Board analysis

The ABIT 9800 XT card

Back of the card

Board design

As we just stated, ABIT’s initial RADEON 9800 XT offering is based entirely on ATI’s reference design, right down to the copper cooling unit. This is a pretty popular strategy for board manufacturers to employ – stick with the reference design for your first generation graphics card in order to bring the product to market more quickly. Often these boards are made directly by ATI themselves (via PC Partner/Sapphire) and then sold to the board partner. This allows the board partner to cash in on the new product announcement as soon as it's available.

Once the board partner has had enough time to develop something unique, this product is produced and marketed as a second-generation card. These are the cards that come with added features such as more robust cooling, video input, or components that operate at faster clock speeds. It’s these features that give these second generation cards a buzz of their own.

Capacitors, VRMs

While some of you may be disappointed with the fact that ABIT is relying on ATI’s reference design, don’t be. ATI has incorporated a number of improvements in the 9800 XT. The power circuitry has been completely overhauled with an emphasis on reliable operation at higher clock speeds and to take more heat.

Air enters the duct here

And exits here

Another shot of the copper cooler

The cooler itself is composed entirely of copper, a first for an ATI graphics card. The heatsink takes up an enormous amount of real estate in order to increase surface area and thus pull more heat off the graphics core. A large fan collects nearby air which is then passed through a duct before exiting out the sides of the card. And while the fan is large, it spins at lower RPMs than most fans; making up for the lower rotational speed by having longer fins.

In operation the fan is surprisingly quiet, and like GeForce FX, it operates dynamically. As the graphics core’s temperature increases, the fan cranks up the RPMs (two modes are available). It’s all totally invisible to the end user -- we wouldn’t be surprised if some card owners didn’t even realize it. The fan is located offset of the graphics core for longevity (heat rising up from the graphics core can potentially shorten the life of the fan’s ball bearings) and to increase the effectiveness of the ducting system.

9800 XT back plate

All ABIT does is slap their sticker on the card’s fan and duct, box it all up, and sell it to the consumer. We have a very strong suspicion that this card was produced in the same factory as our Built By ATI RADEON 9800 XT card we received last year.

Packaging

ABIT’s RADEON 9800 XT comes with everything you’d expect from a typical graphics card. You’ve got the obligatory DVI adapter, power adapter cable, and S-Video and composite cables. The soft stuff included with the card is also standard fare. ABIT bundles a copy of PowerDVD 5 along with the driver CD, and, of course, a redeemable coupon for a free copy of Half-Life 2 (once it’s released).