Introduction

When it comes to overclocked cards, there are only a few companies that really take it to the max. ZOTAC go pretty hard with its AMP! Edition line-up while Palit get some pretty mean speeds with the Sonic models. The only other company that really takes the time to test the cards and get into the high overclocks would be ASUS with its TOP line-up.

Today we're looking at the latter of the bunch; the ASUS 9800 GTX TOP which carries quite a menacing core and memory clock that makes it stand out from the pack. While the 9800 GTX might not offer the leaps and bounds performance increase that we thought it would at launch, it has brought performance computing down in price making it a very good option for people who are looking at building a decent gaming rig.

Combine this with the fact that you can have up to three of these bad boys running side by side and you've got a pretty mean setup going on. While we do only have one on hand today, we've tested SLI and Tri-SLI in the past and we would probably avoid the latter due to the limited increase with the third card installed.

One thing that we've always liked about the GTX is just how close it performed to the GX2 while being considerably cheaper. Today we'll have a look at how much closer the TOP version from ASUS gets us and see if it can put the GX2 out of a job.