Not so long ago we were getting quite annoyed with the state of the graphics card industry for one good reason. The reason being of course that $200 US bought you what was quite possibly the worst mid-range graphics card in history, the dreaded GeForce 8600 GTS. With an MSRP of $199-229 US we expected big things from the product that was set to be the successor of the 7600 GT. What we got in early 2007 was a graphics card barely worthy of replacing the year old 7600 GT.

This did shatter our dreams of buying a powerful $200 US graphics card capable of playing the latest and greatest games using respectable quality settings. However there was still a chance that ATI would come through with the goods and make a mockery of the 8600 GTS. So along came the Radeon HD 2600XT a few months later, with an even more affordable MSRP of just $149 US, placing it in direct competition with the even slower GeForce 8600 GT. Thinking the Radeon HD 2600XT could not possibly be slower than the GeForce 8600 GTS we were quickly proven wrong, and with an average frame rate of 50fps in Far Cry at 1600x1200, we shed a tear.

Things in the mid-range market remained fairly dismal until very late 2007 when the GeForce 8800 GT was finally released at $249, delivering GeForce 8800 GTX like performance. Then early 2008 the Radeon HD 3870 followed, and while it may have been slower than the 8800 GT, it was priced accordingly with an MSRP of just $219 US. Now things were starting to look up, and when the GeForce 9600 GT finally arrived in February of 2008, it was clear that we were finally on to a good thing.

With an MSRP of just $169 - $189 US the GeForce 9600 GT was a serious bargain, so much so that ATI were forced to slash the pricing of its already cheap Radeon HD 3870. However today’s pricing has the GeForce 9600 GT and the Radeon HD 3870 selling for as little as $135 US, some 4 months after the release of the 9600 GT. The GeForce 9800 GTX was also announced 4 months ago and with an MSRP of $299-$349 we are almost scratching our heads in disbelief as graphics cards based on this GPU are currently going for as little as $210 US, which is madness.

The reason for all this madness is quite simple, and it has a name. We call it the Radeon HD 4850, and at $200 US it really is something special. Released on the 25th of June, we took an early look at this new Radeon, comparing it to what was at the time a much more expensive GeForce 9800 GTX. On the 19th we published an article titled “ATI Radeon HD 4850 vs. Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX”, where the new $200 US Radeon really took it to the $300 US GeForce. However, the GeForce 9800 GTX has become considerably cheaper and not only that, but a new GeForce 9800 GTX+ (Plus) version is about to make its way into town, offering even more performance at roughly $220 US.

Nvidia’s new GeForce 9800 GTX+ graphics card has been introduced to crash the ATI party, with the intention to slow sales of the Radeon HD 4850. The revised GeForce has been overclocked by 9%, while the die has been shrunk down from 65nm to just 55nm’s to help deal with the thermal output of higher clock frequency. Other than the frequency adjustment to the core and shader, along with the small die, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ is really no different to the original 9800 GTX. While the small overclock will account for a little extra performance, the real story is in the 30% price drop which places the 9800 GTX where the 9600 GT was just a few weeks ago.

When first comparing the GeForce 9800 GTX to the Radeon HD 4850 we were impressed with the level of performance this new Radeon delivered, not to mention the consistency. The Radeon HD 4850 is one of the most solid Radeon’s we have seen in a long time, showing greatly improved anti-aliasing performance that in many cases made this graphics card more efficient than the 9800 GTX. However, with some serious pricing adjustments and a little tweaking, how does the new GeForce 9800 GTX+ compare to the Radeon HD 4850? Well, we are about to find out…