Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB review

Reviews – Featured Reviews: Video Cards

Palit NE/9800TXT302

It’s a great time for those in the market for a new video card, in just a few short months we’ve seen the debuts of over half a dozen different boards. At the high-end, high-priced segment Benchmark Reviews has showcased such great offerings from NVIDIA as the GTX 280 and ATI/AMD’s HD 4870×2, while at the other end of the spectrum the mainstream budget cards releases are almost too plentiful and mediocre to mention. Though the high-end may grab the headlines, where the real interest lies, for buyer and manufacturers alike, is in the highly profitable mid-range market. Recently either NVIDIA has been releasing a competitor to an ATI/AMD card or vice versa intended to saturate every price point at this level. These seemingly constant releases from both titans also has the unintentional side effect of spurring drastic price cuts, for NVIDIA as much as 40% in some cases, resulting in never before seen price to performance in this segment.

This brings us to today’s review of the mid-range Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB Video Card 9800TXT302 from NVIDIA. In the recent clamor of releases NVIDIA has quietly slipped in the 9800 GT, seemingly from nowhere and without much publicity. Essentially a re-packaged 8800 GT (last year’s fan favorite), the 9800 GT has a few added features and a new very attractive price. Apparently the 9800 GT has become quite popular and seemingly gained enough market traction from consumers for ATI/AMD to notice and even have a competitor lined up for early fourth quarter this year.

Featuring NVIDIA’s popular GPU, codenamed “G92”, the Palit 9800 GT shares the same 65nm technology as its predecessor the 8800 GT – as well as core, shader, and memory clocks. Why the change in naming then? The 9800 GT has two notable updates from the 8800 GT. The first is the added HybridPower technology that brings greater energy-saving ability to the desktop, allowing the PC to switch off the discrete video card when not needed in favor of the intergraded built in motherboard GPU. And the second is the planned transition to a more efficient 55nm manufacturing process expected in September – just as the 9800 GTX was transitioned to 55nm with the iteration of the GTX+.

This die shrink will theoretically give the 9800 GT all the same perks as the GTX+ (i.e. cooler temps, higher overclocks, and 3-way SLI). This begs the question then: Why is NVIDIA still using 65nm parts when they already have 55nm chips ready? Our best guess would be that NVIDIA is trying to clear inventory of old stock before they begin shipping new parts. However, this creates an obvious problem for current 9800 GTs made at 65nm, and it will be interesting to see how NVIDIA plans to handle the transition without creating a lottery where customers either get the new or old GPU by luck. Perhaps we’ll see a 9800 GT+…

In addition to the new HybridPower technology the 9800 GT enjoys all the same features of the 8800 GT Benchmark Reviews covered last December. Read on as we take a closer look at an update to a favorite, and show just what makes the Palit 9800 GT Super+ 1GB such an attractive mid-range solution.

GPU	Core Clock	Shader Clock	Processors	Memory Clock	Memory Interface	Memory Transfer Rate	Memory
GeForce 9800 GTX	675 MHz	1,688 MHz	128	1,100 MHz	256-bit	70.4 GB/s	512 MB GDDR3
Palit GeForce 9800 GT 1 GB	600 MHz	1.5 GHz	112	900 MHz	256-bit	57.6 GB/s	1 GB GDDR3
GeForce 8800 GT	600 MHz	1.5 GHz	112	900 MHz	256-bit	57.6 GB/s	512 MB GDDR3
GeForce 8800 GTS	500 MHz	1.2 GHz	96	800 MHz	320-bit	64 GB/s	320 MB GDDR3
Radeon HD 4870	750 MHz	750 MHz	800	900 MHz	256-bit	115.2 GB/s	512 MB GDDR5
Radeon HD 4850	625 MHz	625 MHz	800	993 MHz	256-bit	63.5 GB/s	512 MB GDDR3

GeForce 9800 GT Features

NVIDIA® Unified Architecture

• Unified shader architecture
• GigaThread^TM technology
• Full support for Microsoft® DirectX® 10
• Geometry shaders
• Geometry instancing
• Streamed output
• Shader Model 4.0
• Full 128-bit floating point precision through the entire rendering pipeline

