Date:
Tuesday , July 01, 2008
Author:
Matthew Krysiak
Editor:
Brent Justice
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BFGTech GeForce 9800 GTX H2OC WC Edition

BFG has come out with a new branding: H20C. As the name suggests the video card comes preinstalled with a waterblock and on top of that is clocked even higher than their top tier OCX line. We see how it compares to a reference 9800 GTX and an 8800 GT.

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System Test Setup

For our test system platform we are using an ASUS Blitz Formula motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 processor at 3.66GHz, and 4GB of OCZ Technology DDR2 PC2-8000 Platinum. We are using the latest chipset drivers available and the latest BIOS at time of evaluation.

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Video Card Comparison Setup

All three video cards were evaluated at their default frequencies and with the latest drivers available at the time of the evaluation. For all NVIDIA GPU based video cards we are using the latest drivers, 175.16. We also have Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista installed.

Watercooling Setup

For our watercooling we used 1/2” tubing and a simple T-line. We used an old but still powerful Swiftech MCP600 pump with 600 GPH and a head of 10.5 feet. The radiator we chose was a high performance Thermochill PA120.1 that was designed for low CFM fans but does just as well with high CFM fans. The fan we chose was powerful but loud, the Panaflo H1 120mm with 103 CFM of airflow at a noisy 41 dBA.

Evaluation Setup

Please be aware we test our video cards a bit differently from what is the norm. We concentrate on examining the real-world gameplay that each video card provides. The Highest Playable section shows the best Image Quality delivered at a playable frame rate. We use a high performance system, with a very fast CPU in order to remove CPU bottlenecking.

In our graphs we use some abbreviations to indicate the method of AA or AF being used.

TR MS = Transparency Multisampling Antialiasing – Indicates the use of NVIDIA’s Transparency Multisampling quality setting on GeForce 8 series video cards.

TR SS = Transparency Supersampling Antialiasing – Indicates the use of NVIDIA’s Transparency Supersampling quality setting on GeForce 8 series video cards.