Review: 8800GTS

First off, I'm not claiming tons of knowledge here, but to those really interested about the $200 cheaper version of the card, heres a place to look.

Well, mostly because I was curious, and mostly because this card seemed to be ignored in so many reviews.

The GTS is not a card to simply ignore...Not only will it for sure fit in every case, but the new technology NVIDIA has put into the G80 is impressive.

First...the unwraping





The card is big...but its about the same size as my XTX so zero complaints from me



My Test System was
AMD X2 4800
2048MB DDR400
Asus A8N SLI-Deluxe
Raptor 36Gb for Windows drive
XP PRO SP2 with NVIDIA's 97.02 drivers

Intial thoughts...Holy shit...its quiet!

Thanks to NVIDIA's new cooler design...this Gpu is by far the quietest cooler I've seen in a long time. At 100% it doesn't touch the ATI XTX's fan in decibel range. My 6800NU with its single slot cooler was way louder. This card stays cool because of the way this heatsink was designed. The fan...is huge for a stock heatsink, about equal to the 7900GTX. I was impressed by this. And this time NVIDIA didn't leave the card fan levels for just its drivers, shortly after its initial power on, it got quiet, apparently they finally incorperated this into the BIOS of the VGA.

Now...On to benching.
According to other reviews there is a ton of headroom for the GTS...which I can totally believe, however my system is already out of date, so I wasn't expecting much.
I did however get a surprise

compared to my XTX

2000 additional out of the box. Not bad. Overclocking should warrent alot more. I will say this...my system is incredibly smooth without ATI's drivers onboard. (thank god)


Overclocking
It can do 16QAA and 16TRSAA, AF is something crazy too. But get what?

I oced...

okay at the settings of 514/792 stock, I decide a moderate OC would be fine
I pumped it to 550/850.
Here is my new 3dmark06


okay peeps...Heres the deal. 550/850 is not GTX speeds. the GTX clocks in at 575/900.

So...I pushed this card...alittle...

Next up...600/900

Another great improvement. I was so please! 100mhz OCes without sweating! I just passed the GTX without pushing 60C load. which to me...is amazing.

could Skeeder stop there?
Hell no!
I then pushed the clock some more 650/950!

8389! HOLY SHIT!

The benefit was starting to get smaller...disappointed I rearranged my speeds to 700/1000! And the story ends. It couldn't do it. My logic is that the speed was too much on the core, memory is probably fine.
Most people on forums have hit 650/1000 easy...so it can be done. My OC adventure ends because I freakly do not have the CPU to warrent Ocing this card any more...My CPU just wouldn't be able to keep up!

Conclusions: This card...wow...I never meant to buy it...but its actually been fun to mess with. My 3dmark06 score is securely above brians!
GTX vs GTS? well, heres what I'll say, in terms of clock speeds do NOT shun the GTS, its the same chip, same die, just NVIDIA gave its 320bit ram instead of 384bit, and only 96 unified shaders instead of 128. Its shadow clock is a bit lower, but that really doesn't matter. The GTS will keep you for a long time. Once you consider how much longer the GTX is really puts things into perspective...
My recommendation is to buy the GTS and OC it like your don't have a worry in the world.

I picked up a gts @ frys launch day for 480. I wanted a gtx but they didnt have them retail (still dont). I got the gts to hold me over till i could return it for a gtx, but to be honest I might keep it. Ive gotten similar o/c as you but with a core2duo6600 @ 3.6 w. ddr2-1066 i pull 11k in 3dm06, i dont imagine the gtx is gonna bring me that much more.

You can find a gtx online for about 600 even (CC) so it would be a extra 120$ more than i paid now. Im on the fence about spending 300$ on a water kit (1st one) so i could use the extra 120$ to help fund that.

I really cant decide what to do...

Paired with my Core 2 Duo @ 3.2GHz (1600FSB) my 8800GTS is outstanding.

a 8800GTX would be a waste for me because I dont have a big enough montor....

Love this card, and deffinatly worth it

Agreed.