NVIDIA Lumenex Engine

• 16x full screen anti-aliasing
• Transparent multisampling and transparent supersampling
• 16x angle independent anisotropic filtering
• 128-bit floating point high dynamic-range (HDR) lighting with anti-aliasing
• 32-bit per component floating point texture filtering and blending
• Advanced lossless compression algorithms for color, texture, and z-data
• Support for normal map compression
• Z-cull
• Early-Z

NVIDIA Quantum Effects Technology

• Advanced shader processors architecture for physics computation
• Simulate and render physics effects on the graphics processor

NVIDIA SLI Technology

• Patented hardware and software technology allows two GeForce-based graphics cards to run in parallel to scale performance and enhance image quality on today’s top titles.

 

NVIDIA PureVideoTM HD Technology

• Dedicated on-chip video processor
• High-definition H.264, VC-1, MPEG2 and WMV9 decode acceleration
• Advanced spatial-temporal de-interlacing
• HDCP capable3
• Spatial-Temporal De-Interlacing
• Noise Reduction
• Edge Enhancement
• Bad Edit Correction
• Inverse telecine (2:2 and 3:2 pull-down correction)
• High-quality scaling
• Video color correction
• Microsoft® Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) support

Advanced Display Functionality

• Two dual-link DVI outputs for digital flat panel display resolutions up to 2560×1600
• One dual-link DVI outputs for digital flat panel display resolutions up to 2560×16004
• Dual integrated 400MHz RAMDACs for analog display resolutions up to and including 2048×1536 at 85Hz
• Integrated HDTV encoder provides analog TV-output (Component/Composite/S-Video) up to 1080i resolution
• NVIDIA nView® multi-display technology capability
• 10-bit display processing

Built for Microsoft® Windows Vista

• Full DirectX 10 support
• Dedicated graphics processor powers the new Windows Vista Aero 3D user interface
• VMR-based video architecture

High Speed Interfaces

• Designed for PCI Express® x16
• Designed for high-speed GDDR3 and DDR2 memory

Operating Systems

• Built for Microsoft Windows Vista
• Windows XP/Windows XP 64
• Linux

API Support

• Complete DirectX support, including Microsoft DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0
• Full OpenGL® support, including OpenGL 2.0

NE/9800TXT302 Specifications

Graphics Technology

• 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 2560×1600 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

Palit 9800 GT: Closer Look

Before I begin my detailed description of the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ graphics card, it would be best to issue a disclaime: As a child, I was a big fan of cars. The black Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit got me started into plastic model building, and was the first kit I ever built (and later destroy). The Trans Am was later replaced by a metal replica of The General Lee Dodge Charger from the Dukes of Hazard, which was much harder to destroy and earned hours of jumping off the top level stairwell. As an adult, I’m not nearly as interested in old Trans Am’s or Charger’s anymore (dispite the local Hot August Nights event), yet my attachment to the color orange remained. I’m sure we all have something like this that draws us into a product, and I compare this to my appeal of canary-yellow Ford Mustangs (2008+ model years only), even though I don’t care much for Ford Mustangs. My point is this: I am guilty of simple pleasures just like anyone else, and the orange color Palit uses on their 9800 GT is one of my favorites.

The GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB video card uses a dual card-slot design because of the improved active-cooling design offered exclusively by Palit. The board is cooled with an exceptionally quiet on-board “smart” fan; even when playing the most intensive 3D games, the GeForce 9800 GT Sonic remained whisper quiet. Since I’m sure you spent plenty of quality time reading through the myriad of features and specifications, you already know that you can use the 9800 GT for something other than playing video games. The HDMI functionality is a new direction for NVIDIA graphic cards, and paired with the smart fan design and external exhausting ventilation the GeForce 9800 GT will find itself at home in HTPC’s too.

Palit’s 1 GB Super+ version of the GeForce 9800 GT comes in one of my favorite colors: orange (technically, it’s burnt orange, but I’m not here to argue color palettes). In contrast to some of the dark and dull products we’ve recently tested, such as the GeForce 9800 GTX and 9800 GX2, the Sonic 9800 GT looks a whole lot more exciting. One of the primary differences in this product is the aftermarket shroud that directs and shapes the airflow.

