Our today's article may seem boring to some of you, because we are going to examine another reincarnation of reference cards, packed into Foxconn's boxes. However, NVIDIA uses manufacturing facilities of this very company to produce its reference cards. So, theoretically we can say that it's Foxconn who actually manufactures these products. But still it's NVIDIA's engineers who thoroughly monitor the entire manufacturing process. Foxconn only owns the assembly lines.

Graphics Cards

Foxconn GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB
GPU: GeForce 9800 GTX (G92) Interface: PCI-Express x16 GPU frequencies (ROPs/Shaders): 685/1700 MHz (nominal - 675/1688 MHz) Memory frequencies (physical (effective)): 1100 (2200) MHz (nominal - 1100 (2200) MHz) Memory bus width: 256bit Vertex processors: - Pixel processors: - Unified processors: 128 Texture processors: 64 (BLF/TLF) ROPs: 16 Dimensions: 270x100x32 mm (the last figure is maximum thickness of the graphics card). PCB color: black RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU. Output connectors: 2xDVI (Dual-Link/HDMI), TV-Out. VIVO: not available TV-out: integrated into GPU. Multi-GPU operation: SLI (Hardware).
Foxconn GeForce 9800 GX2 2x512MB
GPU: 2 x GeForce 9800 GTX (2 x G92) Interface: PCI-Express x16 GPU frequencies (ROPs/Shaders): 600/1512 MHz (nominal - 600/1512 MHz) Memory frequencies (physical (effective)): 1000 (2000) MHz (nominal - 1000 (2000) MHz) Memory bus width: 2 x 256bit Vertex processors: - Pixel processors: - Unified processors: 2 x 128 Texture processors: 2 x 64 (BLF/TLF) ROPs: 2 x 16 Dimensions: 270x100x33 mm (the last figure is maximum thickness of the graphics card). PCB color: black RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU. Output connectors: 2xDVI (Dual-Link/HDMI), HDMI. VIVO: not available TV-out: not installed. Multi-GPU operation: SLI (Hardware).

Foxconn GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB
The graphics card has 512 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM allocated in eight chips on the front side of the PCB. Samsung memory chips (GDDR3). 0.8 ns memory access time, which corresponds to 1250 (2500) MHz.
Foxconn GeForce 9800 GX2 2x512MB
The graphics card has 1024 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM allocated in sixteen chips (eight chips on the front side of each PCB) Samsung memory chips (GDDR3). 0.8 ns memory access time, which corresponds to 1250 (2500) MHz.

Comparison with the reference design, front view
Foxconn GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB	Reference NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX
Foxconn GeForce 9800 GX2 2x512MB	Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2

Comparison with the reference design, back view
Foxconn GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB	Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX
Foxconn GeForce 9800 GX2 2x512MB	Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2

There is no need to describe the design, I guess. They are just reference cards examined in the baseline articles: 9800 GTX, 9800 GX2.

The 9800 GTX has TV-Out with an original jack. You will need a special bundled adapter to output video to a TV set via S-Video or RCA. And there is no TV-Out on the 9800 GX2.

Analog monitors with D-Sub (VGA) interface are connected with special DVI-to-D-Sub adapters. The bundle also includes DVI-to-HDMI adapters (these graphics cards support video/audio transfer to HDMI receivers), so there should be no problems with such monitors. The 9800 GX2 card has a separate HDMI port.

Maximum resolutions and frequencies:

• 240 Hz Max Refresh Rate
• 2048 x 1536 x 32bit x85Hz Max - analog interface
• 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz Max - digital interface (all DVIs with Dual-Link)

What concerns MPEG2 playback features (DVD-Video), we analyzed this issue in 2002. Little has changed since that time. CPU load during video playback on modern graphics cards does not exceed 25%.

What concerns HDTV, a review is available here.

Both cards require additional power supply, so each 9800 GTX card is bundled with a molex to 6-pin adapter, even though all modern PSUs are equipped with these cables. One of the two power connectors on the 9800 GX2 has 8 pins. So it's important that the bundle includes a proper adapter.

We decided not to repeat temperature monitoring, because we did it in the aforementioned baseline articles.