(20 March 2008 5:00 pm)

BANGALORE: XFX today introduced the XFX NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2-based graphics card.

Specifically, the GeForce 9800 GX2-based graphics card combines the power of two GeForce 9800 GPUs into a single graphics solution.

Featuring NVIDIA HybridPower technology, 256 extremely fast-stream processors and a 1GB framebuffer, this device clocks in at up to 50 percent faster across games than the industry's previous top athlete, the GeForce 8800 Ultra, claims the company.

The 9800 GX2's powerful dual-GPU design enables smooth game play at resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600, even with all available in-game features turned on.

It is also designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture, offering the highest data transfer speeds for the most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications, while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest support.

"Pair up this graphics athlete with an additional 9800 GX2-based card and one of the newly released XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboards for a true performance technology solution that brings home the gold with scorching frame rates, true-to-life extreme HD gaming and picture-perfect Blu-ray and HD DVD movies," a company statement says.

With a 1600 MHz FSB the XFX's 790i Ultra SLI motherboard is the foundation for the world's ultimate gaming PC, enabling users to build the fastest, most overclockable Intel CPU-based rig and experience unmatched DirectX 10 gaming for 2-way and 3-way SLI. This motherboard is also ESA certified.

The 9800 GX2 graphics card utilizes a second generation NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology engine for an unsurpassed home theatre experience.

Users experience unprecedented HD picture clarity, smooth video, accurate colour and precise image scaling for movies or video.

PureVideo is a discrete programmable processing core that provides ultra smooth movies with 100 percent of H.264 video decoding from the CPU with significantly reduced power consumption.

Hardware Decode Acceleration provides ultra-smooth playback of H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 HD and SD movies. Dual-stream Hardware Acceleration supports picture-in-picture content and Dynamic Contrast Enhancement and Colour Stretch ensures post-processing and optimisation of high definition movies on scene-by-scene basis with spectacular picture quality. An integrated HDMI connector allows users to send both high-definition video and audio signals to their HDTVs via a single cable.

The 9800 GX2 graphics card goes the distance with additional technological advancements, such as the ability to enlarge lower resolution movies and videos to HDTV resolutions, recover original film images from films-converted-to-video, noise reduction and edge enhancement that ensures that the user experience is truly the gold standard.

The 9800GX2 graphics card and 790i Ultra motherboard are available with Rashi Peripherals and its nationwide branches across India at an estimated street price of Rs 45,999 and Rs 22,999 along with three and two year warranties respectively.