No doubt that by now you’ve noticed something different about Palit’s 9800 GT Sonic. Unlike the NVIDIA reference design, Palit has sculpted their version of the GeForce 9800 GT to take on the appearance of the 9800 GTX and GX2 series. While other members of the GeForce 9800 GT family are usually single card-slot products, the Palit Super+ utilizes a unique heat-pipe cooling system that takes advantage of an additional slot; placing this graphics card into the same category as its more powerful siblings.

The Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ graphics card is a lot more than a middle SKU on NVIDIA’s roadmap. Since performance means more than just high video-game frame rates, Palit has optimized the 9800 GT to be a higher-end mid-range graphics card on every level. Because the HDMI audio functionality is controlled at a hardware level, there is no need for special drivers or software. The 9800 GT, similar to more expensive NVIDIA video cards, is equipped with the PureVideo 2 engine for GPU assisted decoding of the H.264 and VC-1 CODEC’s.

Much like the S/PDIF connection on the back of a motherboard, the Sonic 9600 GT video card offers optical digital audio output functionality which is plug-n-play. The included digital audio cable for the sound card connects from the small white port (pictured above and below to the right of the heat-pipes) into the two-pin digital audio connection on either the motherboard or sound card.

Since there are more than a few other graphic cards from the NVIDIA product line which offer more firepower, the 9800 GT must become more multi-purpose in order to achieve popularity. On the one hand, you have NVIDIA releasing product SKU’s which cut into several other product segments, and on the other hand you have the add-in card partner (Palit) that must then redefine its purpose and add value to the product in order to make it sales worthy. There’s no hiding the fact that Palit has its work cut out for it with the G92b, which explains why the 1 GB Super+ graphics card looks nothing like the rest of the series.

 

While the G92b graphics processor has had its dial turned well into the redline zone, power requirements are rather minimal for the 9800 GT. Primary power is taken from the PCI Express host bus as well as from a single 6-pin PCI Express power connector. Since only one PCI-E connection is required, anyone with an older (pre PCI-E) power supply can take advantage of the Palit GeFoce 9800 GT by using the included power adapter. Ultimately, this will prove itself to be a good step-up card for anyone wanting more modern features without extreme-level gaming horsepower found in the most expensive cards.

Please continue on to the next section where Benchmark Reviews takes a detailed look at the Palit NE/960TSX0202 GeForce 9600 GT 1GB Sonic graphics card.

NE/9800TXT302 Detailed Features

In our last section, we skimmed over the outer skin of Palit’s unique-looking Sonic GeForce 9600 GT. With a basic understanding of what you’ll get on the outside, we’re ready to get inside the product and dissect the technology. This information will be very helpful for those hardware enthusiasts and overclockers willing to void their warranty and potentially ruin their expensive product in order to tweak it’s electronics. This information is for entertainment purposes only, and not a recommendation to disassemble your product or perform modifications.

The G94 chip features sixteen render back-end units (ROP) with full support for 128-bit high-dynamic-range rendering and NVIDIA’s exclusive 16x Coverage Sampling Anti-aliasing (CSAA) algorithm. The new ROP compression system has also been enhanced to improve performance at extreme resolutions such as 2560 x 1600. The enhanced compression will help keep memory usage in check and improve performance in high resolution, anti-aliased scenarios.

One thing has become clear: the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB graphics card (SKU: NE/9800TXT302) is practically identical in appearance to the Palit 9600 GT 1GB Sonic NE/960TSX0202. This is a very good thing, dispite how it may sound. The Palit 9800 GT Super+ offers excellent after-market cooling to both sides of the PCB, which translates into more stable gaming and potentially higher overclocking.

While there are actually a few rare 256 MB versions of the GeForce 9800 GT which try to cut corners, you will usually find 512 MB of video frame buffer on most products from this family. This is where Palit asserts itself to outshine the competition and offer enthusiasts something a bit more forward-thinking, because their Super+ version of the 9800 GT comes equipped with 1024 MB (1 GB) of GDDR3 memory clocked at 900 MHz (1800 MHz DDR) on a 256-bit bus.

