Product Reviews

Graphics cards

Gigabyte GeForce 8800GT [Computer Shopper]
COMPANY: Gigabyte	PRICE: Ł174 inc VAT
RATING:	ISSUE: 241 DATE: Mar 08
LATEST PRICES: £204.10 (1 Retailers)

The 8800 series of graphics cards was launched almost a year ago, but Nvidia has only just released the mid-range version, the 8800GT. It has been worth the wait, though. This Gigabyte card is a stunning performer for the price.

Performance falls between the 8800GTX and 8800GTS, but it costs less than both, making it a real bargain. Using the latest beta drivers, the card managed 69.8fps in Call of Duty 2 at 1,280x1,024. This left enough headroom to push the resolution to 1,600x1,200, and we still saw 58.2fps. It was a similar story with Prey, where we saw 66.9fps at 1,600x1,200. The score of 9,086 3DMarks even beats the 8,702 3DMarks of the ECS GeForce 8800GTX, which we reviewed in What's New, Shopper 233. The GTX's score was with older drivers, but it makes the 8800GT look even more impressive.

Part of the reason the 8800GT is so fast is down to the fact that it's produced using a 65nm process, rather than the GTS



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and GTX, which use a 90nm process. This means that the GPU runs cooler and can therefore run faster. Its core clock speed of 600MHz is higher than the GTX's 575MHz. The shader clock is faster, too, at 1.5GHz compared to the GTX's 1.35GHz. There's 512MB RAM running at the same 900MHz (1.8GHz effective) as the GTX. Furthermore, there are 112 stream processors, just 16 fewer than the GTX.

Add all these figures together and it soon becomes clear that there's no reason to consider an 8800GTS any more, especially when the 8800GT takes up only a single slot inside your PC, and the cooling fan is all but silent.

You still get two dual-link DVI outputs and a TV output for component, S-video or composite video. Even more good news is that the 8800GT is able to decode H.264 video, a feature that is missing from the 8800GTX and GTS. We tried playing Casino Royale on Blu-ray using the latest version of PowerDVD and our test rig's Core 2 QX6700 processor and 2GB RAM. It ran perfectly and there were no dropped frames.

At the back of the card, just one PCI-E power connector is needed and our card drew 105W, well within the 150W limit. As you would expect, there's an SLI connector, which means you could add a second or third card in future. In the box, you get a DVI-to-D-sub adaptor and a breakout box with component video outputs.

For this price, nothing comes close to matching the 8800GT's performance. The single-slot design, H.264 decoding and quiet fan are just three other reasons to buy it now.

By Jim Martin

SPECIFICATIONS:
Nvidia GeForce 8800GT, PCI-E 16x interface, 512MB GDDR 3 memory running at 900MHz (1.8GHz effective), 600MHz core speed, 2x DVI, TV-out