I was initially worried I should have gotten the GTX but after pushing the GTS to 625/1000 it scores as fast as a stock GTX. And $200 less to boot.

You can't go wrong with any of the 8800 series right now.

Neat! Now show a screenshot of the ATITool artifact scanner running stable for 1+ hours at 650/950!

Is it loud?

How does it compare with the noise level of the stock 7900 series?

Blue Falcon said:

Neat! Now show a screenshot of the ATITool artifact scanner running stable for 1+ hours at 650/950!

Click to expand...

working on it, 4 min into it.

How can i prove the clocks were this speed the entire time? that i didnt just change them at the end?

here...



Ill let it run all night, im goin to bed.

I am very happy with my GTS. I could not make up my mind on which one to get. Finally decided on the GTS!
3D mark 06 9176@ 600/1800
Might go SLI in the future! need to upgrade psu first.

Why don't you overclock that 4800+ of yours? Your scores are impressive but with an overclocked cpu you could be seeing a lot more from that video card. The 4800+ for the most part is a very strong chip and should overclock to at least 2.7ghz I would believe. At only 1.38v I have mine 100% stable at 2.83ghz. I am sure yours can do the same. If you are up for it try overclocking the cpu a bit and come back with some new results. Good job none the less, I too am on the fence as to whether I should get a GTS and sell my X1900XTX. I am afraid of getting a dud GTS that won't overclock well and I will regret selling my XTX as at stock the GTS isn't really that much faster over an overclocked XTX especially in FEAR which is what I play a lot. I would be happy with 625/1000 as that seems to be the sweet spot with these cards however I have no guarantee on getting that so spending the money worries me right now.

I got some more work todo on this...650/1000 is my next step, trying to find a sweet spot...once I do I'll run ATItool for an hour and report back. (first I have to finish my class project doh )

I'm with you guys, the gts rox!! this is un modded...

What do you mean unmodded?

Probably means there is no volt mod.

Matas said:

What do you mean unmodded?

Click to expand...

Stock card, just overclocked.

Either of you dudes got some 05 runs? I haven't bothered with 06 on my current rig, so I don't know what score I am capable of. I do know I get around 11.5k on 05 though. Would be nice to be able to compare

I would, but its the same test except with SM3.0....which...is what card run nicely now days...you should really run 06...

Now thats what I like to see .

I was dead set on the GTX, but I think I am going to look into the GTS now. It's enough power for me.

dnottis said:

[IG]http://www.3dxtreme.net/other/EVGA%208800GTS/3dmark05.jpg[/IMG]

Click to expand...

What the shit? What kind of cooling do you have!?

Ionium said:

What the shit? What kind of cooling do you have!?

Click to expand...

GPU is stock - havent even adjusted the fan speed!, CPU is PA120.2 (D5 pump) and Apogee. Not sure which you are talking about though

645/1900



Highest score was 10833 but I rebooted after 45 minutes of the Cellfactor Demo (I JUST got the demo, so don't laugh). I was running at 660/2000 for that run...

USMC2Hard4U said:

Paired with my Core 2 Duo @ 3.2GHz (1600FSB) my 8800GTS is outstanding. a 8800GTX would be a waste for me because I dont have a big enough montor....
Love this card, and deffinatly worth it

Click to expand...

How big is your monitor or what resolution do you use? I'm running a 20inch wide dell 1680*1050 and i'm wondering if the GTS is enough card for that res with a lot of af/aa turned up....

seanmcd said:

How big is your monitor or what resolution do you use? I'm running a 20inch wide dell 1680*1050 and i'm wondering if the GTS is enough card for that res with a lot of af/aa turned up....

Click to expand...

At my current clock, on my 20" Apple Cinema Display... In Oblivion with:

4x Forced AA (control panel)
16x Anisotropy
High Quality AA
HDR
All in game settings at max

I get about 43fps average (min's in the high 20's, maxes in the low 70s) in a heavily wooded area... In doors I sometimes get in the 100's (Is this a bug? The game certainly renders in the 100's... But I thought there was an FPS limit!)


I just wish they used a larger fan... A HSF should never cause PAIN to the human hand through *Accidental* contact.

