Graphics Cards Guide

Compare This

Zotac GeForce 9800 GT Eco

15 Sep 2009

With the increasing emphasis on green computing, graphics card manufacturers have come up with power-efficient variants of the highly popular GeForce 9800 GT. These eco-friendly versions promise lower power consumption at similar performance levels.

Tags: (none)

Filter by Manufacturers

HWZ's Overall Rating: 8.0

<div id="product-review" class="article">
			<h2 class="header-green">Power Efficient Gaming with GeForce 9800 GT Eco Cards</h2>
		<span class="byline">Article by Kenny Yeo on Tuesday, 15 Sep 2009</span>
		<div class="share">
	<div
		id="addthis_div_51993b6c5beb5" 
		class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"
		addthis:url="http://www.hardwarezone.com/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards"		addthis:title="Power Efficient Gaming with GeForce 9800 GT Eco Cards"	>
		<a class="addthis_button_google_plusone" g:plusone:count="false"></a>
		<a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
		<a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
		
		<a class="addthis_button_email"></a>
	</div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
	window.addEvent ('domready', function ()
	{
 		//AddThis thing
		addthis_share = window.addthis_share || {};
		addthis_share.url_transforms = {
			add: {
				utm_source: 'addthis',
				utm_medium: 'referral',
				utm_campaign: 'addthis',
				utm_content: 'Power%2BEfficient%2BGaming%2Bwith%2BGeForce%2B9800%2BGT%2BEco%2BCards'
			}
		}
		
		addthis_config = window.addthis_config || {};
		addthis_config.data_track_clickback = true;
		addthis_config.data_ga_property = 'UA-166763-1';
		//window.addthis && addthis.toolbox (".addthis_toolbox");
		 
	});
//]]>
</script>		<div class="content resizeable">
						<div id="page-1" class="page">
		 		<h2 class="page-title">Green Power</h2>
		 		<h3 class="page_title">Green Power</h3>
<p>The current obsession with going &quot;green&quot; and &quot;eco-power&quot; is understandable. This has much to do with the surge in crude oil prices during the past year. This incident provided a wake-up call for all, highlighting the need to conserve and to find alternative sources of energy.</p>
<p>While the automobile industry has shown an increasing emphasis on electric-powered cars and alternative fuels such as bioethanol, home builders are looking at ways to build wholly self-sustainable houses with the use of solar and wind energy. Similarly, the PC and hardware industry is responding by finding ways to cut down on electrical consumption and improve efficiency on all levels.</p>
<p>Graphics cards are perhaps one of the most power-hungry devices of a PC and manufacturers are looking at ways to help tune its power consumption by better engineering. Enter the power-efficient versions of NVIDIA's popular GeForce 9800 GT cards. In a nutshell, these power-efficient GeForce 9800 GT cards are 'greener' versions of standard GeForce 9800 GT cards which require less power to run. Key components responsible for this change are the revised GPU silicon optimized for power efficiency as well as revised PCB and power circuitry of the card. Crucially, these optimized GeForce 9800 GT cards can be powered without the need of an additional 6-pin PCIe power connector, which means they can make do with the 75W that the motherboard's PCIe x16 graphics card slot provides, which in turn translates to lower power consumption than the first iterations of the GeForce 9800 GT.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><img src="http://images.hardwarezone.com/upload/files/2010/01/f74a952e61.jpg" title="The difference between these two cards and other GeForce 9800 GT cards is that they do not required a 6-pin PCIe power connector to power up. Instead, they draw all their power directly from the motherboard." class="caption" alt="" /></p>
<p class="rteleft">However, as the old saying goes, &quot;no pain no gain&quot;, likewise, the GeForce 9800 GT has to undergo some restrictions to be able to work without drawing additional power from a dedicated PCIe power connector. Inevitably, these green GeForce 9800 GT cards lose out on sheer graphics horsepower as their core clock speeds have been reduced from 600MHz to 550MHz, whereas shader clock speeds have been knocked down from 1500MHz to 1375MHz, memory clock speeds, thankfully, remain the same. This represents about a 10% drop in core and shader clock speeds, and we expect to see a significant difference in performance too.</p>
<p>Today, we take two eco versions of the GeForce 9800 GT cards to see how they stack up against a regular GeForce 9800 GT and just how power efficient they are.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><img src="http://images.hardwarezone.com/upload/files/2010/01/8676c9bb82.gif" title="The only thing different about these power-efficient versions are its lower GPU and shader clock speeds." class="caption" alt="" /></p>			</div>
		</div>
			<div class="pagination" >
		<span class="desc">Page 1 of 9</span>
		<ul>
			<li class="prevnext prev"><a href="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards" class="disabled">&lsaquo; Prev</a></li>
			<li class="skip">
				<form id="PageAddForm" method="post" action="/go"><fieldset style="display:none;"><input type="hidden" name="_method" value="POST" /></fieldset>					<select name="data[Page][url]" class="page-selector" id="PageUrl">
<option value="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards" selected="selected">Green Power</option>
<option value="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards/power-efficient-cards">The Power Efficient Cards</option>
<option value="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards/test-setup-1">Test Setup</option>
<option value="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards/windows-vista-results-3dmark06">Windows Vista Results - 3DMark06</option>
<option value="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards/windows-vista-results-3dmark-vantage">Windows Vista Results - 3DMark Vantage</option>
<option value="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards/windows-vista-results-crysis-warhead-far-cry-2">Windows Vista Results - Crysis Warhead &amp; Far Cry 2</option>
<option value="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards/windows-vista-results-dawn-war-2">Windows Vista Results - Dawn of War 2</option>
<option value="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards/temperature-power-consumption-overclocking-2">Temperature, Power Consumption &amp; Overclocking</option>
<option value="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards/conclusion-4">Conclusion</option>
</select>					<input type="submit" class="submit" value="Go" />				</form>			</li>
			<li class="prevnext next"><a href="/feature-power-efficient-gaming-geforce-9800-gt-eco-cards/power-efficient-cards" class="">Next &rsaquo;</a></li>
		</ul>
	</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
	window.addEvent ('domready', function ()
	{
 
