Published in Reviews

Black XFX 9800 GTX at 760MHz out of the box

by on24 April 2008

Index




Testbed:


Motherboard:
EVGA 680i SLI (Supplied by EVGA)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme edition (Supplied by Intel)

Memory:
OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18  (Supplied by OCZ)
        na testu CL5-5-5-15-CR2T 1066MHz at 2.2V

PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black (Supplied by OCZ)

Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Supplied by Seagate)

CPU-Cooler:
Freezer 7 Pro (Supplied by Artic Cooling)

Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM


XFX 9800 GTX Black Edition card runs at 760MHz, which is an 85MHz overclock since reference speed is 675MHz. We tried to overclock it even further and we succeeded. The card ran happily at 820MHz, but at those speeds memory refused to clock over 1140MHz. The overclocked memory can go over 1200MHz, but we simply couldn’t make it run with 820MHz core at those speeds. We were running on a tight schedule and didn’t have much time to make it run stable, so we just clocked the core to 800MHz and memory to 1170MHz, where it ran stable.

Image

Futuremark

Image

 

Games

Image

In our first game, Company of Heroes, Black Edition slightly outperformed Zotac 9800 GTX AMP card. That came as no surprise since both cards run at more or less identical speeds. Compared to Gainward’s card at reference 675MHz, 9800 GTX Black is a champ (almost up to 12%) and in this game it even managed to beat Ultra.
Image

Image

Just like Company of Heroes, F.E.A.R. revealed a slight advantage of this XFX card over the rest of the 9800 GTX pack. At lower resolutions it outperforms Zotac, but at higher resolutions that advantage dissolved.


Image

Image
 
Conclusion

We were pleased with the fact that XFX didn’t overlook overclocking and that they keep offering new graphics cards. Geforce 9800 GTX Black Edition is a special card that many will grow fond of. It packs flagship features and you’ll also get Assassin’s Creed, the game that only recently became available.

GTX Black card’s core runs at 760MHz, which is a high overclock compared to reference 675MHz. The card features a dual slot cooler that keeps temperatures in check, whereas the cooler is a bit louder, but not unbearably. If you ever decide on upgrading your system remember that you can do it twice, because 9800 GTX is TriSLI ready. The new technology called HybridPower will definitely help save some power, and it won’t affect performance because integrated or discrete GPU will run as needed. 9800 GTX’s video engine is Nvidia’s current best offer so you don’t have to worry if multimedia is your game.

We’ve seen that the XFX 9800 GTX Black card is on par with Zotac’s overclocked AMP version, but we really liked XFX’s gift better. Compared to reference cards, overclocked GPU scores up to 15% better in games we tested it in.

We sincerely recommend it, and the EU price of around €290 seems to be appropriate.

Image


« Prev Next

Last modified on 25 April 2008
Rate this item
(0 votes)