14 DAY TRIAL // If you don?t know already, NVIDIA launched three new graphics cards yesterday, the GeForce 9800GTX+, 9800GT and 9500GT. While the 55nm 9800GTX+ was available at a number (if not all) of NVIDIA's board partners prior to the official release, the mid-range 9800GT and entry-level 9500GT are clearly newcomers on the scene. Consequently, we?re to see a number of GeForce cards based on these two GPUs being released in the days to come.
Leadtek is one of NVIDIA's oldest board partners, so it comes as no surprise that it has already rolled out its own version of the two GPUs. For more accuracy, the company has done a bit more than that, as it has already released three new GeForce 9800GT-based cards and no less than four 9500GT cards. Should you deem this number not that impressive after all, just remember that Sparkle is expected to put out no less than 25 new GeForce cards, just based on the 9800GT and 9500GT graphics processors. Nevertheless, until that comes to happen, you might as well take a closer look at what Leadtek has to offer.
The GeForce 9800GT-based cards are all equipped with a single-slot cooling solution, which is different from the standard NVIDIA card. Two of these cards, the PX9800 GT and PX9800 GT (S-Fanpipe), come with a reference GPU speed, as well as Shaders and memory. The only difference between the two appears to be the cooling solution. The other 9800GT-based card, dubbed the PX9800 GT Extreme, is designed for a higher performance level and this is why Leadtek set the speed of the GPU at 680MHz, which is pretty impressive taking into account the fact that the card is provided with a single-slot cooling solution.
The four 9500 GT-based cards are offered in both GDDR2 and GDDR3 versions - two of each, to be more precise. The only difference between one GDDR2-enabled card and the other is to be found in the cooling solution used on each of them, which also goes for the GDDR3 models. The Heatpipe Edition will offer consumers a silent cooling technology, while the other version comes with a fan cooling solution. Both cards are clocked at 575MHz, and provide 512MB of GDDR2 memory, clocked at 1000MHz. With the GDDR3-based models, Leadtek provides a 575MHz GPU speed and 512MB of memory clocked at 1600MHz.
