Ureview by: carn3rd
Ureview points: 17
Ureviewer since: April 2007
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Reviewed On: Saturday April 28, 2007
Price paid: $275.00
| Rating: 10 | Recommends product: Yes
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After building my computer to spec a month ago, whilst choosing which video card to get, I was advised to get the Geforce 7950GT. So I did, a 512mb model, which pretty much kicked ass and was a bang for the buck, in my opinion. I guess my opinion was wrong because a lot of people almost shunned me when they heard I got it (unknowingly) when the 8800 was available at the same time. I looked over it and the 8800 came in many forms, 320mb, 640mb & 768mb with many other variations from various manufacturers. Foolish me thinking that 512mb > was better than 320mb, I tried to justify my purchase. After reading numerous reviews though, the ram was only a buffer size and the technology present in the 8800 was far superior than that of the 7950gt. Fortunately, newegg (whome I purchased the 7950gt from) has a 30-day return policy, which I quickly took advantage of. While choosing on which 8800 to get to replace the 7950gt, I came to the conclusion that the 320mb GTS version by EVGA was the card to get, plus it set me back an extra 35$ more over the 7950GT, which was in my price range. But the decision was not only made on price. Figures out that, the 8800 Geforce has the same chipset regardless what MB amount version you get, its just more buffer between the whole range. When I got my 8800GTS, I noticed how big it was; it takes up two whole slots on your mobo/case! It also was 1 1/2 times as large as the 7950GT, which forced me to relocate some of the wiring in the mobo (thank god for zip ties, or whomever invented them):
Once the card was in, the computer fired right up without a problem. The fan isn't even that loud, I can't notice a sound difference between this and the 7950GT. I've installed the 8800-only specific drivers from Nvidia.com and off I went to test out the card on Counter Strike: Source. I immediately noticed the frame rates being above what they were on the 7950Gt, at maxed out settings and resolution on my 19" LCD (I run a 2.4ghz core 2 duo btw) I saw frame rates as much as 180 (compared to maybe 110 max on the 7950gt), depending on where you looked. I do not know if the games do look better or not, only time will tell, but I sure as hell know that I will not have a problem playing Direct X 10 games, since the 8800 takes advantage of the technology for it. The only time I noticed the card really hiccup was when playing Command And Conquer: Tiberium Wars. I have the game at the highest settings possible with the AA cranked up all the way, and when I would pan over fields of tiberium, I guess all the mad polygons in the shiny tiberium crystals made the game slow down, as soon as I panned out of the tiberium fields, it would return to its normal speed, so what I did was turn down the AA to level 2 (the game has 5 levels) and it runs really fast all the time, I can't even tell the difference in AA. The decision to buy this card should have been made in the first place, which is one of the reasons I hope reading this review will help future buyers out. Attached are some pics of how the games look when I play them:
Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars
Counterstrike
Battlefield 2
Call Of Duty 2
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Beta
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Overall the gaming experience is great, and I can't wait to unload this card on to plenty more hardware demanding games to see how it will put up with the abuse. And if its not enough, I can get another one in the future for a SLI mode to kick some more serious ass than it already is kicking. Also, evga has a 90 day exchange program if a better card happens to come out, I'd just send this one back to them and pay the difference for the updated/new one. For 275$, it's a BANG for the buck which everyone who's building/upgrading a computer should seriously consider investing in.
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| Pros: Great graphics/processing speed. The price is more than justified. |
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| Cons: No free games come with it. |
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