PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800GTX+

PNY is company well known for their advancements in memory and graphics technology. They always use top notch components in their memory and graphics cards and it shows in the quality of their products. The new PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GTX+ is another fine addition to that family. This card performs at levels that rival other video cards costing twice as much. Maybe it’s the 512MB of GDDR3 memory it uses, or perhaps the 2.2GHz effective memory data rate. It could be the massive cooling solution that helps keep the card running at top performance, or maybe it is just because it is one of the coolest looking graphics cards on the market today. Whatever the reason, this card performs at the top of its class and today we’re going to run it through the paces for you.

First Impressions and Out of the Box Setup

If we were to rate this card on a scale from 1 to 10 based solely on the packaging it would have to receive an 11. The packaging is very nice, the card and all its peripherals are safely tucked into the box and held securely. Suffice it to say the package is very eye pleasing. Even after opening it there is a nice extra; a cardboard sheet with all the specs and information about the graphics card for easy reference. On the reverse side is a list of other XLR8 products from PNY available for purchase.

Once you pull the card out of the box you realize that the aesthetics were not wasted solely on packaging. The GeForce 9800 GTX+ is an extremely nice looking video card, mostly due to the gigantic cooler attached to it bearing the XLR8 name in black and gold. The card is pretty heavy and takes two slots on the motherboard - so make sure you have room. Installation may be slightly more difficult than other cards simply because of the girth and weight of the card, but it does install just the same as any other PCI-Express card. Installation took us less than 10 minutes and included the installation of the software drivers.

Since we are running this on a 64-bit system, we installed the 64-bit driver for Windows Vista x64 that was included on the installation disk. Unlike some older GeForce cards (that we’ll leave unmentioned), the PNY GeForce 9800 GTX+ is fully compatible with Windows Vista, both the 32 and 64-bit versions.

Retail box	Box contents	Back View

I also should mention that the stock cooler used on the PNY GeForce 9800 GTX+ performs admirably. It keeps the card running between 46.6° and 50.4°C at idle and between 58.5° and 64.3° C under full load but it does it almost silently. If you have any case fans in your system you won’t even notice it at all. With that said, this card will definitely increase the heat inside your case - so you should have an effective case cooling solution installed.

In the Box

• NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB graphics card
• Quick installation guide
• Installation CD (includes 1.Detailed installation guide, 2.NVIDIA ForceWare drivers, 3.Microsoft DirectX 9.0c. 4.NVIDIA GeForce demos, 5.PNY and NVIDIA desktop wallpapers)
• 1 DVI to VGA adapter
• 1 DVI to HDMI adapter
• 1 HDMI media cable
• 4-pin Molex to 6-pin power adapter
• 8-pin to 6-pin power adapter
• HD breakout pod

Key Features and Specifications

• NVIDIA unified architecture
• Full Microsoft DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0 support
• 3-way NVIDIA SLI® technology
• NVIDIA PureVideo® HD technology
• NVIDIA HybridPower™ technology
• Two dual-link DVI and one HDTV output
• High Definition 1080p Display Support
• Dual-link HDCP Capable
• PCI Express 2.0 support
• OpenGL 2.1 support
• Bus Technology: PCI Express 2.0
• Memory Amount: 512MB GDDR3
• Memory Interface: 256-bit
• Memory Frequency (effective): 2200 MHz
• Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec): 70.4
• Core Clock: 738 MHz
• Shader Clock: 1836 MHz