All of that extra speed will generate some heat, which is why Palit also integrates a custom anodized aluminum plate to function as a RAM heatsink. A total of eight Samsung GDDR3 modules line the outer perimeter of the printed circuit board, bearing the Samsung 807 K4J52324QE-BJ08 part number. Hardware enthusiasts should note that these same vRAM modules were also used on late-edition GeForce 8800 Ultra’s. This explains how a mid-level model can achieve higher clock speeds than the top GeForce products.

As I prepared to disassemble the Palit 9800 GT Sonic edition video card, I made note of the similarities between this PCB and that of the 8800 GT. Aside from the some very minor components, the design appeared nearly identical to the last generation; if anything there was very little PCB redesign needed on NVIDIA’s part. Once I had carefully removed a few screws from the rear corners, and one more screw on the header panel, the shroud came apart from the Palit 9800 GT with a light pull. I immediately realized how much additional engineering went into Palit’s dual heat-pipe cooling system.

The GeForce 9800 GT (G92b GPU) is manufactured using 55nm technology similar to the architecture used in the GeForce 9800 GTX+. Both of these NVIDIA products utilize the same 9-series architecture and transistor advances over the older G92 GPUs which they replace.

Since the Super+ 9800 GTs core is only 600 MHz, there are several close competitors that exceed this clock speed. The shader clock hums along at 1500 MHz, with 112 cores working to their potention. So when you begin to consider that the Palit version of the GeForce 9800 GT comes with twice as much video frame buffer as the others, you might start to realize that the Super+ is more of a little engine that could.

This concludes our in-depth look into the Palit NE/9800TXT302, which has revealed several interesting discoveries about the hardware and the assembly process. The 9800 GT is a good-looking graphics card, but from here on out the 1 GB Super+ will have to put up some impressive results or be put down as a failed attempt at boosting a mid-level SKU into top-shelf product offerings. In our next section, Benchmark Reviews begins testing on the Palit GeForce 9800 GT video card.

Video Card Testing Methodology

Benchmark Reviews has high hopes that one day we will be so giant and world famous that every combination of the graphic card available will be on-hand for our product testing… and we’re getting closer! I envy the review sites that have twenty other video cards tested in stand-alone, SLI, and CrossFireX arrays for each and every review. Eventually we will be that big, and offer all of those configurations. Readers can help us grow to that size by spreading the word, but for now we’ll have to make due with what our budget can afford. In this article, Benchmark Reviews is going to test and compare the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Toxic Edition graphics card against several other closely-ranked products from within the GeForce family.

At the start of all tests, the previous display adapter driver is uninstalled and trace components are removed using Driver Cleaner Pro. We then restart the computer system to establish our display settings and define the monitor. Once the hardware is prepared, we begin our testing. The synthetic benchmark tests in 3DMark06 will utilize shader models 2.0 and 3.0. In our higher-end VGA products we conduct tests at the following resolutions: 1280×1024 (19″ Standard LCD), 1680×1050 (22-24″ Widescreen LCD), and 1920×1200 (24-28″ Widescreen LCD). In some tests we utilized widescreen monitor resolutions, since more users are beginning to feature these products for their own computing.

Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. This process proved extremely important in the World in Conflict and Supreme Commander benchmarks, as the first run served to cache maps allowing subsequent tests to perform much better than the first. Each test is completed five times, with the average results displayed in our article.

Our site polls and statistics indicate that the over 90% of our visitors use their PC for playing video games, and practically every one of you are using a screen resolutions mentioned above. Since all of the benchmarks we use for testing represent different game engine technology and graphic rendering processes, I feel that this battery of tests will provide a diverse range of results for you to gauge performance on your own computer system. Since most gamers and enthusiasts are still using Windows XP, it was decided that DirectX 9 would be used for all tests until demand and software support improve for Windows Vista.

