We came to several interesting conclusions about the new GeForce 9800 GT.

First, GeForce 9800 GT is literally identical to GeForce 8800 GT, achieving the exact same performance. Its price is the same as GeForce 8800 GT, around USD 170. If you won’t use the Hybrid Power feature (which allows the video card to be turned off when you are not playing games, thus saving you some money on your electricity bill; you need to have a compatible motherboard, though) you can simply buy a GeForce 8800 GT and save some bucks. Even though both cards have officially the same price tag, on NewEgg.com you can find GeForce 8800 GT models being sold as low as USD 120. Of course as soon as more companies offer GeForce 9800 GT cards the price should drop.

This model from Palit with 1 GB achieved the same performance level of the regular GeForce 8800 GT card on practically all tests. The only time we saw a difference was at 2560x1600 with image quality settings maxed out on Crysis and Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and even then the difference wasn’t so big (5-6%). Since this model with 1 GB will hit the market costing more than the regular GeForce 9800 GT, we recommend you buying the regular model instead to save some bucks. Of course we haven’t run all possible games on the market and you may see some difference on other games.

At the USD 170 price range, GeForce 9800 GT is positioned between Radeon HD 3870 and Radeon HD 4850. It was between 3% and 49% faster than HD 3870, depending on the program and video configuration used.

However, if you research carefully you can find Radeon HD 4850 models also being sold at USD 170, making them a no-brainer for someone willing to buy a good video card and has this amount to spend. In fact, even if you find Radeon HD 4850 being sold for a little more than that we highly suggest you to make the effort to buy it instead of GeForce 9800 GT, as it provides a performance up to 62% higher, depending on the game and configuration used. Of course 62% is an extreme case, but you will easily see around 20% performance gain over 9800 GT.

As we mentioned, the reviewed 1 GB model from Palit will reach the market costing a little bit more than the regular GeForce 9800 GT, putting it in the same price range as Radeon HD 4850. Between the two, we recommend Radeon HD 4850.

GeForce 9800 GT would be a good pick only if its price dropped to around USD 150 or even below that, in our opinion.