Introduction

Today NVIDIA launches the GeForce 9800 GX2. As the name suggests this card is a dual GPU design, just like the AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2. Compared to the latter there is a big design difference, NVIDIA uses two seperate PCBs with one GPU each. This allows much easier signal routing and helps signal stability allowing higher clocks. As cooling solution a new ingenious approach is used. The GPUs are facing each other, with one cooler in between. This helps keep the fan noise down, also the whole card is lighter and is cheaper to manufacture.

When looking at the specs it becomes clear that the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 is really not much more than two 8800 GTS cards glued together and running in SLI. What should be noted here is that the GeForce 9800 GX2 will work in any system with PCI-Express, an NVIDIA chipset is not required for operation.
Zotac's card follows the reference design to the letter, with the only exception being a Zotac sticker on the card's cooler. Zotac is working hard with NVIDIA to release a higher-performance Amp! Edition, but at the moment NVIDIA does not allow any changes to the card and its settings.