Test System

• Motherboard: ASUS P5E64 WS Pro (Intel X38 Chipset)
• Processor: Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz (Overclocked to 3.6 GHz)
• System Memory: Patriot PC3-15000 DDR3 1866MHz 2GB RAM Kit
• Optical Drive: ASUS BC-1205PT SATA Blu-ray Disc Optical Drive
• Enclosure: Ultra m998 Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case ULT40069
• PSU: Ultra X-Pro 800W Aluminum ULT33185
• Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 245BW Widescreen LCD
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP-3

Benchmark Applications

• 3DMark06 v1.1.0 (8x Anti Aliasing & 16x Anisotropic Filtering)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare v1.7.568 (4x AA/16x Trilinear AF)
• Crysis v1.21 Benchmark (High Settings, 0x and 4x Anti-Aliasing)
• World in Conflict v1.0.0.9 Performance Test (Very High Setting: 4x AA/4x AF)

Video Card Test Products

Product Series	Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 102-B50102-00-AT	Palit GeForce 9600 GT 1GB Sonic NE/960TSX0202	Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB NE/9800TXT302	Foxconn GeForce 9800 GTX OC 512MB 9800GTX-512N	Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 100243L
Stream Processors	800	64	112	128	800
Core Clock (MHz)	625	700	600	685	775
Shader Clock (MHz)	N/A	1750	1500	1713	N/A
Memory Clock (MHz)	993	100	900	1100	1000
Memory Amount	512 MB GDDR3	1 GB GDDR3	1 GB GDDR3	512 MB GDDR3	512 MB GDDR5
Memory Interface	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit

• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 102-B50102-00-AT (Catalyst 8.9)
• Palit GeForce 9600 GT 1GB Sonic NE/960TSX0202 (Forceware v177.79)
• Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB NE/9800TXT302 (Forceware v177.79)
• Foxconn GeForce 9800 GTX OC 512MB 9800GTX-512N (Forceware v177.79)
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 100243L (Catalyst 8.9)

Now we’re ready to begin testing video game performance on the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB Video Card NE/9800TXT302, so please continue to the next page as we start with the 3DMark06 results.

3DMark 06 Benchmark Results

3DMark is a computer benchmark by Futuremark (formerly named Mad Onion) to determine the DirectX 9 performance of 3D game performance with graphics cards. 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests.

3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today. Some enthusiasts may note that Benchmark Reviews does not include CPU-bound tests in our benchmark battery, and that only graphic-bound tests are included.

Here at Benchmark Reviews, we believe that synthetic benchmark tools are just as valuable as video games, but only so long as you’re comparing apples to apples. Since the same test is applied in the same controlled method with each test run, I believe 3DMark is a very reliable tool for comparing graphic cards against one-another.

More visitors to Benchmark Reviews operate at 1280×1024 resolution than any other, as it represents the native resolution of 19″ LCD monitors. Using this resolution as a starting point, the maximum settings were applied to 3dMark06 which for these tests include 8x Anti-Aliasing and 16x Anisotropic Filtering. Low-resolution testing allows the graphics processor to plateau maximum output performance, which thereby shifts demand onto the system components to keep up. At the lower resolutions 3DMark will reflect the GPU’s top-end speed in the composite score, indicating full-throttle performance with little load. This makes for a less GPU-dependant test environment, and is helpful in measuring the maximum output performance in the test results.

Our 3dMark06 results indicate that the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB performs slightly behind the Radeon HD 4850, and slightly ahead of the Palit GeForce 9600 GT 1GB Sonic NE/960TSX0202 in shader model 2.0 results.

Going into the shader model 3.0 results at 1920×1200, the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ performs much closer to the 9600 GT Sonic than the Radeon HD 4850. The 4850 actually performs slightly ahead of the Foxconn GeForce 9800 GTX OC, while nothing in the group could compare with the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870.

In our next few tests, we compare performance results in Half-Life 2 and Forged Alliance.

Gaming Tests: HL2 and CC:FA

Judging from our results in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the Radeon HD 4000 series really pulls ahead of NVIDIA GeForce products. Palit’s GeForce 9800 GT Super+ still performs ahead of the 9600 GT Sonic and behind the Radeon HD 4850. What’s interesting here is that the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 rendered frames at a level higher than the GeForce 9800 GTX could, while the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 ran away with a huge lead.

For Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the 9800 GT NE/9800TXT302 actually performed closer to the 9800 GTX than it did the Radeon HD 4850.

