EVGA 8800GTS 320 MB - Review

[vX.DreDge]

Review: e-VGA 8800GTS 320MB
By:shahid "vX.Dredge" Aziz

INTRODUCTION:

Today I am going to take a look at rather old technology from Nvidia, the generation that totally changed the dynamics of GPU, yes the very beginning of stream processors, the 8800GTS.

The purpose of this review is not to tell the world again, how good this card was at its time, but rather to measure it up against today’s offerings, and the product from the same company that totally dethroned it, yes I am talking about the all times famous 8800GT.

I will be focusing on how this stalks up against the latest games and can you afford to still keep it in your current rig or should you go for better options like that of the most brilliant card at its price the much talked about 4850.

Really innovative GPU:

Unlike the legacy GPU where separate pixel, geometry and vertex shaders were appointed to specific task, this series gave something really new and innovative, it collapsed the traditional shaders into one processing stage so which they called stream processors, from now on, they can be allocated dynamically to shader intensive, geometry tasks or pixel for that matter, which resulted in tremendous horse power and it literally leaped ahead of competition leaving older generations in dust.

The initial 8800GTS came with 640 MB of GDDR 3 on a 320 bit bus at 1.6 GHz, thus resulting in a staggering 64BG/s memory bandwidth. With the clock speed at a moderate 500 MHz and 96 shaders at 1.2 GHz, this card came agonizingly close to its big brethren the mighty 8800GTX.

This card however came with exact the same specification, except the memory reduction of 320 MB, exact half, meaning paradise for budget builders.

COMPANY INFO:

e-VGA has been here for a long time and has a reputation of bring about some of the most innovative and enthusiastic products to the market. Their Graphics cards are at the fore front of the competition when it comes to factory over clocking. They are always pushing the envelope even further, by introducing some stunning clocks for their GPU and memory.

PACKAGING:

The box which holds the card is well elaborated and detailed, you do not need to dig in deep to find the features that the card packs, like for example the DX10 support and 320 MB are written rite there and are in circled for you to pay attention to. Unlike other card manufacturers they have a different scheme all together, I mean the box will not attract you by some chic on top of it gazing you or something, instead it's pretty neat and clean and to the point.

Each side of the box elaborates further info about the card and the back of the card tell teh complete package details and warranty.

The card itself comes in really nice plastic covering just like any ROG board from ASUS. But on the graphics card division e-VGA i think is the first one to incorporate such a package. The plastic is hard enough to protect the card from any falls during shipment or any other incidents.

THE CARD ITSELF:

There it is the beast itself, unleashed. Well the time it was released it sure was a beast in its category. The first time i saw this cooler design for the upper mid range to high end cards, I was astonished to see such a huge cooler, and initial impressions were that it would be as hot as hell, and hot they were.

Talking about this particular card, or any other 8800GTS for that matter, there isn't much for me to talk you through, being the exact reference design from Nvidia, there is hardly any difference at all. the PCB, the cooler, every thing is exactly the same as the Nvidia reference design, except the graphics.

Unlike 8800GTX or ultra, the 8800GTS requires 6 pin power connectors to operate. eVGA also recommends at least a 400 watt power supply for it to work, but considering the amount of extra peripherals and fans required now a days to cool things up, I would suggest to go for at least 600+ watt power supply for smooth operations. one important thing to note is the amount of amperes that you are getting on 12v rails, u need to make sure that you are getting at least 26amps at 12v rails.

6 pin power connector that requires at least 26amps on 12v rails

To cool the chip inside down, both the GTX and the GTS have exactly the same heat dissipating system, the same old giant sized dual slot cooling system, that is considered a trademark for high end cards.

Although the cooling system keeps the temps at bay yet there is one drawback that i noticed while using both GTX and GTS, the heat that is generated by the chip is mostly dumped inside the system, due to which other components that are hooked in the very next slot are bound to get hot, not to mention another 8800GTS in SLI, it well surely be fried.

Speaking of SLI, this baby works seamlessly with another of its kind, no matter what the make is, as long as its a GTS with 320 MB you can make two of them work together to produce theoretical double frames that one single card, have a look at the SLI bridge.

The back side of the card has the usual stuff, a pair of Dual-Link DVI connectors, each of which is capable of driving a monitor at 2560x1600. There is also a TV/HDTV output port.

BUNDLE:

the bundle that comes with the card is OK, generally speaking graphics cards now a days are lacking the true customer attraction, apart from the most necessary stuff there is hardly any other vendor that packs its cards with a good number of games or other software for that matter, I still remember the time when Ti4600 from MSI had 10 games in it, yes you heard me rite 10, whereas there isnt any game with the card at all, only the driver CD is provided with it.

-EVGA driver installation CD with trial software (Beyond Media)
-2* DVI to VGA adapters.
-HDTV cable
-6 pin PCI-E power cable
-S-video cable
-Users Guide
- Sticker Pack

TEST SYSTEM:

FIRST BOOT & GPU-Z:

GPU-Z is a very well known tool just like CPU-z to know in detail about your graphics processor.Here is a screen shot of the GPU-Z itself, stripping 8800GTS naked.

Nvidia Control Panel telling the same thing

TEMPERATURE:

Temperatures have always been an issue with G80, u have to have a good ventilated casing to protect it from reaching critical temperature in load, and since i have a pretty decent ventilated casing to operate on , there fore 8800GTS was hovering pretty around 56-58 and 62-64, at different levels of usage.

BENCHMARKS:

3DMARK 05

3DMARK 06

PERFORMANCE IN GAMES
Assassin's Creed

It has always been breath taking to see such a beautiful game at its max in game settings, higher resolutions and max in game settings in such a game would make you drool for sure.

Front Lines Fuel of War

GRID

Medal Of Honor - AirBorne

CALL OF DUTY- MODERN WARFARE

UT3

CRYSIS

CONCLUSION:

There you have it, as you probably can see, it still has the punch to play the latest games at max in game details, I am really impressed by the genuine all round performance of this card, but somehow buying this card today seems a bit unrealistic because of the fact that Nvidia already has an excellent card like 8800GT to replace not only this but its bigger brethren the 640 Mb part, this card also comes really close to the 8800GTX, and not to mention the champion of price to performance, the most powerful card in its range the ATI HD4850.

Apart from being replaced by a much better cards these days, its fabrication is old too that is built on 65nm, which most certainly means tis not as efficient as the HD 4850 or the the upcoming offerings based on 55nm from Nvidia.

So if I were you and I was looking for a good midrange card , I would hold my horses and wait till 4850 hits the shelves or buy 8800GT instead of 8800GTS 320MB, by saying this I dont mean that this card is not any good, like I said before it still holds a punch and can still deliver very smooth game play in some of the very latest games that are hitting the market now a days.

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