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.

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.

 The XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition is based completely off the reference NVIDIA design.

What differentiates this card from the rest of the GeForce 9800 GTX bunch are only the Black Edition sticker on the plastic shroud of the heatsink, and the XFX logo on the fan hub.

XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition: It's using a full reference NVIDIA design.

With NVIDIA touting its new chipsets and graphics cards with tri-SLI capability, naturally the 9800 GTX will also be able to perform tri-SLI, with another two 9800 GTX cards.

NVIDIA SLI connectors for SLI and Tri-SLI capabilities.

The dual 6-pin PCI-E power connectors design was brought over from the GeForce 8800 GTX, since the G92-based GeForce 9800 GTX draws about the same, or less power than the previous-generation GeForce 8800 GTX.

The 9800 GTX retains the same power connectors used on the previous-generation GeForce 8800 GTX.

There were vents along the shroud for the GeForce 8800 GTX design, which allowed hot air from the graphics card to be recycled within the casing. Casings with poor ventilation were the most affected as heat built up within the expansion slots area. This was 'fixed' with the revised heatsink design on the GeForce 9800 GTX where almost all the hot air is ducted straight out through the back.

S-Video and a pair of dual-link DVI outputs. Heat from the card is all ducted out through the vents.

 XFX really shows they live by their motto: play hard.

Impressive on all fronts: packaging, design and even the extras.

More information is revealed by using TechPowerUp's GPU-Z tool.

 Again, just like all other GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 9800 GX2 cards on the market, we have a reference NVIDIA design.

XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition: The card looks like it means serious business.

The back of the GX2 looks no different from the front thanks to its unique PCB orientation and cooling design.

Having an SLI connector simply means quad-SLI goodness.
(Image from GX2, GX2 and GX2 Black Edition share the same internals and design.)

A pair of dual-link DVI ports and a single HDMI port as display outputs on the GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition.

The GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition utilises 6-pin and 8-pin PCI Express connectors (one each).

It can be noted that XFX is paying attention to the smaller details such as appearance of the card, so as to make a visual impact on prospective buyers. Taking from the time of the XFX GeForce 8800 GTS and GTX till today, the latest XFX GeForce 9600 GT and 9800 family still look impressive. We can confidently say that XFX are consistent in outputting one of the nicest designs (on stickers) around.

That said, we're not too keen on their custom heatsink designs (hint hint) on their own PCBs unfortunately. Perhaps XFX should stick to the reference designs because they have been doing fine all along on those. :) 

We get a little more information from the handy GPU-Z tool.

To gauge the Black Editions' performance, we've made the XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition and the older-generation GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB (card by Inno3D) lock horns.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB: This card still reigns supreme over the default-clocked 9800 GTX 512MB in certain games...

For the XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition, we've pitted it against its younger brother, the XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB.

NVIDIA (XFX) GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB clocks in at 600/1500/2000MHz for core/stream/memory respectively.

Here's a list of the parts used for our test setup.

Lining up for the shoot are the Inno3D GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB, XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition,
XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition and XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB cards (from left to right).

We have four tests lined up to check out how the Black Cards fare. We have one synthetic benchmark: Futuremark 3DMark Vantage for Windows Vista, and three real-world game benchmarks: Crysis, World in Conflict, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

Battle of the GTX-es

First, lets take a look at the two single-GPU GTX cards.

Things don't look quite rosy here. The mother of 2007 graphics cards is hot on the heels of the overclocked GeForce 9800 GTX. If you made a mental calculation, it's quite obvious that a stock 9800 GTX might take a beating from the dated 8800 GTX.

Yes, the XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition manages to pull away from the GeForce 8800 GTX...

Surprise, surprise... The older GeForce 8800 GTX manages to wrestle the lead from the overclocked GeForce 9800 GTX in this title.

After some fluffed feathers and a few expletives hurled in utter disbelief, order is restored with the Black Card resuming pole position in ET: QW...

In short, the GeForce 9800 GTX is crippled by its 256-bit memory bus and 512MB memory. It may have much higher clockspeeds than a default GeForce 8800 GTX, but the latter runs on a wider 384-bit memory bus giving it much more memory bandwidth, and not forgetting it has 768MB of memory...