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is a standalone real-time strategy computer game expansion to Supreme Commander, developed by Gas Powered Games and published by THQ. Because it is a standalone expansion, it is possible to play without owning Supreme Commander. Forged Alliance adds new game play features to the game, several new units for the three preexisting factions, and is further optimized for increased performance beyond that of the original game.

Supreme Commander makes extensive use of two technologies relatively unused in video games prior to its release, namely multi core processing and multi monitor displays. When detecting a multi-core processor, the game assigns a specific task, such as AI calculations, to each core, splitting the load between them. Supreme Commander is one of the first games to specifically support dual and quad core processors in the game.

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance may not offer the first-person shooter experience that many gamers prefer, but the graphics are among the most demanding possible. Even so, there begins to be a trend showing which places high demand on the graphics card as evidenced by mutually low minimum frame rates.

Unlike the other games we test, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance does not use a short in-game benchmark to determine a score. In these tests, Supreme Commander plays an entire round of the game from start to finish and generates composite scores based on this lengthy test. This composite score is based on two factors: sim and render.

SupCom: Forged Alliance did put the Radeon HD 4850 below the 9800 GTX, however the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ still found its familiar spot between the Palit 9600 GT Sonic and Sapphire Radeon HD 4850.

In our next section, World in Conflict hopes to confirm our findings and cement expectations for the 9800 GT.

World in Conflict Results

The latest version of Massive’s proprietary Masstech engine utilizes DX10 technology and features advanced lighting and physics effects, and allows for a full 360 degree range of camera control. Massive’s MassTech engine scales down to accommodate a wide range of PC specifications, if you’ve played a modern PC game within the last two years, you’ll be able to play World in Conflict.

World in Conflict’s FPS-like control scheme and 360-degree camera make its action-strategy game play accessible to strategy fans and fans of other genres… if you love strategy, you’ll love World in Conflict. If you’ve never played strategy, World in Conflict is the strategy game to try.

World in Conflict offers an in-game benchmark; which records the minimum, average, and maximum frame rates during the test. Very recently another hardware review website made the assertion that these tests are worthless, but we couldn’t disagree more. When used to compare video cards which are dependant on the same driver and use the same GPU architecture, the in-game benchmark works very well and comparisons are apples-to-apples.

So far, every benchmark we’ve used on the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ has positioned this graphics card midway between the 1GB Palit 9600 GT Sonic and the 512MB Radeon HD 4850. The GeForce 9800 GTX also fits between the Radeon HD 4850 at the lower position and the Radeon HD 4870.

Clearly our results are becomming repetitive; but then again we’re just getting started. In our next section the Super+ proves itself in Crysis.

Crysis Benchmark Results

Crysis uses a new graphics engine: the CryENGINE2, which is the successor to Far Cry’s CryENGINE. CryENGINE2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX9, both on Vista and Windows XP.

Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine’s complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders. To get the most out of modern multicore processor architectures, CPU intensive subsystems of CryENGINE 2 such as physics, networking and sound, have been re-written to support multi-threading.

Crysis offers an in-game benchmark tool, which is similar to World in Conflict. This short test does place some high amounts of stress on a graphics card, since there are so many landscape features rendered. For benchmarking purposes, Crysis can mean trouble as it places a high demand on both GPU and CPU resources. Benchmark Reviews uses the Crysis Benchmark Tool by Mad Boris to test frame rates in batches, which allows the results of many tests to be averaged.

Low-resolution testing allows the graphics processor to plateau maximum output performance, which thereby shifts demand onto the system components. At the lower resolutions Crysis will reflect the GPU’s top-end speed in the composite score, indicating full-throttle performance with little load. This makes for a less GPU-dependant test environment, and is helpful in creating a baseline for measuring maximum output performance in the next few test results. At the 1280×1024 resolution used by 19″ monitors, our results show that performance is beginning to really drop despite the small difference is pixels drawn. In terms of general performance, all of these products maintain the same performance ratio as before, except for the 9800 GX2 which seems to beneficially hold its ground.

