Introduction

After ATI's successful launch of the Radeon HD 4850, NVIDIA realized that their GeForce 9800 GTX is slightly slower than the competition's product. In order to fix this problem NVIDIA quickly announced a GeForce 9800 GTX+ which is identical to the 9800 GTX, but uses a die-shrinked 55 nm version of the G92 running at higher clock speeds.

As always, Zotac has created an Amp! Edition card which runs at even higher clocks for added performance.

Packaging & Contents

Zotac's package design is a bit unconventional since it uses a vertical design, other than that the box is like any other box from Zotac. The front shows the product highlights with more detailed specs on the back and the sides.



You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Manual + Driver CD + XIII Century Death or Glory full game
• DVI Adapter + HDMI Adapter
• 2x PCI-Express power adapter
• TV out cable
• SPDIF audio cable

The Card

Other than the little plus on the sticker, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ looks identical to the 9800 GTX in every aspect. Just like its predecessor it uses a dual slot cooling solution that looks very stylish thanks to the curved surface.


The card has two DVI ports, basically the most common output configuration these days. In case you need an analog VGA port you can use the included DVI adapter. When using an HDMI adapter (also included), you will also have access to HDMI+HDCP+Audio, which allows easy setup of a media PC. For the HDMI audio feature you have to connect the included SPDIF cable from your on-board audio or sound card to the input on the graphics card.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

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.