The fault does not lie with the XFX GeForce 9800 GTX Black Edition itself. In fact, the Black Edition with its high factory overclock, finally levelled the playing ground between the 8800 GTX and 9800 GTX cards.

GX2 vs. GX2: Who's the boss?

The XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition bests the score of a standard GeForce 9800 GX2 on the difficult Futuremark 3DMark Vantage by almost a thousand points.

We're getting above 60 frames per second for Crysis at 2560 x 1600.

World in Conflict gets a nice little boost from the added speed found in the GX2 Black Edition.

A few frames improvement across the board, but we get a big jump when we got to a high resolution of 2560 x 1600.

XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition

Overclocking the 9800 GTX Black was a piece of cake; we took just two attempts to grab the sweet spot of this card: 850MHz core, 2125MHz shader and 2500MHz memory. 

That is an easy 600 point increase over the default score in Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage!

It seems that the GTX is severely bandwidth bottlenecked. Our first run was done at the same core and shader speeds but at a lower memory clock of 2350MHz. However, simply by raising the memory speed a mere 150MHz to what we have in the screenshot above, it gave us a return of almost 200 more 3DMarks.

At the rate this card is clocking, by slapping on an after-market Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME 9800 tri-fan cooler and perhaps some hardware modifications which would void warranty (hint hint), enthusiasts should be having quite a lot of fun with the whole package.

XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition

The result we got from overclocking the GX2 was not as impressive as that of the GTX, but nonetheless we still got quite a boost in clocks.

Just shy of 12,000 points in Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage at overclocked speeds. (Uh yes we did spend some time attempting to clear the 12k ceiling by trying to clock the graphics card alone further, but apparently we've reached the limit of this sample here... *sheepish smile*) We think the GX2 Black Edition still has more juice in it, just that we need to look beyond the default cooling solution.

Anyhow, this overclocked GX2 Black Card at 775MHz core, 1900MHz shader and 2350MHz memory already blows everything away, considering a stock GX2 runs only a near-10,000 point score on the same test bed.

And, we have results in graphical form as well.

The XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition and the XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition cards are excellent products, be it in terms of outlook, out-of-the-box performance or overclocking prowess.

Unlike many other manufacturers which bundle a little dated, or not-so-popular games, with XFX we get the latest game, Assassin's Creed bundled in our packages for both the 9800 GTX Black and the 9800 GX2 Black. Not only that, factory-overclocked performance is very impressive, and both cards hold one of the highest factory overclocked speeds out there in the market. Other manufacturers release overclocked GTX-es in the low 700MHz core region, and even lesser manufacturers do so for the toasty GX2.

Overclocking on both Black Cards is second to none. We were a little surprised we could get that much out of a reference NVIDIA cooler on the GeForce 9800 GTX Black Edition. Overclocking results on the GeForce 9800 GX2 Black Edition were a little more predictable, but still considered excellent.

The G92 GeForce 9800 GTX at default 675MHz definitely found the going extremely tough against the G80-based GeForce 8800 GTX, however with the introduction of the XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition, this would be the card for single-GPU solutions even though it still may not completely outrun an 8800 GTX and of course the even faster 8800 Ultra. The loss of a few frames can be compensated by a much cooler-running 9800 GTX, which also consumes less power.

The G92-450 GeForce 9800 GX2 already has the performance crown in its bag. The XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition simply reiterates the fact that the G92-450 is at the front of the pack by going even faster.

The Black Cards do not really cost an arm and a leg either; the GTX retails for around US$350 with Call of Duty 4 and the GX2 retails for around US$600-odd. Stellar performance at a reasonable price. What more can you ask for?

XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Black Edition and XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Black Edition from the back up.

With the introduction of the Black Edition series, the XT and XXX overclocked variants of the base model seem rather out of place. Perhaps XFX should just have two lines of products: the base variant and the overclocked Black Edition? :) We would like the idea of XFX marketing future Black Edition as a 'premium' product for gamers and enthusiasts who just want the best out there, while the factory default version would be seen as the product to buy by the mass consumer, given the fact that default NVIDIA reference clock models are the cheapest and XFX has a tradition of impressive packaging and game bundles.

As we wrap up this review, we strongly believe that both Black Edition cards should have the absolute edge over their competitors, till someone comes up with something better!

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