Price: Click here to compare prices
Model Number: 512P3N873AR
TechWiki Info: EVGA 9800 GTX+ 512MB
Availability: Now
Price: Approx $220
Warranty: Lifetime


We have all had our pockets first picked by rising gas prices, then have received a swift kick in the balls by gutted investments and finally getting a slap to the face by the rising prices of damn near everything. This beatdown has led nearly every industry to the realization that the average consumer either can’t or just doesn’t want to afford the best of the best anymore. We see this playing out quite well in the computer component industry with falling prices and more value-oriented products. Gone are the days of the $800 GPU; they have been replaced by efficient, lower-cost products which appeal to a broader market while still achieving performance numbers to be proud of.

Manufacturers like Nvidia and ATI have perfectly seeded this changed market with a plethora of graphics cards which won’t put you out of your rent money since they focus on a “bang for buck” factor everyone seems to be happy with. Let’s be honest, the $150 to $250 price range is the place to be right now as evidenced by the massive number of products all clustered within a mere $100 price bracket. ATI has their new HD 4830 and HD 4850 while Nvidia has the 9600 GT, 9800 GT and 9800 GTX+. Most of these cards have been reviewed by Hardware Canucks but there has always been one notable absentee: the 9800 GTX+.

Even though I am sure many of you know exactly what the 9800 GTX+ is all about (seeing that it was released months ago), I am going to bore you with a quick glossing over of its background. Basically, Nvidia had an excellent card on the market with the 9800 GTX until ATI released their HD 4850 and rained all over the parade. An answer was needed and the boys in green wanted to show that they too could release a 55nm chip (remember, the 9800 GTX used the 65nm manufacturing process). While power consumption and heat production are not supposed to go down significantly when making the jump from 65nm to 55nm, the change allowed the newly minted 9800 GTX ”+” to be clocked higher than the outgoing 9800 GTX. This meant better competition against the HD 4850 while keeping cost increases to a minimum by sticking with a tried and true architecture. The new Plus version of the 9800 GTX has been a hit ever since.

In this case we will be looking at EVGA’s stock clocked 9800 GTX+ which carries with it a price of around $200, putting it into direct competition with the HD 4850. If the price isn’t enough to get your attention, EVGA’s Lifetime Warranty and Trade Up program are sure to sway you in their direction since at this time there are no ATI board partners which offer either service on a consistent basis. But for some of us, performance is everything so it will be interesting to see how this card stacks up.

Fortunately for us, the current financial situation makes the GTX+ prime pickings for a huge swath of consumers either looking to upgrade their system or build a whole new setup. Coupled with the latest drivers from both Nvidia and ATI, we can now show you exactly how the competitors perform against each other using up to date software. Let’s check it out.