Hardware G92: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT

Well IMO the best way to go is to buy a GT now (eVGA), then Step Up to the new cards which are released soon or a GTX when they come down in price.

 

That was a good read

I was cosidering getting two new revision GTS's in sli but mmm may just get one of the new revision GTX's instead.

Also i heard that the new GTS may have been pushed back to december now?

 

I feel cheated now since I bought my 8800GTS 320MB around 6 months ago, I think..

But then again, every piece of software I've used has told me that my card is actually a 640MB variant even though the packaging says 320MB..

So maybe it's not all that bad Great card regardless and a must have for anyone who wants value!

 

Hmmm.... Just bought a 8800GTS/640 on the forums... Then the next day, I spot this card... so I've bought the Gigabyte offering from Dabs.

But which to stick with? On the face of it, the GT is a step ahead of the GTS, but for certain games, the extra memory bandwidth of the GTS will take it ahead,

The card has to last me a year and have a decent resale value so I'm thinking sell the GTS now while it holds it's value and go for the GT. In a years time, I can buy a cheap Ultra or perhaps a 9x00(?).

 

Very nooby question coming up, dont bite:

will the 8800GT work on my motherboard: Asus P5B Deluxe ? It has a PCI Express x16 slot

Heres a link to the mobo:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/08/03/asus_p5b_deluxe_wifi_ap_edn/2

Very nooby question :S im sure it should do because the 8800GT is pci express but iv not kept upto date on hardware after building my computer and im concerned a new connection type may well be out?

Im looking at the 8800GT i have ordered (EVGA superclocked) and it says "PCI-E 2.0 (x16)" - will this still work or is it different? :S

 

pci-e 2 is backwords compatible with pci-e, so your fine

 

Half the price of the GTX, and roughly the same performance? If nVidia's 9 series are like this ATI will have some definitive competition. I love how its single slot too, and how it has a nice small cooler, so SLI is easier, and I get some free PCI slots too .

 

If you "step down" from a gts640 to a gt, do they give you the difference in price back?

 

What is this "step-up" program? im guessing you can upgrade an old EVGA card for a new one and pay the difference or something? Anyone able to give me more info and how to qualify for it?

 

Yeah, you basically have to step up, you cannot step down.

You have 3 months after purchase to step up to the new card, and if I can remember, you pay the different of what you paid for the card.

You have to have bought the card yourself though, if it came with a ready built PC, you cannot step up.

Once you step up though, you cannot step up with the new card.

 

Does it have to be within a 3month period? I mean they may not have released anything better by then :S

 

Yup it's 90 days.

 

Bang for Buck that is one hell of a card.

 

now i am thinking about a portable version of this card on a laptop...

edit: and this is just the reference board...... imagine what the other versions will do..... golden sample.....hmmmmm

 

as an owner of a GTS640MB, a little part of me deep inside my heart is crying...............

....but the rest of me is actually pretty excited to see what's gonna come next with this new family of G9x

well, at least i can oc'd my GTS higher than the GT, so its still faster dont forget, the GT comes factory default at 600/1500/1800... GTS is at 513/1200/1600. would love to see a comparison if the GTS is oc'd exactly identical to the GT speed. see who's faster then.............

 

@Redbeaver
that would be interesting, at a guess the gt would be better at lower resolutions

 

Thanks for the additional technical details. Great review as usual.

Seconded / fourthed / ...

My rule for myself is that once I've made a purchase I stop looking at prices until I'm ready to replace that part - otherwise I'm almost guaranteed to be disappointed. (I bought a 640MB GTS two months back)

Welcome to Bit-Tech

Spoiler

(but "Office Frisbee" is two words)

You have my sympathy - I'm in the same boat and feeling the same things.

 

Overall a very nice review, but this made me a bit disappointed:

Why didn't you guys run it with the 2.10x patch? Too many cards to re-test? It adds loads of goodies and tweaks that came with the expansion

 

I completely forgot about that patch, but I'll be swapping the game out for Opposing Fronts soon as it's a bit more current.

 

Tim, how bout adding an overclocked GTS640 in there? clock it as fast as the GT. using Rivatuner u can clock the shader individually, giving (i assume) an identical freq set.

i'd love to see the comparison, because currently my GTS is at 675/1450/975, and its blistering fast, nearly as fast as GTX but still not fast enough (but i play exclusively at 1680x1050 tho, except 3dmark06 of course). my guess would be it would loose out abit in lower res and 0xAF, but will win out on higher texture and 16xAF. due to 640mb vs 512mb.

plus, did u guys try to oc'd the GT at all? i mustve missed that in the review........

Can i get an amen here, fellows?