The Card

Pulling the card out of the box, we can see that MSI have gone for their own design of cooler. Across the bottom we can see a number of heat pipes that go from where the core is up through the heatsink to help keep the card as cool as possible.

MSI have of course also placed a sticker over the cooler that lets us know what brand the card is along with what model it is. We again see mention that the card is part of the gaming series.

Looking around the card, we have our standard connectors; the back has a single 6-pin PCI Express connector while across the top we have a single SLI connector. Located next to that is another connector that is used for the extra cable included in the package which helps get sound through the HDMI adapter.

Finally we leave with the I/O side of things. As you can see, apart from the standard exhaust grills MSI have also added their logo in the middle. Also included are the typical ports we're used to seeing which include a TV-Out port and two Dual-Link DVI connectors.

Specifications

As we mentioned the card comes out of the box overclocked. Instead of the stock 600MHz core and 1800MHz DDR memory clock, the MSI 9800 GT comes in with a 660MHz core and 1900MHz DDR memory clock.