The Galaxy 9800GT brings the best of three worlds in one card. First of all it gets all its  energy from the PCI express slot itself and we were able to run the card with power supply going as low as 350 watts. Although this is not recommended at all. Secondly, even under load it remains reasonably quiet. And the best at last, it blasts through the benchmark scoring a very respectable 10500 3DMark06 points (on an average system). Putting these three features together we get an interesting mix. With games (and various other applications) demanding more and more everyday, the 9800GT is a decent choice for people looking for an upgrade. Imagine the huge number of people out there stuck with brand computers with puny GPUs and power supply barely trickling out enough juice. The 9800GT fits in perfectly. Given the capabilities, the card is also suitable for a HTPC, where it will stay quiet as a rabbit while you enjoy the crystal clear sound from the Bluray movie all going through the HDMI port. And should you decide its time to shoot some zombies or raid an alien planet, you can do that in full HD resolutions. You can play most games with little to compromise.

We say little compromise as this card is after all a mid range card. With plenty of big fish in the water, it is a thing of wonder that 9800GT is still one of the most popular mid range card (at the time of writing – November 09). It could be because for a while the price gap between 9800GT and 250GT has been just enough to put people off, or perhaps most people did not consider going as far and 9800 was the sweet spot and hence became popular. With new cards appearing everyday its hard to say what the future holds for the card. But for now, it is still a good proposition for someone looking for a silent sports car.

There are a few contenders in the 9800GT lineup. 9800GT has been manufactured by  many manufacturers such as XFX, MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, Zotac, Palit, Amaze, Inno3D and so forth. Galaxy happens to be just another manufacturer who wants a slice of the pie. As far as manufactured quality is concerned, it is up to the mark starting from the packaging. If judging by the cover was allowed then Galaxy was a sure winner with its box. As far as performance goes, it is as expected from a 9800GT, no more, no less. Not only does it pull off a good 3DMark score, it also manages to good frame rates in games. When we played Grid, with full resolutions, it look awesome, played great. The only few times the frames lowered was when there was a pileup of cars in the view. Other games like Boarderlands, Call of Jaurez were easily done. An advantage with 1GB memory was with games like Grand Theft Auto 4, where the game gives you the option to use more of the memory and thus load more distant contents.

We did however found that overclocking can be a bit of an issue. Galaxy had tuned it pretty much as far as it could go with what the card has onboard. Perhaps a few more percent can be raised, but that will not translate into visibly significant difference. Also it reached 70 degrees (by Furmark Stress Test), which is fine as a graphics card, but there are cards that manages 65 even if overclocked. However, all this is of no consequence if you do not plan on overclocking your card, which can reduce its longevity. And stock standard still punched like Tyson so no need to push it any further.

The contents of the box is simple down to the basics. There is the driver disc, some cables, and a proprietary performance tweaking software disc, no game or 3D software in the bundle.

Overall, it is still a very decent proposition if you are after a decent value card bearing the nVidia logo on it. The card is cheaper than most other 9800GT, while delivers equal firepower on stock settings. The only justification to buy a different card would be first there is a cheaper card, second there is a better bundle or third you want to overclock or want an overclocked 9800GT to begin with. As mentioned earlier, here we have a card that is gutsy, silent, and does not ask for a 6 pin power supply.

Comments

Greg

0

 

 

Hi, both the card and the box received was much larger than I had thought.. lols... Your pictures makes the card look somewhat smallar than it really is. But its all good, ran my games nicely enough..

Monday 04 January 2010, 09:25

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