Monday, March 23rd 2009

Colorful Releases Crippled 9800 GT Graphics

On the brink of being a regular AMD partner, Colorful has come up with a new way to market GeForce 9800 GT cheap: by crippling it with a (much) weaker memory sub-system. The card uses a regular GeForce 9800 GT GPU, with 512 MB of memory. Wait, that sounds pretty normal when it reads on the box, doesn't it? Only till you find out that it's actually 512 MB of DDR2 memory, and that too across a 128-bit wide memory bus.

It uses a red PCB with a simplistic (read: inexpensive) radial cooler. DVI, D-Sub and HDMI connectors are provided on the card, though it is deprived of an SLI interconnect. Furthermore, the card uses a 6-pin power connector to take in power. We certainly hope this card is extremely cheap to warrant its specifications.
Source: Donanim Haber
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23 Comments on Colorful Releases Crippled 9800 GT Graphics

#1
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
looks like an old 2600pro
Posted on Reply
#2
to6ko91
:twitch: for a card based on 8800gt then renamed to 9800gt and then crippled to ddr2 and 128bit :wtf: I think they are going to give them for free :laugh: or at least they should pay you to use it :roll:
Posted on Reply
#3
WhiteLotus
cheap enough to stick in a HTPC maybe - other uses, i hope not.
Posted on Reply
#4
zithe
So it should be faster than a GDDR2 9600GSO? Should be meh for gaming...

Overkill HTPC?
Posted on Reply
#5
to6ko91
zitheSo it should be faster than a GDDR2 9600GSO? Should be meh for gaming...

Overkill HTPC?
I actually dobth it to be faster than 9600gso (if slightly overcklocked)
Posted on Reply
#6
lemonadesoda
Most of the power (electricity and heat) comes from the GPU and not from the memory. That means: this must also be a severly UNDERCLOCKED card to be able to use a 6-pin and simplistic cooler.
Posted on Reply
#7
ShadowFold
This sounded "meh" until I saw the 6pin. This card is pretty useless.
Also, I thought in Asia they used "Colourful" or whatever..
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#8
silkstone
They manufacture these cards for the same damn price why would they want to cripple the memory? gddr2 can't be that much cheaper than gddr3 can it?
Posted on Reply
#9
lemonadesoda
silkstoneThey manufacture these cards for the same damn price why would they want to cripple the memory? gddr2 can't be that much cheaper than gddr3 can it?
Could be that there are some "bad bin" GPUs that work happily at lower clocks... hence this product.
Posted on Reply
#10
DarkMatter
lemonadesodaMost of the power (electricity and heat) comes from the GPU and not from the memory. That means: this must also be a severly UNDERCLOCKED card to be able to use a 6-pin and simplistic cooler.
All 8800/9800 GTs use a 6-pin connector. Agreed on the rest.

Anyway I don't know how are they using only 128bits as the architecture is tied to 64bit per ROP partition AFAIK. What I mean is that most probably this card only uses 8 ROPs. It's a waste, no matter how you look at it.
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#11
h3llb3nd4
They should rename this card to 9700 GS
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#12
rampage
and wait for it, next week they will release another card with the exact same specs but call it the GTX 220, or somthing like that
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#13
silkstone
mone of my first cards was a GTX 020 ;)
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#14
DarkMatter
rampageand wait for it, next week they will release another card with the exact same specs but call it the GTX 220, or somthing like that
I doubt it, but that's what happens when you give so much freedom to vendors and partners regarding non-reference designs. On the other hand it does allow for wonderful cards too. It has its pros and its cons, but IMHO it's much better to permit non-reference cards, it keeps things evolving.
Posted on Reply
#16
Xaser04
Depending on its price I would imagine this would make a quite good Folding card (or one that could be used as a secondary card for physx etc).

Of course this is heavily reliant on a cheap price tag.

In fact I will mention it a third time, it must be cheap :).
Posted on Reply
#17
Steevo
Cheap, and you get what you pay for, your first time OC will either burn traces, or cook the core. HTPC =FAIL with this, you still need sound, and with lower specs it will probably introduce alot of noise on the system BUS. This should be targeted at the average user, who knows not and doesn't care anyway.
Posted on Reply
#18
Static~Charge
"Colorful" also describes the language that you'll utter when you try to use this card for gaming....
Posted on Reply
#19
MTnumb
i can see the headlines already "child killed by exploding GPU fragments" and then colorful would say "what??it says "cheap" on the box! in small prints.
im getting the same question marks as the 8800gt xfx alpha dog edition. although the colorful cooler seems larger.
i think it can be used as an awsome shurikane and it must cost less then one.
Posted on Reply
#20
zCexVe
What is with this core???? Does it offer free sex to AIB partners when you buy that thing from nVIDIA?? At first I thought it was a great innovation.But now it is a pain in the ass.It comes round and round and round..No escape.
Posted on Reply
#21
to6ko91
Static~Charge"Colorful" also describes the language that you'll utter when you try to use this card for gaming....
lol you made me laugh :roll: thanks
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#22
Hayder_Master
let we stop at word "cheap" , how much if priced at 50$ it will be great
Posted on Reply
#23
niko084
With a 128bit bus the 9600GSO will rip this card...

This is horrific, I hope they go out of business for doing such things. That is REALLY dirty, I can only imagine now how many people are going to buy this card and then scream nvidia sucks...
Posted on Reply
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