EVGA 512-P3-N980-AR GeForce 9800 GT Hybrid Power 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Reviewed By: G on 1/30/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Excellent card, fast.

Cons: Runs a little hot, long, but not any longer then other 9800gts'.

Other Thoughts: Didn't come with the HDMI adapter but when I called EVGA they just asked for my address and it was on my doorstep in a couple of days.

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Good buy, even better with a rebate!

Reviewed By: on 1/29/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Works great and with the rebate is was a steal. Upgraded an 8600 and the 9800GT is now bottlenecked by the CPU. Lots of overclocking fun. Works well with the 8300 MB in Hybrid Power mode. It goes from 50 watt total power draw with the onboard video to about 195 watts with the 9800 GT. I've had very good experience with EVGA support; they sent me an RMA for 12 video cards for a compatibility issue that I missed and replaced with different cards with no questions. A class company.

Cons: None so far

Other Thoughts: ASUS M3N78 PRO
Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR2 1066
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Brisbane 2.7GHz 65W
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W Modular Active PFC
Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit
Antec P160 Case

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I'm happy.

Reviewed By: Krew on 1/16/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Runs rather well. Well, at least better than my 7600 GT it replaced. There was definitely a difference. Fallout 3 has been running at around 30-40 FPS, sometimes as high as 60 and as low as 20-ish on high settings at 1080p. Left 4 Dead runs very smoothly at high settings at 1080p. Haven't tried many other games (primarily due to lack of time since I'm a busy college student). That being said I'm very please with the card and I'm glad to have purchased it.

Also, the overclocking utility included is nice. Be cautious though, I have blue screened when experimenting with it, so don't take it to high. Make sure to set the fan at a constant speed setting, auto will not cut it. As I'm typing this, the fan is set to 77 and the temps are at 45. After a long night of gaming the temps will never go above 60.

Cons: The first one I got had an issue with the fan, it was apparently loose or something, each blade would tap the cover-thingy at a fast speed making an annoying clicking sound. At one point the fan just stopped working. Got it replaced and it has had no major issues. I have had 2 blue screens when playing Fallout 3, I'm not sure if it's the card, the driver, or just the game. I keep my drivers up to date. I suppose it may just be the games fault since the card has no issues running 3dMark06 (framerates varied depending on the tests, but would hit upwards of 60 in the 4 primary graphics tests).

Other Thoughts: My CPU is an (older, in my opinion) Pentium D 830, I think it might be a bottleneck in my cards performance. Perhaps it's about time I start thinking about getting a Core 2 Duo or perhaps an i7... hah, in my dreams, maybe. lol. Certainly a couple years (hopefully months) down the road... yes...

But, in the end, it runs what I throw at it with out any major issues. Could see better framerates if I had a faster processor, RAM, SLI mode, etc. That said, I am happy.

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