A Closer Look

The cooler is unchanged from the non-plus 9800 GTX. It uses a complex base plate to cool not only the GPU core, but also the memory chips and the voltage regulation circuitry.


Just like the 9800 GTX, the 9800 GTX+ supports SLI and triple SLI.


Two six-pin PCI-Express power connectors supply the required power to the card.


The GDDR3 chips are made by Samsung and have the model number K4J52324QE-BJ08. They are rated for 1200 MHz operation (0.8 ns cycle time).


When I removed the heatsink I noticed that someone at Zotac used a bit too much thermal paste on the GPU. In the first picture the GPU die looks a bit like a meteorite that smashed into a sea of thermal paste. The second picture shows the GPU after some cleanup action. Please note the B1 label which indicates that this GPU is produced in a 55 nm process at TSMC. The G92 GPU from the old 9800 GTX is made in a 65 nm process.
To demonstrate the differences between the 65 nm and the 55 nm G92 I overlayed both die shots in Photoshop. The red borders mark the different die sizes. The dimly lit components are from the 65 nm A2 version, while the fully visible ones are from the 55 nm B2 silicon.