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Sparkle 9800 GTX+ With Custom PCB and Cooling Review

Videocards/VGA Reviews by jmke @ 2008-12-03

In time for holiday shopping spree Sparkle launches a custom Geforce 9800 GTX+ which features onboard HDMI and a silent GPU cooling. Can it run the latest games fluently? We test twelve on them to find out.

Up Close

A Closer Look

Sparkle uses a custom designed PCB and GPU cooling, they also integrated native HDMI onboard as you’ll see in the photos below.

The packaging is a standard affair, front reveals a nice Sparkle logo with clear specifications at the top.

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The rear goes more in-depth regarding the 9800 series’ features.

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Inside you’ll find the usual suspects:

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Installation Manual & Driver CD

S/PDIF audio cable

two 4-pin to 6-pin power converters

There is no DVI>HDMI or DVI>D-Sub dongles included, because the Sparkle 9800 GTX+ has everything onboard:

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The cooling heatsink is made from aluminum with a shroud featuring Sparkle logo. One single fan in the middle pushes cool air over the fins. This is a dual slot solution so make sure you have room for it. Also open up a PCI slot at the back of your case to allow the hot air to escape. Sparkle kept the SLI connectors on the PCB so 3-way SLI is possible with these cards.

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The rear doesn’t reveal much, a proper mounting bracket for the GPU cooling makes sure it won’t fall of by accident.

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The S/PDIF cable is hooked up at the top here:

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The 2x 6-pin power connections are in the same place as on the 8800/9800GTX:

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Time to plug and play ->

Comment from mAlkAv!An @ 2008/12/10

Nice review, just missing a comparison of the Sparkle cooler and the one with reference design.

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