HEXUS.reviews :: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra - top dog for now

[Tarinder]

In the best traditions of upsetting the competitor, NVIDIA launches a faster-clocked GeForce 8800 to counteract any performance announcements for AMD's R600.

Find out more.

[staffsMike]

Can't fault the performance...can fault the price though!!

[Gordy]

Erm, who the hell can afford this card?

If you wanted two for sli god that would be a fortune!

Bearing in mind that it will be far from the quickest card in 6months and the cost seems even worse.

[Mr Pants]

Anandtechs review sums it up:
(http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2979&p=10)

Often, when reviewing hardware, it is difficult to draw a hard line and state with total confidence that our conclusions are the only logical ones that can be drawn from the facts. We try very hard to eliminate personal opinion from our reviews and provide readers with enough information to form their own well educated opinions. We try to point out the downsides of the best products out there, as well as the niche uses for which otherwise disappointing hardware might shine. So often our job is about balance and temperance.

But not this time: The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra is an utter waste of money.

It is a pointless card though considering most overclocked GTXs come very close to it. Although the Ultra can be overclocked even further.

[toolsong]

ROFL @ Anandtech

[kalniel]

Anantech hit the nail with this one.

However, it's great to see Hexus produce power draw figures. Can we please start quoting them when people ask if they need a 600+W power supply?!

[chuckskull]

It's a great card performance wise but realistically; it's huge, it's hot, it's expensive. It's the equivalent of buying a harrier jump jet to go shopping.

Admittedly if I win the lottery tomorrow I'll be buying two harrier jump jets and trying to SLi them.

[merlin2001]

still, it's most likely that Nvidia will just use this to replace the GTX over the next months. I would expect to see the price drop down to the GTX level and the GTX to disappear once the existing stocks start to dry-up. The £500 is just to keep the GTX pricepoint from slipping too much during the transition. It's not meant to really be bought by any except the mad few who always need to be the fastest..

[Tarinder]

I agree with the sentiments in this thread.

Is it worth it?

Probably not, but there will always be a market for the fastest graphics card in town, and this currently is it.

Not all users are on a sane budget. Some simply want the best hardware all the time, irrespective of cash.

Let's remeber that a couple of Voodoo2 cards in SLI set you back over £400 (I remember spending the money) and that was nearly 10 years ago.

High price, yes. A silly SKU, no.

[odd_sod]

i question any point at all with calling this an ultra i mean didn't they always have double memory and it is not even like they couldn't have done it, the Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 has 1.5 gigs of memory the downside is that it does cost £2000 think of that in sli and you are talking big money, but does it perform better than the 8800 in game.

[SiM]

i question any point at all with calling this an ultra i mean didn't they always have double memory and it is not even like they couldn't have done it, the Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 has 1.5 gigs of memory the downside is that it does cost £2000 think of that in sli and you are talking big money, but does it perform better than the 8800 in game.

It probably won't perform better than an 8800 in games because its not designed for games...

[odd_sod]

Yeah you are probably right, but as an idea it would have made an uber card. 3gig of sli grunt, now that would have some insane power for everything to be turned on. Think about 2 30inch lcd's running together with a gaminig resolution of 5120x1600, or flip thim on there sides and run it at 3200x2560. Just a pipe dream though really it really could'nt be any better than an 8800 ultra otherwise nvidia would have released it as the ultra without all the cad stuff that gamers don't need.

[d19z]

This card is typical of a monopoly status company, lol!

My guess for the launch of the card, was just to show thier muscles to AMD, or a last minute offset just in case the top touted them, R600 stole the crown.

If they hired spies, or in some form found out the R600 was shambles, they could have made the 8800Ultra a card, that offered more than just performance, they could have marketed like EVGA did with thier famous 7900GT Sig Series, which was given a similar reception but came through as a mighty card through the undisputed gimmick, since there is no indication of you are getting nothing other than an overclocked 8800GTX I agree fully with anandtech.