Review Date: November 2007
Given how nVidia has named its graphics cards in the past, you'd
think that the GeForce 8800 GT would be a slower, less-expensive
version of the $400 8800 GTS.
Well, it is less expensive, with cards arriving on the shelves at $250
to $300, but it's not slower. In fact, the 8800 GT outperformed the
8800 GTS in most of our tests, effectively bringing the cost of buying
a high-performance graphics card down by about $100.
The XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition (PV-T88P-YDD4) we tested
boosts performance even more over the stock 8800 GT by running its
graphics processing unit (GPU) at 670MHz (versus 600MHz for a stock
GPU) and its memory at 1.95GHz (versus 1.8GHz stock). That adds about
$30 to the price (you can find it for around $300 on the street), but
it buys you a few additional frames per second (fps) over a stock-speed
8800 GT.
The Alpha Dog is a single-slot card, with a thin heat sink that will
allow it to fit in cramped cases. Unfortunately, the smaller fan is
somewhat more audible than the one included on the 8800 GTS, though it
remains relatively quiet except when the GPU is really cranking. The
card requires a single six-pin PCI Express (PCIe) power connector. It
boasts a pair of DVI connectors, a component-video adapter, and
S-Video. Though it supports High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection
(HDCP) over DVI, there's no HDMI connector.
nVidia's 8800 GT chip is based on a 65-nanometer (nm) manufacturing
process (versus the 80nm and 90nm processes used in earlier cards),
resulting in a cooler, smaller chip. The 65nm process also allows some
additional capabilities to fit on the chip, such as extra texturing
units and hardware PureVideo 2 support for enhanced video processing.
The 8800 GT Alpha Dog has 512MB of RAM. Though the memory bus is just
256 bits wide, compared to 320 bits on the 8800 GTS, the other
improvements more than compensate in final performance.
The 8800 GT supports DirectX 10 (DX10); note that ATI's competing
Radeon 3800 series supports the new DX10.1. DX10.1 will ship as part of
the upcoming Windows Vista Service Pack 1, adding support for Shader
Model 4.1 and mandating improved anti-aliasing support and some other
new features. But while DX10.1 may result in slightly better visuals in
the distant future, we don't expect to see titles supporting it for
some time—and we'd be surprised to ever see a game require it. The 8800
GT does add support for PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0, which can double the
memory bandwidth between the motherboard and card.
The 8800 GT's performance in our benchmark tests would have been
impressive for a $400 card; it's spectacular for a $300 model. Our
Alpha Dog card scored 123fps in our DX9 1,280x1,024 F.E.A.R. test,
compared to 88fps for a 640MB 8800 GTS card. Upping the resolution to
1,920x1,200 brought the range closer, but the 8800 GT's 65fps still
smoked the more-expensive 8800 GTS's 53fps. Moving to the demanding
World in Conflict DX10 benchmark test (run at 1,280x1,024), the 8800 GT
scored 47fps, compared to 39fps for the 8800 GTS.
Upping the resolution to 1,920x1,200 finally put the 8800 GTS back
in the lead in a couple of our tests, with the 8800 GT scoring 20fps in
World in Conflict and 21.8fps in Company of Heroes, compared to 22fps
and 23.4fps respectively for the 8800 GTS. This slight edge for the
older card at higher resolutions is likely due to its higher memory
bandwidth, as a ton of data is being moved around when using
anti-aliased graphics at the highest resolutions. Still, the 8800 GT
had the fastest results in the Crysis demo test even at the higher
resolution, turning in 36.3fps at 1,280x1,024 and 9.7fps at
1,920x1,200, compared to just 25.6fps and 8.2fps for the 8800 GTS.
On the video-playback front, the 8800 GT has the same hardware
PureVideo 2 playback support that the 8600-and-earlier series cards
have included, but which until now has been lacking from the 8800
series. With hardware decoding of H.264 video, you'll see less CPU
usage when watching HD video compared with earlier 8800 cards.
It's a great time to be a gamer, because ATI's new Radeon HD 3850
brings good graphics performance to the under-$200 market, and nVidia's
8800 GT brings performance approaching top-end $600 cards to the
under-$300 crowd. The XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition stands out
among other 8800 GT cards not just for its faster clock speeds, but
also for its double-lifetime warranty, which covers not just the
original purchaser, but also anyone to whom you later sell or give the
card. Plus, it comes complete with the full version of the excellent
Company of Heroes, as well as a disc containing the game's DX10 patch.
Related Graphics-Card Reviews on ComputerShopper.com
ATI Radeon HD 3850
nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS
