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Bundle

The ATI HD 4830 we received is only an evaluation / review card, so it did not come with a bundle.

This wasn't the case with the N9800GT:

The bundle was quite complete, including a quick installation guide, a manual, a DVI-VGA adapter, a HDMI adapter, S-Video cables, an SPDIF audio cable, and a driver CD with a bunch of software, including MSI's Live Monitor program (which automatically updates drivers), CyberLink, a nice overclocking program, and PowerDVD.

For the price this a fantastic bundle.

Overclocking: ATI HD 4830

From the get-go we had high hopes for the overclocking potential. Heat was a big problem with the HD 4850, but because the RV770LE has had some of it's capabilities locked up, the situation bodes well for cooling.

We started with a fairly aggressive overclock -- this was no problem. So we cranked the overclock to the max that the Catalyst Control Centre would allow. Everything ran no problem. Not even a hint of an instability. But, really, the CCC only allows so much overclocking -- the max was 650 MHz for the core, and 1000 MHz for the memory (compared to the default 575 / 900.)

One catch though -- we set the fan to 100% using the new fan control option recently included in Catalyst 8.10. Running at 100%, the card was damn loud.

As far as good deals go, the HD 4830 has tremendous potential to get you into that HD 4850 performance bracket with paying a bit less. I'm interested to see what the board partners will do -- an effective, quiet non-stock fan tied to the HD 4830 should give gamers a good performance bargain. There is definitely more overclocking potential on the horizon for this video card. 

Overclocking: MSI N9800 GT

The MSI N9800GT has a solid shader clock boost -- but no extra push for the core clock; so we thought we'd see what we could do. 

After some tribulations, we managed to find stability at 721 / 1791 / 983, using RivaTuner. Compare this to it's stock-clocks of 660 / 1625 / 950.

This overclock is pretty darn good -- especially that healthy shader overclock.

In the great card battle between the N9800 GT and the HD 4830, for now, it is fairly even. Though there does seem to be a bit more potential lying in waiting with the HD 4830.