EVGA GeForce 8800 GT Superclocked Edition Review
At the end of last month Nvidia released one of their best video cards in
sometime with the first 65nm revision of the GeForce 8 series of cards we've
seen yet, the GeForce 8800 GT which not only bested the GTS but also came close
several times to the GeForce 8800 GTX. As always with Nvidia cards the vendors
have released numerous overclocked and tricked out editions of the card, and
today we have one of these to look at, EVGA's GeForce 8800 GT Superclocked
Edition.
The GeForce 8800 GT addresses several of the major problems with the
higher-end GeForce 8800 series products. The majority of these addressed due to
a shrink in the GPU core from 90nm to 65nm manufacturing process which solves
the major issues of heat and power draw. The card isn't exactly cool running
when maxed out however the dual slot solution has been replaced by a single slot
cooling solution, freeing up any expansion slots the 8800 GTX and GTS took and
letting up on the massive girth of the previous cards. The length has also been
shortened just a hair shorter than the GeForce 8800 GTS. Power draw has also
been reduced significantly coming in at levels about 60 watts lower than a
GeForce 8800 GTX at full load.
All GeForce 8800 GTs currently at launch are basically the same reference
design so there is no change there however the clocks are different depending on
the card manufacturer's model. The 8800 GT features 112 stream processors, 16
less than a GTX but 16 more than an 8800 GTS. The stock clock speed is 600MHz
for the GPU core and 1.8GHz for the memory clockspeed with a 256-bit bus and at
present only 512MB versions though 256MB versions are expected in the future.
This Superclocked 8800 GT from EVGA ratches things up slightly at 650MHz for the
GPU core and 1.9GHz for the 512MB of memory. The only other thing which is
different is the label on the front.
For customer service EVGA offers some nice features of a lifetime warranty,
step-up programm, and direct RMA service to bypass the store you bought it from
as they boast when you open the box. The bundle includes the full version of
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars which is an excellent free game in addition to the
hardware bundle of DVI-to-VGA adapters, HDTV dongle, S-Video cable, and a PCI-Express-to-Molex
power adapter.
Now let's move onto the test system.
Windows XP SP2 Professional was our test system which we ran with the Nvidia
169.06 drivers.
We start things off with Crysis' CPU benchmark included with
the game and we see immediately the potential of the GeForce 8800 GT, as the
EVGA Superclocked comes in at 1fps less at 1280x1024 and 1fps less at
1600x1200. An amazing feat for a much less expensive and power hungry card.
The Crysis GPU benchmark shows similar results though the
8800GT does perform a few frames per second worse it's hardly a significant
difference. The 8800 GTS isn't bad but it can't keep up.
With Epic's brand new Unreal Tournament 3 we see very similar
results from Crysis' numbers with the 8800 GT quite close to the GeForce
8800 GTX and bringing in very high numbers even at 1600x1200 with AA maxed.
The EVGA Superclocked card brings in a few more fps than the
XFX run at standard clock but not an great difference between the two in
Hellgate: London.
3DMark 2006 synthetic benchmark but a visually stunning one.
What surprises is that even with this brand new games and this high-end
benchmark, the performance seems to maintain its self, besting the GTS and
nearly matching the GTX with everything we throw at it.
Nvidia have come back strong after almost a year of dormancy in the high-end
market with nothing but the overpriced GeForce 8800 GTX Ultra since then, they
now with the GeForce 8800 GT have a card which addresses all the issues of the
high-end 8800 cards and also comes in at a very attractive price. Although it is
much more the $199-$249 they were claming at first, hopefully we will see the
price drop before the year is out.
As far as EVGA they provide excellent customer service and also a great
software bundle. Nothing really to complain about here but there isn't the
almost all the 8800 GT video cards. The only real problem is of course
availability which is basically zero at this point. Hopefully that will change
as well.
Score: 98%
Amazon $299.99
