Palit 9800GT Super+ 1GB Single/SLI Video Card Review :: Palit 9800GT Super+ 1GB Features

• 65 nanometer moving to 55 nanomter
• G92b chip
• 112 Stream Processors
• 256-bit memory interface
• Hybrid Power
• 2-way SLI
• 754 Million transistors
• 1GB memory
• ROPs 16
• Core Clock
• Memory clock
• Hybrid SLI
• 128-bit floating point high dynamic range rendering
• 16x Anti-Aliasing technology
• CUDA
• PhysX
• Two dual-link DVI inputs support two 2560x1600 resolution displays
• PureVideo
• OpenGL 2.1 support
• Forceware Unified Driver Architecture
• Lumenex engine
• Discrete Programmable Video Processor
• High Quality Scaling
• DirectX 10.0
• Pixel Shader 4.0
• Vertex Shader 4.0
• Inverse Telecine
• Bad Edit Correction
• Integrated SD and HD TV Output
• Noise Reduction
• Edge Enhancement
• Dual-link HDCP capable

Brand Name	Palit
Part Number	9800GT Super+ 1GB
Graphics Chip	G92
Core clock	600MHz
Shader Clock	1.5GHz
SPs	112
Fabrication Process	65 nm
Transistors	754 Million
Memory cloick	1.8GHz effective
Memory Interface	256-bit
Memory bandwidth	57.6GB/second
Memory Size	1024MB
ROPs	16
Texture Filtering Units	32
Texture Filtering Rate	38.4 Gigatexels/second
HDCP Support	Yes
HDMI Support	Yes (via adapter)
Connectors	2x Dual-Link DVI, TV-Out
RAMDACs	400MHz
Bus	PCI Express 2.0
Form Factor	Dual Slot
Power Connectors	1x 6-pin

One thing that NVIDIA has been keen on with their video cards of the last couple of years is the re-use of the same chip for different SKUs. This has the advantage of higher utilization of chips as you can use a bad GeForce 9800GTX with SPs disabled as a GeForce 9800GT. This has an inherent disadvantage in that if the chip is poorly designed as was the case with the G86 all of the chips designed could have issues.

The GeForce 9800GT uses a modified version of the G92 chip that was first introduced with the GeForce 8800GT cards last year. This chip has 112 SPs, 16 ROPs and was highly successful. NVIDIA uses the codename G92b for the 9800GT chip. They say they will move this chip to the 55 nanometer process in the near future with this chip.

I won’t get into the politics of DirectX 10.0 versus DirectX 10.1 in this review. ATI cards were the first to hit the market with support for this graphics API and S3 has followed suit. NVIDIA says with some justification that it is a minor update and the DirectX 10.0 hardware on their video cards is capable of running some of the features of 10.1, but compliance requires full feature support.

Palit has clocked their GeForce 9800GT card to the reference 9800GT clock speeds NVIDIA recommends with these cards of 600MHz for the core, 1.8GHz for the memory (effective) and 1.5GHz for the Shader clocks. The Palit 9800GT Super+ 1GB card has a memory bandwidth of 57.6GB/second and 1GB of Framebuffer memory. The Pixel fillrate is 9.6 Gigapixels/second and the texture fill rate is 38.4 Gigatexels/second.

One of NVIDIA’s big pushes is the support for CUDA, their computing for graphics cards initiative and the PhysX game physics engine. NVIDIA bought Ageia a few months ago and has now integrated the drivers into a PhysX driver package. Due to the fact that ATI cards currently do not support PhysX natively, all tests were run with PhysX disabled.

GPU	Core clock	Shader clock	SPs	Memory clock	Memory bus	Memory bandwidth	Memory	Price online 9/01/08
GeForce GTX 280	602	1296	240	1107	512-bit	141.7GB/second	1GB GDDR3	439
Geforce GTX 260	576	1242	192	1000	448-bit	112GB/second	896MB GDDR3	249.99
GeForce 9800GTX+	738	1836	128	1100	256-bit	70.4GB/second	512MB GDDR3	199.99
GeForce 9800GTX	675	1688	128	1100	256-bit	70.4GB/second	512MB GDDR3	199.99
GeForce 9800GT	600	1500	112	900	256-bit	57.6GB/second	512MB GDDR3	142.99
Palit GeForce 9800GT Super+ 1GB	600	1500	112	900	256-bit	57.6GB/second	1024MB GDDR3	169.99
9600GT	650	1625	64	900	256-bit	57.6GB/second	512MB	95
9600GSO	550	1375	96	800	192-bit	38.4GB/second	384MB	90
9500GT	550	1400	32	800	128-bit	25.6GB/second	512MB	70
9400GT	550	1400	16	400	128-bit	12.8GB/second	512MB	60
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2	750	750	800x2	1800	256-bitx2 GDDR5	230.4GB/second	2GB GDDR5	549.99
HD 4870	750	750	800	1800	256-bit GDDR5	115.2GB/second	512MB	279.99
HD 4850	625	625	800	1986	256-bit GDDR3	63.6GB/Second	512MB	170.00
HD 3870 X2	825	825	640	1800	256-bitx2 GDDR3	115.2GB/second	512MB X2 GDDR3	220
HD 3870	775	775	320	1800	256-bit	57.6GB/second	512MB GDDR3	125
HD 3850	668	668	320	1656	256-bit	53GB/second	512MB GDDR3	89.99
HD 3650	720	720	120	800	128-bit	256GB/second	512MB GDDR3	55.99
HD 3450	600	600	40	800	64-bit	12.8GB/second	256MB GDDR2	44.99

One change to the chip is the addition of Hybrid Power and support to the 9800GT card which is not present on the 8800GT card. HybridPower allows the motherboard to turn off the discrete graphics card when in idle mode or 2D mode, saving energy. With the big push of the Green initiative, the video card manufacturers are pushing energy-saving technologies onto every card they sell.

Here’s a chart of the current NVIDIA and ATI lineup with the lowest prices for each card on Newegg.com. Note the overlap of the various cards and pricing due to the competitive nature of the industry. The Palit GeForce 9800GT Super+ 1GB card is available for $170, a small premium over the pricing of the 9800GT and 15% less expensive than the 9800GTX.