		var container = document.getElement ('#product-review'),
			content = container && container.getElement ('.content'),
			pagination = container && container.getElement ('.pagination'),
			form = pagination && pagination.getElement ('form'),
			menu = form && form.getElement ('.page-selector'),
			links = {
				prev: pagination && pagination.getElement ('.prev a'),
				next: pagination && pagination.getElement ('.next a')
			},
			page = -1,
			desc = 'Page {curPage} of {lastPage}'
		;

// Tag as Javascript-enabled
		pagination.addClass ('js');

menu.addEvent ('change', function (e)
		{
			var curPage = this.selectedIndex + 1,
				lastPage = this.length,
				url = this.get ('value'),
				pageContent = container && container.getElement ('.page')
			;

// Disable controls
			menu.set ('disabled', 'disabled').blur ();
			if (pageContent) pageContent.setStyle ('opacity', .5);

new Request.HTML ({
				'url': url,
				'method': 'get',
				'link': 'cancel',
				'update': content,
				'onSuccess': function ()
				{
					// Update controls
					menu.erase ('disabled');
					links.prev
						.set ('href', menu.getChildren ('option')[(curPage > 1)? curPage - 2: curPage - 1].get ('value'))
						[(curPage > 1)? 'removeClass': 'addClass'] ('disabled')
					;
					links.next
						.set ('href', menu.getChildren ('option')[(curPage < lastPage)? curPage: curPage - 1].get ('value'))
						[(curPage < lastPage)? 'removeClass': 'addClass'] ('disabled')
					;
					pagination.getElement ('.desc').set ('text', desc.substitute ({ curPage: curPage, lastPage: lastPage}));

captureIntraLinks ();
					new Fx.Scroll (window).toElement (container);
				},
				'onFailure': function ()
				{
					// Restore controls
					menu.erase ('disabled');
					if (pageContent) pageContent.setStyle ('opacity', 1);
				}
			}).send ();
		});
		$$([links.prev, links.next]).addEvent ('click', function (e)
		{
			e.stop (); this.blur ();
			if (!this.hasClass ('disabled'))
				menu.set ('value', this.get ('href')).fireEvent ('change');
		});
		form.addEvent ('submit', function (e)
		{
			e.stop (); this.blur ();
			menu.fireEvent ('change');
		})

