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Thread: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

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    First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    Expreview.com - Extra Hardware News Report! » Blog Archive » [First review]Galaxy GeForce 8800GT 256MB

    Seems quite good value for money.The HD3870 is better with AA enabled but the 8800GT 256mb is around 5% faster.However since the HD3870 is starting to drop in price this maybe the biggest competitor for the 8800gt 256mb though.

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    Intresting looking cooler, big fat single heatpipe, not a U shaped ether (a more effecent design)

    2 pci-e power connectors?? the 512mb version only has one . . . I wonder if there's something a little fishy going on there.

    I think the real test will be what games do, ever increaseing texture sizes and complex shaders will gobble up memory fast.

    What I find really intresting about these G92 core chips is that they've droped back to 256bit chanels and standard memory size chips.
    To make up for lack of bandwidth they are pushing it faster and the more standard chips are probably cheaper so bringing costs down more.
    We could be seeing 320MBit memory as an experiment and failier due to costs.

    What I find really annoing is that only now towards the end of the 8 series are we seeing a good mid range mid price card.

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    Another review:

    XFX GeForce 8800 GT 256MB XXX Review

    Not really good for gaming above 1280x1024 for newer titles with AA enabled!! This is with an overclocked card too!!
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 07-12-2007 at 01:08 PM.

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    How reliable are those reviews?

    Some seem a bit too good to be true, with the 256 only being a few fps behind the 512 version.

    Also, they didnt benchmark with Crysis either?

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    whats the price range for these kind of cards? any one have an idea?

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    8800gt 256 is about 120, the 512mb is about 140+ IIRC not sure on ATI, dont even consider them anymore personally

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    Quote Originally Posted by Ommid View Post
    8800gt 256 is about 120, the 512mb is about 140+ IIRC not sure on ATI, dont even consider them anymore personally

    Meh! As the 512MB 8800gt cards were over 160 quid I did not consider them much either in all honesty. If the original 150 quid price had been kept to I would have bought one. The 256mb card is not worth it if you game over 1280x800 with AA enabled - also it is debatable whether 256mb will be enough in the near future. All reviews of the 256mb 8800GT have shown large drops in performance with AA and higher resolutions in the LATEST games. I definitely think it is not wise to buy the 256mb card just because it runs current games well.

    The HD3870 is around 130 to 140 quid and is not bad value.

    I remember the same debate about ATI being crap last year when the 7900GS came out. Then the X1900gt, X1950pro and X1950XT came out and everyone started singing the praises of ATI . Had both the 7900gs and X1900gt and they were both better at certain games. When the 8800 series came out the pendulum swung back to Nvidia. It goes to and throw every year!!
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 09-12-2007 at 03:29 AM.

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    I definitely think it is not wise to buy the 256mb card just because it runs current games well.
    Personally, I think it is a great idea. The only reason I would not go 256MB, is that it takes a heavy hit even for current games at the resolution I need (1900x1200) especially once you crank up the eye candy. Something looks very wrong in Oblivion for instance - even the 256MB 3850 is much better.

    In my opinion, it is often less wise to pay significantly more for any idea of 'future proofing'. Especially for GFX card memory. It's impact on performance is really similar to system memory: if you have enough of it so that the card won't have to swap to system memory at your given resolution, the performance difference will pretty much be identical. If it's insufficient, then performance will take a very big dive (same when you run out of system memory: you can have the latest quad core CPU, if for some reason you run out of memory and resort to virtual memory, the application will slow down to a grind). And at the same resolution/details settings, game do not increase in GFX memory requirement in leaps and bounds in the short/medium term (say a year).

    Sure, every now and then you get a game that perhaps takes texture details/size to a new level overnight (Crysis), and 256MB may no longer be enough even at lower resolution even when everything else ran fine the day before. But those games do not pop out of nowhere, and you should consider if there is anything announced in the next 12 months you might be interested - keeping in mind that games tend to get delayed more often than they are released on time.

    The 3870 (of the ones I've seen, lean more towards £140+; granted I've not looked hard) would probably be more consistent across resolutions but I think it is a bit like picking a system with a slower CPU but more RAM (and even that's not entirely true, in WiC it seems to choke more than the 256MB GT with AA/AF). I can't say they are a clearly better buy to be honest (they are if they can perform more often like they do in Bioshock but that seems more like an exception than a rule).

    As to the reliability of the Firingsquad (@thedonutman), I tend to place them in fairly high regards. It pretty much fell to my expectations too: the 320MB GTS performed similarly closed to the 640MB up to a certain resolution. And they FS did benchmark Crysis (but only in DX9).
    Last edited by TooNice; 09-12-2007 at 04:53 AM.

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    I followed alot if the 8800GT,HD3870 and HD3850 reviews over the last few weeks. IMHO the ATI cards seen to be getting better scores with the newer drivers. The same thing happened with my X1900gt too. A lot of people tend to ignore this BTW.

    I have a Shuttle so the better cooling and lower idle power draw of the ATI cards do make sense for my needs too. Also at the time it was the best and only card for under 150 quid I could get quickly.

    You can get the HD3870 for 140 quid and below if you are quick as they sell out quickly. Check the Shopping and retail therapy forum for details.

    The main reason for me to buy a new graphics card was to play Crysis as my x1900gt was sufficient for everything else so far. It seems that even though it is not as fast as the 512mb 8800GT at higher resolutions with aa the HD3870 it is far better the 256mb 8800GT. The 512MB 8800GT was twenty pounds more expensive than what i could afford at the time also.
    The only other games I will be interested in next year will be the new FEAR game and Alan Wake.
    Since Alan Wake is an Xbox360 game like Bioshock it may indicate a preference for ATI hardware.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 09-12-2007 at 12:27 PM.

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    XFX adds a black aluminum plate to the top edge of the XXX board’s PCB, you can see it resting just above the SLI connector.

    This plate runs the entire length of the graphics card, and it’s designed to help transfer heat off the board’s PCB, this in turn helps keep the graphics card and its underlying board-level components cool. Heat from the PCB is literally transferred to this plate, where it’s then dispersed by the air within your PC’s case.
    does anyone actually beleive that?
    Unless the PCB has some form of thermal conducting layer within it, I cannot see it doing much good.
    It's only held on at the top two corners away from any of the warm components and PCB's are not that good a heat conductor.
    The only reason it would get warm that I can see is that one of the vents from the cooler points at it. I removed the one from my 7900gs xxx as
    1-When the card is upside down in the case it seemed to be more of a heat trap than anything else.
    2-It got in the way of my aftermarket heatsink

    EDIT: even though I don't like ATi cards much and as yet have no plans for moveing to dx10 I must admit that the HD3870 is starting to look very good to me. at £145-160 it's still got decent performance and a far better stock cooler.
    If Sparkle ever release there double fan cooler based Calibre 8800gt that would move me back in the other direction.
    from here
    Last edited by Pob255; 11-12-2007 at 11:12 PM.

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    Re: First full 8800GT 256mb review!!

    Anandtech have a review of the 8800gt 256mb in their 8800GTS 512MB review.

    To me it looks like the 3870 is a better option than the 880gt 256mb.
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