FiringSquad reviews PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GTX OC video card
If you're like us, you're probably still recovering from the latest round of VGA price cuts. NVIDIA's entire GeForce lineup has seen a complete price makeover, with the GeForce 9800 GTX going from $299.99 to $199.99. Even the GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280 have seen their prices reduced. As a result, gamers looking to upgrade this summer who may have had their eye on the GeForce 8800 GT can now upgrade to a faster card like the 9800 GTX or Radeon HD 4850 and save money in the process.
All these price adjustments have had a significant effect on NVIDIA's board partners as well. Not only have they been forced to slash their prices, many of them will also have to take a hard look at their distinct offerings for each GPU: with just $50 separating the GeForce 9600 GT from the GeForce 9800 GTX, some board partners may want to axe certain SKUs. Picking and choosing isn't going to be an easy task either, there are literally dozens of combinations of factory OC'ed versus stock GeForce 9600 GT and 8800 GT cards out there, and dozens more combinations of cards with different types of dual-slot and single-slot cooling. And don't forget that there are still plenty of GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB cards still floating around in the market even though production of the card has officially ended!
With so many different choices out there, keeping up with all the different cards can be a daunting task. The scary part is things could potentially get even more confusing shortly. GeForce 9800 GTX+ cards will be hitting retail shelves in the next two weeks, and NVIDIA is expected to debut additional 55-nm G94b and G96 GPUs by the end of this quarter. These GPUs will reportedly be sold as GeForce 9500 GT and 9800 GT cards...
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