// Capture all intra-page links and hook to js
		function captureIntraLinks ()
		{
			content.getElements ('a[href^="#"]').flatten().each (function (link)
			{
				var target = link.get ('href').substr (6).trim ();
				if (target && target.match (/^\d+$/) && target <= menu.length)
					link.addEvent ('click', function (e)
					{
						e.stop (); this.blur ();
						menu.selectedIndex = target - 1;
						menu.fireEvent ('change');
					});
			});
		}
		captureIntraLinks ();

// Trigger initial pagination state
		var target = location.hash && location.hash.substr (6).trim ();
		if (target && target.match (/^\d+$/) && target <= menu.length && target != page)
		{
			menu.selectedIndex = target - 1;
			menu.fireEvent ('change');
		}
 
	});
//]]>
</script>
				</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
	window.addEvent ('domready', function ()
	{
 
		var section = $('tab-product-content-review'),
			dropdown = section.getElement ('#reviews-list'),
			tId = 0
		;

if (section && dropdown)
		{
			var list = dropdown.getElement ('ul'),
				links = list.getElements ('li a')
			;

dropdown.addClass ('js');
			list.set ('morph', { 'link': 'cancel' });

$$(dropdown, list).addEvents ({
				'mousemove': function ()
				{
					$clear (tId);
				},
				'mouseenter': function ()
				{
					list.set ('morph', {'duration': 'short'}).morph ({ 'opacity': 1 });
				},
				'mouseleave': function ()
				{
					tId = function () { list.set ('morph', {'duration': 'short'}).morph ({ 'opacity': 0}); }.delay (1000);
				}
			}).fireEvent ('mouseleave');

links.addEvent ('click', function (e)
			{
				e.stop ();
				//unescape the 'alt' prooperty
				var o = new Element('i', { 'html': this.get ('alt')});
				new Request.HTML ({
					'url': o.get('text') + '&as=ajax',
					'method': 'get',
					'link': 'cancel',
					'update': section.empty().grab(new Element('div')
						.addClass ('waiter')
						.grab (new Element ('span', {
							text: 'Please wait while we load your article ...'
						}))
					)
				}).send ();
			})

section.getElements ('.footer .comments a').addEvent ('click', function (e)
			{
				e.stop ();
				new Fx.Scroll (window).toElement ($('tab-product-details'));

var href = this.get ('href').match (/#.+$/), target = href && href[0];
				if (target)
					(function () { new Fx.Scroll (window).toElement ($(target.substr (1))); })
						.delay (3000);

$('tab-product-comments').getChildren ('a')[0].fireEvent ('click');
			})
		}
		if( $$('.image-caption-container').length < 1 )
		{	
			$$('.article .content img[title]').each (function (img)
			{
				// skip if title is empty
				if (!img.get ('title')) return;
			
				new Element ('span', {'class': 'image-caption-container'})
					.addClass (['left', 'right'].contains (img.get ('align'))? img.get ('align'): '')
					.set ('width', img.get ('width'))
					.replaces (img)
					.grab (img)
					.grab (new Element ('div', {
						'class': 'image-caption',
						'html': img.get ('title').trim ()
					}))
				;
				img.erase ('align');
			
				var link = img.getParents ('a');
				if (link) link.addClass ('captioned');
			});
		}
 
	});
//]]>
</script>

Graphics Cards Guide

Zotac GeForce 9800 GT Eco

Filter by Manufacturers

You may also be interested in...