Page 2 - Specs
Hey, you made it to the next page, welcome man. So the products as tested today really aren't far off from the current GTS line of products or for that matter the GTX, there are however some significant features altered in this G92 silicon worth mentioning. First a peek at the new product line-up:
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GeForce 8800 Ultra - $699
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GeForce 8800 GTX $499-$599
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GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB $349-$399
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GeForce 8800 GT $199 - $249
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GeForce 8600 GTS $149
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GeForce 8600 GT $109
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GeForce 8500 GT $69-$89
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GeForce 7300 GT 512MB $59-$69
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GeForce 8400 GS $49-$59
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GeForce 8300 GS OEM only
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GeForce 7300 GS $39-$49
- GeForce 7200 GS <$39
As you can see, that's quite a hefty product line. So many SKU's (Stock Keeping Unit), versions and then next to that the overclocked editions; it quite honestly must drive the board-partners slightly crazy.
The new GT cards are surely pretty to the eyes. A nice slim single slot design. The silicon powering that card is based on NVIDIA's new 0.65nm silicon. Is this a respin product you ask? Yes and no, but not exactly, but kinda, as it's pretty much the good old G80 (GTS/GTX/Ultra) core yet with one exception, the fabrication processed was moved from 90nm towards 65 nm, meaning a smaller die-size, likely resulting in lower core voltages, more energy efficiency and perhaps better clock speeds. The one thing that is very odd, yet interesting though, is that the 8800 GT has an increased amount of shader processors over the GTS series (while being a cheaper product). For example a 8800 GTX has 128 of these processors, the GTS has 96 yet now the GT has 112 activated Shader processors.
Interesting, because if you take a peek at the clock speeds you'd might even think it can beat a GTX. Well, at the end of the pipeline there this thing called ROPs and that's where the GT (16 ROPs) is a little castrated over the GTX (24 ROPs). There's a new optimization of ROPs' compression algorithm being applied on the GT though.
Next to that, this product is utilizing enough memory, yet the GTX is addressing the memory bus faster (384-bit) opposed to the 8800 GT with 256-bit. The performance differential is small though, as our benchmarks will show. Further freak stuff, theorethical fillrate 42.000 MPixels, 57.6 GB/sec memory bandwith.
So since we gently, yet firmly, touched the topic memory, these cards without a doubt will be available in both a 256 and 512MB versions. This, however, is the 512Mb release. My direct hint here, for the sake of DX10 gaming, please purchase a 512MB version. The memory clocks will be 900 MHz (x2), the core frequency 600 MHz and for the freaks, the shader domain is clocked at 1500 MHz. These values are all pretty high, judging from the specs this product will position itself in-between the GTS and GTX. So that's a tad confusing, from a branding point of view the GT is faster than GTS, yet does run on a slightly slower memory-bus. Anyway; if you like to learn about shaders or the generic GPU architecture please have a look at the GeForce 8800 GTX article as it's explained in depth. Bear in mind that this product has exactly the same features as any other Series 8 products, with one distinction.
Media wise this GPU has the new VP2 (Video Processor 2) core embedded into the silicon. This means great Purevideo HD support in both acceleration of media files, yet also post-processing and enhancing them. Despite the new VP2, the unit hasn't evolved and still doesn't fully accelerate VC-1, no real big deal to be honest. HDMI support is also integrated on the chip. Also worth mentioning is that the 8800 GT is fully PCI-Express 2.0 compliant. Not at all important though as 16GB/sec bandwidth over PCI-Expess 2.0 is not something this card will even remotely use ever.
Due to the new VP2 embedded core, optimizations the new transistor count has risen a little. Don't be scared now, ready? 754 Million transistors. Now is that sexy, or what?
As you know, today we'll be testing two 8800 GT products, the first being an NVIDIA reference model, the second a BFG 8800 GT 512MB OC edition graphics card.
With a pricetag of roughly 240 USD this BFG edition comes pre-overclocked towards 626 MHz on the core, 1566 on the shader domain and the memory clocked default at 900 MHz. We can verify this with a BIOS dump:
$0100000000 Graphics core : G92 revision A2 (112sp)
$0100000001 Hardwired ID : 0610 (ROM strapped to 0611)
$0100000002 Memory bus : 256-bit
$0100000003 Memory type : DDR3 (RAM configuration 00)
$0100000004 Memory amount : 524288KB
$0100000100 Core clock domain 0 : 626.400MHz
$0100000101 Core clock domain 1 : 1566.000MHz
$0100000006 Memory clock : 900.000MHz (1800.000MHz effective)
So included in the box you'll find:
- GeForce 8800 GT 256 MB OC Driver CD
- HDTV block (3-way RCA component)
- 6-pin to Molex power cable
- manual / quick install guide
- VGA->DVI dongle (two)
No additional software is included. You receive the hardware + drivers and that's pretty much it. What did catch my eye is pretty darn cool though. BFG is offering you a Lifetime Warranty if you reside in the USA and 10 years in Europe with this graphics card. And at this price-level that's a mighty nice investment.
Some generic facts:
- All NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/GT/GTX/Oeltra based graphics cards are HDCP capable.
- The GeForce 8 Series GPUs are fully compatible DirectX 8/9/10 GPUs
- GeForce 8800 GPUs deliver full support for Shader Model 4.0.
- All graphics cards are being built by NVIDIAs contract manufacturer Flexitronic
- All GeForce 8800 GPUs support NVIDIA SLI technology.
- The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX has a 24 pixel per clock ROP. The GeForce 8800 GTS has a 20 pixel per clock ROP, the GT 16.
- GeForce 8800 GTX requires a minimum 450W or greater system power supply (with 12V current rating of 30A). GeForce 8800 GTS/GT requires a minimum 400W or greater system power supply (with 12V current rating of 26A).
Right, enough tech babble. It's time for some photos, testing, benchmarking and obviously conclusion to see what the new puppies can manage. But not before we have a peek at power consumption of this card, temperatures and volume levels.
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