Crysis doesn’t seem to favor the large video frame buffer Palit offers to both the GeForce 9600 GT Sonic Edition and 9800 GT Super+ Edition, because both cards appear exactly at the same position in these benchmarks as all the past tests. At lower resultions, there’s a larger desparity between products, but at 1920×1200 the playing field is leveled and the FPS range moves down to 14-23. At 15.7 FPS (1920×1280) the Palit GeForce 9800 GT comes very close to the 16.0 FPS rendered by the overclocked 9800 GTX, but still a short distance away from the 18.4 FPS produced by Sapphires Radeon HD 4850.

In our final test, Call of Duty 4 provides the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB video card NE/9800TXT302 with just enough pressure to make a difference in our charts.

CoD4 Benchmarks

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare runs on a proprietary game engine that Infinity Ward based off of the tried-and-true Q3 structure. This engine offers features such as true world-dynamic lighting, HDR lighting effects, dynamic shadows and depth of field. “Bullet Penetration” is calculated by the Infinity Ward COD4 game engine, taking into account things such as surface type and entity thickness. Certain objects, such as cars, and some buildings are destructible. This makes distinguishing cover from concealment important, as the meager protection provided by things such as wooden fences and thin walls does not fully shield players from harm as it does in many other games released during the same time period. Bullet speed and stopping power are decreased after penetrating an object, and this decrease is calculated realistically depending on the thickness and surface of the object penetrated.

This version of the game also makes use of a dynamic physics engine, a feature which was not implemented in previous Call of Duty titles for Windows PC’s. The new in-game death animations are a combination of pre-set static animations combined with ragdoll physics. Infinity Ward’s use of the well-debugged Quake 3 engine along with new dynamic physics implementation allows Call of Duty 4 to be playable by a wide range of computer hardware systems. The performance may be scaled for low-end graphic cards up to 4x Anti-Aliasing and 16x Tri-linear anisotropic texture filtering.

Before I discuss the results, I would like to take a moment to mention my general opinion on Fraps software when it comes to game performance benchmarking. If you’re not familiar with the software, Fraps (derived from Frames per second) is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX and OpenGL applications. Some reviewers use this software to measure video game performance on their Windows system, as well as record gaming footage. My opinion is that it offers a valid third-party non-bias alternative to in-game benchmarking tools; but there is one caveat: it’s not perfect. Because the user must manually begin the test, the starting point may vary from position to position and therefore skew the results.

In my testing with Fraps v2.9.4 build 7039, I used the cut-scene intro to the coup d’état scene when Al Asad takes over control. First I allowed the level to load and let the scene begin for a few moments, then I would use the escape key to bring up the menu and choose the restart level option, I would immediately press F11 to begin recording the benchmark data. This scene is nearly four minutes long, but I configured Fraps to record the first 180 seconds of it to remain consistent. Once the scene would end, I would repeat the restart process for a total of five tests. So within a 2 millisecond starting point margin, all benchmark results are comparable which is probably as good as it can possibly get with this tool.

In our past few tests we’ve seen the pecking order remain fairly consistent. The Palit 9600 GT Sonic Edition begins the list, followed by the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ 1GB, then the Foxconn 9800 GTX OC, followed by the Radeon HD 4850, and finally the Radeon HD 4870. The 9800 GT has held a consistent lead over the 9600 GT, and likewise it has trailed the GeForce 9800 GTX and Radeon HD 4850 in our tests.

For Call of Duty 4 tested at 1920×1200, the Palit Super+ 9800 GT does well enough to keep way ahead of the 9600 GT with a frame rate of 52.0 but still far enough behind the 9800 GTX which scored 63.7 FPS. Since performance has remained identical in each game we’ve tested, our decision will ultimately be decided by price.

Palit NE/9800TXT302 Conclusion

Since Palit hasn’t been available to the North American market for very long, the new look may seem out of place at first. Each manufacturer spends a significant amount of time branding their name to an identity. For example: Gigabyte has a Final Fantasy-looking female heroine on their products, XFX has an armor clad Werewolf, and ZOTAC has a Dural look-alike from VirtuaFighter. So it might seem particularly interesting that Palit picked a robot-frog named Frobot as their mascot. But since fancy characters are not enough to win me over, Palit has also kept the consumer informed by adding important product details and specifications on the packaging. The retail box offers an inviting design and attractive layout, along with some important product data on the back. The colors and information all seem exciting, but I’m not quite sold on Frobot.

