PC Zenith v4

As far as our benchmarks go, the new NVIDIA flagship, the GeForce GTX 295 looks very promising. Sure, skeptics from the ATI camp will say that these handpicked games may favor NVIDIA cards, and while that’s for debate, there’s no denying that the differences in performance are still rather drastic. Remember, we are not looking at minor 5% to 10% increases, but quite significant ones, ranging from 20% to over 50%.
However, what impressed even more was the suggested retail price as positioned by NVIDIA. Set to be launched at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 8, the GeForce GTX 295 will be available for US$499. While that is by no means cheap, it is quite a bargain considering it’ll cost less than a Radeon HD 4870 X2, which when we last checked recently, was going for around US$529. Will this force ATI into a price-drop? That looks likely and if so, then it will be sweet revenge for NVIDIA, won’t it? And of course that will bring more cheer to enthusiasts shopping for an ultra high-end graphics card. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 (Preview) @ HardwareZone

One can’t criticise much witch the nVidias revised GTX 260. The card on average works four to six percent faster then it’s predecessor and in pretty much the half the card is faster then AMD/ATIs Radeon HD 4870. Also the cooling solution isn’t to noisy. Overall the card gives you a lot of gaming performance and you can play games at high resolutions even with activated filtering options. The only problem is that with AMD/ATIs Radeon HD 4870 you get more frames per second for your money. On average the GTX 260 Core 216 is about CHF 50.- more expensive then it’s strongest rival. nVidia GeForce GTX260 @ OCaholic.ch (de)

NVIDIA’s reference clocked GeForce 9600 GSO may have done a reasonable job of keeping pace with AMD’s Radeon HD 4670, but that is pretty much all that could be said about it, and “it did okay” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of any graphics product, particularly when that product is not quite as fast as its competitor yet actually marginally more expensive. What makes NVIDIA’s choice of clock speeds for this SKU rather more baffling if the release of the subject of today’s review, as quite simply the XFX GeForce 9600 GSO XXX is a game changer.  As per previous XXX labelled boards we’ve tested, it boasts some very significant clock speed increases to both the GPU core and memory, and these changes allow the GeForce 9600 GSO to take on (and more often than not beat) the Radeon HD 4670 across the entire gamut of current game titles, while also offering up impressive performance overall for its sub-£70 price point.  Indeed, the price point of the GeForce 9600 GSO XXX is the other major factor that makes this board a game changer, as it actually comes in cheaper than many reference clocked GeForce 9600 GSO parts here in the UK!  Sure, the Radeon HD 4670 still undercuts it, but given the performance on offer here it’s far easier to suggest spending a few extra pounds to get the best out of current games.

While ATI has been releasing a constant stream of new GPUs based on their new RV770 foundation chip, NVIDIA has instead chosen the path of the dark side, taking the easy way out and renaming and rehashing old products. At the time of writing, we’ve just received a working sample of ATI’s soon-to-be-released Radeon HD 4830 that we suspect will go head-to-head with the GeForce 9800 GT. As of now, the gap between the HD 4850 and HD 4670 is simply too wide, leaving NVIDIA free rein that area with their 9800 GT and 9600 GSO models. In view of that, in order to stand up to the oncoming onslaught that is the Radeon HD 4830, ASUS needs their EN9800GT Matrix to be something special, but sadly, it isn’t. It showed a lot of promise, with some very nifty features such as the automatic throttling of GPU clockspeeds and memory voltages, but we discovered, much to our dismay, that it didn’t work as well as it should. More puzzling however is the disappointing performance put in by the card. Admittedly a 12MHz overclock might not be much, but we were taken aback by how it time and time again was bettered by the reference clocked Gigabyte 9800 GT. We expected it to be at least on par. ASUS EN9800GT Matrix @ HardwareZone

The 9800GTX+ is supposed to be the green camps answer to the ATI HD4850. In this endeavor it does not entirely succeed. When the performance numbers are put down on paper the HD4850 and 9800GTX+ each won 18 out of 36 benchmark tests for a 50/50 split or you guessed it a 50% win percentage. With the increased clock speeds on the GPU core(740) and shaders(1836) the performance is almost there, almost. The smaller 55nm process does not provide increased performance but what it is supposed to do is reduce manufacturing costs for the manufacturer and reduce operating expenses for the end user by reducing the power consumption. To that end the 9800GTX+ can be paired with a Hybrid power capable motherboard to further reduce the power consumed by your system by disabling the discrete video card(9800GTX+) during non demanding 2D graphics use and then ramp up the performance by re-enabling the card for that demanding frag fest. Initially offered with a price point of $229 dollars this has dropped to a current price of $159 dollars after rebate at a popular e-tailer. This puts the price squarely in the price/performance point that the red camp has been so effective at during this last round of the video card technology wars. XFX GeForce 9800 GTX+ @ Overclockers Club

While the card is yet to appear on our local shores, local pricing in the states puts the card at around the $60 mark. How’s that compare against the 9500 GT which for the most part performs at twice the speed? Not great, since an extra 50% is going to literally yield you double the performance. And considering our thoughts on the 9500 GT, it doesn’t look good for the HD 4550. This is where it becomes hazy, though; is there anyone out there who’s really going to buy a HD 4550 for gaming? Well, we hope not, because the chances are you’re going to be severely disappointed, which means that the card isn’t exactly aimed for that particular market. The performance isn’t the only give away, though; the inclusion of the low profile bracket caters for a cliental that doesn’t game and the inclusion of the HDMI adapter means it’s an option for HT enthusiasts who want something that offers hardware decoding. Sapphire HD 4550 @ Tweaktown