Although it has been less than two months since the launch of NVIDIA's G92-based GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB and GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB cards, the retail market has been flooded with competitively priced stock GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 9800 GX2, as well as overclocked editions of both cards as various manufacturers attempt to out-do each other be it in pricing or in performance.

What we have in our labs are XFX's most coveted and nimble graphics cards, the XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition and the XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition. The former clocks in at 760MHz (which is just a little shy of 100MHz faster than a stock card), while the latter clocks 700MHz (which is 100MHz over a stock GX2). According to XFX, only a limited number of these cards are produced, giving them a little more elite and rare status.

In addition to the speed boost, everyone is entitled to some exclusive Black Edition perks. Dedicated XFX LiveHelp is free by buying one of these macho men if you're a U.S. customer. Not to worry, customers from the rest of the world still get priority LiveHelp.

 

 


The XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition and the XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition.

 

 

We have come up with a table to compare specifications of various top-performing graphics cards against both Black Cards.

 

  ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black
Core Clock 825MHz 600MHz 575MHz 760MHz 700MHz
Stream Processors 320 per core 128 per core 128 128 128 per core
Stream Processor Clock 825MHz 1.5GHz 1.35GHz 1.9GHz 1.7GHz
Texture Units 16 per core 64 per core 64 64 64 per core
Raster Units 16 per core 24 per core 24 24 24 per core
Memory Clock 1.8GHz 2GHz 1.8GHz 2.28GHz 2.1GHz
Memory Capacity 512MB GDDR3 per core 512MB GDDR3 per core 768MB GDDR3 512MB GDDR3 512MB GDDR3 per core
PCI-E Power Connectors 1 8-pin, 1 6-pin 1 8-pin, 1 6-pin 2 6-pin 2 6-pin 1 8-pin, 1 6-pin

 

 

Both the XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition and the XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition come in black boxes. The layout is the same as that of the non-Blacks, but we have totally redesigned graphics for the Black Editions' packaging.

It's pretty neat, with the model number and key information on the front, while the back contains a short summary of the graphics card.

 


Impressive all-black packaging for their GeForce 9800 GTX card.

 

 


Packaging for their 9800 GX2 is equally impressive, well it's the same design anyway.