When NVIDIA first launched the GeForce 9800 GT product line, I wasn’t exactly impressed with thin single-card reference design. There just wasn’t much more to the card than a thin PCB covered by a shroud of plastic. So I’m thankful that Palit went to the design table and recreated their own version of the 9800 GT from the PCB up. I’ve already admitted my love for the burnt orange color they used, so it’s no surprise that I’m a big fan of the appearance, but the added RAM heatsink really sets the appearance of this product apart from the rest.

The craftsmanship and construction of this card are what set it apart from others. To begin with, Palit has taken its role as a NVIDIA AIC (Add-In Card) partner seriously, and engineered a whole new upper-half of the GeForce 9800. Add to this the fact that they managed to load 1024 MB worth of GDDR3 onto the PCB, and you can see how dedicated they are to their craft. I think the most impressive thing I’ve noticed about Palit products is the extremely well-tuned performance testing which screens out possible failures and thus reduces the overall RMA rate. With less than 1% return rate, it’s good to know I won’t have a bad experience with Palit products.

In regards to product performance, I have evaluated the GeForce 9800 GT Super+ graphics card as a whole. In video game performance, it did well enough to remain competitive against some of the larger video cards, but it didn’t impress me against the overclocked 9600 GT or even the mildly-overclocked GeForce 9800 GTX. It’s worth noting however that while ‘testing’ this product with the game Titan Quest, other graphics cards (such as the GeForce 8800 GT) have all exhibited a rubber-banding effect as the large-scale scrolling world is drawn. This wasn’t the case with a 1 GB frame buffer available to the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+. Additionally, other large scale worlds such as those found in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures also seemed to play very well with the large amount of GDDR3 available to it.

All of these ratings are well and fine, but ultimately the price tag decides the bottom line. At the time of this writing, the Palit GeForce 9800 GT 1GB Super+ video card NE/9800TXT302 was available from NewEgg for $169.99 (with additional $10 mail-in rebate). This makes it very tough on my value rating, since there is also a 512MB GDDR3 version of the Palit 9800 GT for only NewEgg for $129.99 ($109.99 after $20 rebate). So if you’re looking for good performance from the most current video games at a respectable price then the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ is by no means a bad decision, but the added 1 GB video frame buffer isn’t going to make a difference in most games and there are other products worth considering. If gaming isn’t your sole focus, then the standard 512 MB version is well worth the price.

In conclusion, the Palit GeForce 9800 GT Super+ makes a very good choice for gamers who want to step-up into PCI-Express 2.0 and take advantage of good middle-end graphics without the cost. The Palit NE/9800TXT302 provides excellent cooling improvements over other single-slot solutions, and will work very well in HTPC environments where airflow and noise are kept to a minimum. Our benchmark results showed that the 9800 GT was not that far behind the 9800 GTX performance, but the gaming experience in large-scale world-based games actually made good use of the large video frame buffer only avilable in the Super+. While value is a relative subject, the performance and functionality appear to have some credence in relation to the product cost. If you’re a gamer on a very tight budget, than the 9800 GT is an excellent product worth consideration, but make sure you’ll need all of that extra video memory before you make your purchase.

Pros:

+ Very good AA/AF performance in DirectX 9 games
+ Supports DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0
+ 600 MHz GPU / 1500 MHz Shader / 900 MHz GDDR3
+ Features NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology
+ HDMI Audio and Video supported for HDCP output
+ Extremely quiet fan under normal operation
+ Fan shroud enclosure offers improved airflow
+ 16x Coverage Sampling Anti-aliasing (CSAA) algorithm
+ Supports NVIDIA SLI functionality
+ Large 1024 MB (1 GB) video frame buffer
+ 5 GBps PCI Express 2.0 graphics interface

Cons:

– Not the best price point performer
– Large video frame buffer not utilized by many games
– Requires two expansion card slots

Ratings:

• Presentation: 8.75
• Appearance: 9.25
• Construction: 9.50
• Functionality: 9.25
• Value: 7.50

Final Score: 8.85 out of 10.

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