While NVIDIA has come up with a new naming scheme for its top-end cards, it seems that it’s determined to continue using the 9 series naming scheme for others. This month we see not only one new card enter the 9 series, but two. The 9800 GT is designed to come in below the 9800 GTX+, but stays ahead of the more mid-range orientated 9600 GT. Its main competition from the AMD side of things is the HD 4850 which carries some good performance and a competitive price.

Based on the G92 core, the new 9800 GT is really nothing more than an old 8800 GT. It operates with the same core clock of 600MHz, shader clock of 1,500MHz and the 512MB of GDDR3 memory coming in at 1,800MHz DDR. Also like the 8800 GT, we have a 256-bit memory interface and 112 processor cores.

The particular card we’re looking at today, however, is the Sonic version from Palit which means out of the box it’s overclocked. The core gets a nice little bump to 650MHz while the shader goes to 1,625MHz and the memory goes to 1,900MHz DDR. The card also uses a dual-slot cooler that helps keep the temperature and noise down compared to the stock cooling solution.

Inside the box there isn’t a whole lot going on. Apart from the graphics card we have a driver CD, manual, Molex to PCI Express connector and DVI to VGA connector. Palit has also chosen to include a full version copy of Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition.

The main competition for the new 9800 GT is the HD 4850 from ATI which comes in at a slightly higher price tag but has quickly become well known as a card that represents excellent value for money. As far as the stock 9800 GT goes, the card trails behind the HD 4850 by an average of 10% across most games and resolutions. The overclock that Palit has done with the card manages to bring the performance up to the HD 4850, with it sometimes passing it and other times just falling behind.

One of the biggest advantages the 9800 GT has over the HD 4850 is the temperature. While the single slot HD 4850 cooler keeps the core at a toasty 65°C, the dual-slot solution on the 9800 GT Sonic is a much more reasonable 50°C. Power draw between both cards is also very similar with less than 10 watts separating the HD 4850 and Palit 9800 GT at idle and load.

The pattern of NVIDIA re-releasing cards under a new naming scheme is confusing for the consumer and just creates more unnecessary models. Though with that said, the aggressive pricing on the launch of the product and the extra bump in performance the overclocked version offers over its stock counterpart do make it a very good card. The main thing you need to remember is that if you’re currently on an 8800 GT, upgrading to a 9800 GT is going to yield no increase.

As for deciding to choose between a HD 4850 and a 9800 GT, it’s really going to come down to your wallet. The 9800 GT comes in a little cheaper, but also is a little slower. Though we can see with a bit of an overclock on the core and memory we are able to get performance up to and above the HD 4850. If you add overclocking into the equation, you then have to think about the fact that the HD 4850 can also be overclocked and performance will go higher again. All in all, buying a graphics card for under $200 has never been more confusing.

While not everyone may agree with the way NVIDIA is going about releasing graphics cards, there’s no denying that it’s working at keeping AMD and its Radeon line-up at bay. While the 9800 GT might be nothing more than an 8800 GT, the aggressive pricing and performance of the Sonic version we have here today make it an excellent contender against the HD 4850.