Rest of system in sig.

Viper87227 said:

Either of you dudes got some 05 runs? I haven't bothered with 06 on my current rig, so I don't know what score I am capable of. I do know I get around 11.5k on 05 though. Would be nice to be able to compare

Click to expand...

I get in the high 17900s... But it only completes 1/5 times. For some reason the "Canyon Flight" test is all glitchy... Wierd textures and stuff.

Really hurts my GPU's ego! 10000 in 06, but can't even complete 05 reliably.

660 core is perfectly stable on mine, however 665 crashes. Still Im more than happy with performance vs stock GTX.

dnottis said:

660 core is perfectly stable on mine, however 665 crashes. Still Im more than happy with performance vs stock GTX.

Click to expand...

I think it's crashing due to temperatures... It's running in the mid 90's!

I watercool, so except for my rad... The rest of my case is fairly stagnant.

1. which water block you have on the 8800s?
2. It still hit 90s with watercooling?

I'm waiting for an adapter for my mcw60.

for those wondering I'm not OCing my processor for this reason

My fan died...this is my new cooling system...it works great...I just prefer not to trust it to a OC yet...new cooler should arrive soon.

mintos said:

1. which water block you have on the 8800s?
2. It still hit 90s with watercooling?

I'm waiting for an adapter for my mcw60.

Click to expand...

Nono. No block on it yet.

SINCE I watercool, it still hits 90s cuz there is really no other air moving in the case.

Im waiting for the MCW60 kit too... But I'm considering making my own.

The GTS is a VERY nice card. I'm hitting 9597 with the system in my signature. I'm clocked at 600/845. It goes higher, but I like to be a bit conservative. I also don't enjoy benchmarking and stability testing all that much. If I can play a GPU intensive game for a normal session of an hour or three, that's good enough for me.

Arcygenical said:

I think it's crashing due to temperatures... It's running in the mid 90's!

I watercool, so except for my rad... The rest of my case is fairly stagnant.

Click to expand...

Mine is only in the 70's fully loaded. I'm going back to water cool GPU eventually too.

8800GTS will be able to do 1792 X 1344 (dont ask) with 16X Asino on say, oblivion (dont care for AA at that resolution on this monitor)?

save me a fair chunk of money come x-mas if that works. plus i guess i always have sli upgrade room. mind you, when the 8900 comes out ill be all like "oohh... ill just ditch my 8800GTS for a 8900GTX!". so, sli upgradible, yes, will i? probibly not. but it sounds good in my head.

anywho. im just looking forward to E6300 @ 3.0GHz on stock cooling on my 680i mainboard.

dnottis said:

Mine is only in the 70's fully loaded. I'm going back to water cool GPU eventually too.

Click to expand...

Reapplied some AS5 and I'm getting in the low 80's in Cell Factor (I love this game)... a good 12'c drop...

MrWizard6600 said:

8800GTS will be able to do 1792 X 1344 (dont ask) with 16X Asino on say, oblivion (dont care for AA at that resolution on this monitor)?

save me a fair chunk of money come x-mas if that works. plus i guess i always have sli upgrade room. mind you, when the 8900 comes out ill be all like "oohh... ill just ditch my 8800GTS for a 8900GTX!". so, sli upgradible, yes, will i? probibly not. but it sounds good in my head.

anywho. im just looking forward to E6300 @ 3.0GHz on stock cooling on my 680i mainboard.

Click to expand...

When you say don't ask, it just makes people want to ask. Such is the case here... so, I am asking. Why the wacky resolution?

Here, 650/1000 overnight.... happy?



This is on a evga gts with no direct cooling on the card. Temps reached 72.

Overnight for you is 5 hours 45 minutes? Sleep much?

Astral Abyss said:

Overnight for you is 5 hours 45 minutes? Sleep much?

Click to expand...

hahaha!

In that screenshot it looks an awful lot like the memory is running at 475mhz..... your running a very old version of ATITool....

Quick question: whenever I reboot it turns back to stock. Any ideas? I'm just using the drivers for OCing.