The Verdict

Yeah, I like it.

Sure you can purchase a GeForce 9800 GTX and with a bit of luck clock it towards the same level as tested today. But the OCX model ensures you two things ..  the first is that the card is pre-tested for you. It is qualified to run at the advertised speeds.

The second big plus if that you keep the warranty on the card with the pre-defined overclock, and these two fact together make it a golden combo. It doesn't mean that the standard overclock will bring you a heap of additional performance though, but at average I'd say a 10% performance increase is plausible.

See it like this, the OCX model GeForce 9800 GTX the Porsche with the supercharged engine. The default Porsche is really just fine, yet some of us want that extra bite and that's where the OCX comes in.

At the moment of writing I do not have the exact pricing model at hand just yet. The reference clocked models already are coming down to 319 USD as we speak. So within a few weeks after launch I think this product will settle at 349 USD. For that money you get to play games with a card that pretty much equals GeForce 8800- Ultra performance.  With today's games the GeForce 9800 GTX obviously will eat pretty much anything you throw at it and that's golden.

You'll play Call of Duty 4 at 1920x1200 with an average framerate of roughly 50 FPS, and that's with all eye-candy enabled. That's just an awesome gaming experience man.

With the card also comes Hybrid SLI functionality, with the to be released Hybrid mainboards (simply put integrated graphics in the mainboard) the 9800 GTX can be switched off when not used. Cool feature. Also cool is HD decoding. In combo with PowerDVD this card will eat High-def content alive, not only that, it improves image quality as well.

So yeah, I like it. The OCX model in combo with the really good warranty and new step-up program make it a hell of a nice purchase. it's an awesome card to play games with.

And with these words of wisdom I'm concluding this review. Thanks go out to BFG for sending out the sample faster than I can honestly write.

And let me close with the wise words of Arnold: I'll be back.

Info: BFG Technology