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PowerColor 9800XT - Upgrading to DirectX 9

Videocards/VGA Reviews by jmke @ 2004-03-07

While most of the reviews out there give you an idea how fast a video card is, almost none show you what the actual visual difference is between a DX8 and a DX9 capable video card. In this article we'll show you what improvements you get when upgrading to a DX9 graphics card, the Powercolor R9800XT (XR98T-D3)

PowerColor 9800XT

Powercolor 9800XT

Today will be taking a look at Powercolor fastest video card, powered by the now famous ATI 9800XT.

Madshrimps (c)

This card is bundled with:

1 X DVI to VGA converter

1x video S-VHS cable

VHS video cable

SVHS to VHS adaptor

Y-power cable

Drivers, Games CD's

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

Voucher for Half Life 2 when it's released.

The 9800 XT is based on the same structure of the 9800 with an increased core and memory speed,
Core/Memory speeds:
* Radeon 9800 XT - 412/365
* Radeon 9800 Pro - 380/340
* Radeon 9800 - 325/290
* Radeon 9700 Pro - 325/310

The 9800XT comes with 256MB of DDR memory, which is only used in the rare cases of high resolution in combination with full scene anti-aliasing.

You can connect your TV and 2nd monitor
- VGA
- TV-out (S-Video connector)
- DVI-I Connector

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Powercolor followed ATI's reference design by the letter; this translates into a good, yet quiet cooling solution for the GPU and memory

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As with the R9800 it requires power directly from the 12V line of your PSU, the provided 4-pin Y-cable makes sure you won't lose any connectors.

The fan used on this card is larger than seen on most; it reduces the produced sound without sacrificing airflow,

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The card is sandwiched between 2 copper heatsink, a TIM is placed between the copper and the memory chips to increase the heat transfer

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Let's start testing!

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