EVGA 9800 GTX+ 512MB Video Card Review

Conclusion

When it was released, there were many people who lambasted the 9800 GTX+ for being just another take on a product that should have been left as it was. It is amazing how times change since now -a few months after this card made its first appearance- Nvidia’s answer to the HD 4850 has had time to mature driver-wise and has really found its niche in today’s market. It performs extremely well in nearly every game up to reasonably high resolution and at around $230 before rebates (and currency fluctuations); it offers the perfect mix of price and performance for those of you on a budget. There really is a hell of a lot to like about the EVGA 9800 GTX+ and from where we are standing, there aren’t many negatives at all.

What really amazed us was the fact that the 55nm manufacturing process netted more efficiencythan we originally thought it would. Even though it seems like the 55nm implementation has somewhat stalled on Nvidia’s part, what we saw here is definitely heartening. When higher clock speeds yield lower power consumption, you know something is going right with the 55nm manufacturing process.

The biggest question that has been on everyone’s minds is how this card performs with the newest drivers against its primary competitor; the HD 4850. Unfortunately, there is no crystal clear answer to that since both cards win some and loose some. What we can tell you is that when retesting past Nvidia cards with the new drivers, we saw some pretty significant gains, especially when AA was turned on. What is even more incredible is that we did not use Nvidia’s non-WHQL drivers that promise even more performance improvements. On the other hand, performance increases with the ATI 8.10 drivers were minimal at best and we actually saw some framerate losses here and there. Granted, we didn’t test with the latest games like Far Cry 2 and Crysis Warhead but don’t worry; those games and others will be added to our reviews when we overhaul the list of tested titles at the beginning of next month.

Part of the allure of this particular EVGA card is the fact that it carries a Lifetime Warranty, access to an upgrade program and is backed by some of the best customer support in the industry. At this time, ATI’s board partners just can’t compete with these kinds of incentives especially with the EVGA 9800 GTX+ retailing for exactly the same price as most HD 4850s.

Usually we don’t drop any bombshells in reviews and try to keep conclusions as neutral as possible when comparing a product to the competition but with this review, that all changes. In this reviewer’s humble opinion, the mix of performance, price, warranty, well-known customer service and a myriad of other things make the EVGA 9800 GTX+ a better buy than any HD 4850 on the market today. It is because of this that we are awarding this card our Dam Good Award.


Pros:

- Excellent Performance
- Efficient
- Quiet
- Lifetime Warranty


Cons:

- HD 4850 performs better in some situations