Two PCBs in one-now that's something that the GeForce 8 series was missing out on. We never got to see an 8800GX2 in action. The Gigabyte's 9800GX2 is the first such card we look at. It's been a while since we've seen something this huge and heavy. Like all 9 series of GeForce cards, it's a 65-nm card, but this comes with 1 GB of RAM.

In dimensions, it's as long as the 8800GTX or 9800GTX, the 9800GX2 is thick, but flat with the fan concealed within the unit. Fortunately, the card takes two slots just like the GTX cards. In terms of power, an 8-pin and 6-pin power con¬nectors are required, unlike two 6-pin power con¬nector configuration for the 8800GTX.
It performs faster than any 8800illtra out there, and it annihilates them even more once you go higher res¬olutions. The card scores 18517 points in 3DMark 2006 and 13398 in 3DMark 2005. For example, on our test rig, in games such as Splinter Cell, the GX2 is a consider¬able 27 per cent faster than the 8800illtra. At resolutions of 1600 x 1200, this lead increases to close to 44 per cent. The trend is the same through most of the games. It's not just the 8800illtra that are beaten. Even the latest 9800GTX's we've tested stand no chance.



The 9800GX2 does get very hot, and that can be easily made out by the blast of hot air coming from the rear of the card. Should you buy this card, you must also invest in a decent cabinet with decent cooling. A power supply of at least 600 W is also recommended for this card.

The price for the Gigabyte 9800GX2 is Rs 34,000, which makes it a very expensive invest¬ment. The Gigabyte 9800GX2 is a fast card. We've seen it bypassing the 8800illtras in all our tests. For users using 24-inch screens and running games at resolutions of 1920 x 1200 or higher, the advan¬tage of a card like this is clearly noticeable and these are the users for whom it makes good sense to buy this card. However, if you already have an SLI board, it would be a much cheaper and most probably a better option to pair two 8800GTs or 8800GTSes together.

Specifications:

nVidia GeForce 9800 GX2.
1 GB GDDR3 memory.
PCI-E 2.0x16