Down Back

Cooling

Running the 9800GTX in Tri-SLI mode requires three 9800GTX cards and a motherboard to handle three cards. The top of the PCB has two bridges to connect the Tri-SLI connector. Running three cards is a simple matter of installing the cards and the SLI bridge(s) installing the driver and you’re good to go. Power requirements for three 9800GTXs are quite steep, with 1000W PSUs recommended as 6 6-pin power connectors are required.

I/O

PCI Express

Underside of card

Two Dual-Link DVI connectors are on the side bracket for the card. These allow the card to drive two 30” 2560x1600 Dell LCD monitor displays to the maximum resolution that is available on these monitors. For lesser monitors you can run two monitors with DVI, two with analog, one of each with adapters. This is the standard configuration for video cards but will likely change once more HDMI monitors are available.