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Geforce 8800 gts technical specifications. Video cards

The 8800 GTX was a landmark event in the history of 3D graphics. It was the first card to support DirectX 10 and its associated unified shader model, which greatly improved image quality over previous generations, and it remained unrivaled in terms of performance for a long time. Unfortunately, all this power came at a cost. With expected competition from ATI and the release of lower-priced mid-range models based on the same technology, the GTX was considered a card aimed only at those enthusiasts who wanted to be at the forefront of modern advances in graphics processing.

Model history

To correct this situation, nVidia released a card of the same line GTS 640MB a month later, and a couple of months later the GTS 320MB. Both offered similar performance to the GTX, but at a much more reasonable price. However, at around $300-$350, they were still too expensive for gamers on a budget - they were not mid-range, but high-end models. In hindsight, the GTS were worth every penny, as what followed for the rest of 2007 was one disappointment after another.

First up were the supposed mid-range 8600 GTS and GT cards, which were heavily stripped-down versions of the 8800 series. They were smaller and quieter and had new HD video processing capabilities, but their performance was below expected levels. Purchasing them was impractical, although they were relatively inexpensive. The alternative ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT matched the GTS 640MB in terms of performance, but consumed a huge amount of power under load and was too expensive to be considered mid-range. Finally, ATI attempted to release the DX10 series in the form of the HD 2600 XT and Pro. multimedia capabilities which were even better than the nVidia 8600, but they were not powerful enough to be worthy of the attention of gamers who had already bought previous generation video cards, such as the X1950 Pro or 7900 GS.

And now, a year after the start of sales of the 8800 GTX with the release of the 8800 GT, the first real update of the model with support for DirectX 10 appeared. Although it took a lot of time, the nVidia GeForce 8800 GT had the same characteristics as the GTS model, and the cost was in the range of 200-250 dollars , has finally reached the mid-range price range that everyone has been waiting for. But what made the card so special?

More is not better

As technology develops and the number of transistors in CPUs and GPUs develops, there is a natural need to reduce their size. This leads to lower energy consumption, which in turn means less heat. More processors fit on one silicon chip, which reduces their cost and theoretically puts a lower limit on the price of equipment made from them. However, changing production processes poses high risks for business, so it is customary to release a completely new architecture based on already existing and proven technologies, as was the case with the 8800 GTX and HD 2900 XT. With the improvement of the architecture comes a shift to less power-intensive hardware, on which the new design is later again based.

The 8800 series followed this path with the G80 cores of the GTX and GTS, produced using 90 nm technology, and the nVidia GeForce 8800 GT is based on the G92 chip, already made using a 65 nm process. While the change doesn't seem like much, it equates to a 34% reduction in wafer size or a 34% increase in the number of processors on a silicon wafer. As a result, electronic components are becoming smaller, cheaper, and more efficient, which is an extremely positive change. However, the G92 core is not just smaller, there is something else.

First of all, the VP2 video processing engine that was used in the 8600 series has now appeared in the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. So now you can enjoy high-definition video without system slowdown. The final display engine, which is controlled by a separate chip on the 8800 GTX, is also integrated into the G92. The result is 73 million more transistors on-chip than the 8800 GTX (754 million versus 681 million), although the number of stream processors, texture processing and ROP power is less than that of the more powerful model.

A new version of nVidia's transparent anti-aliasing algorithm added to the GeForce 8800 GT arsenal is designed to significantly improve image quality while maintaining high performance systems. In addition to this, new graphic capabilities The new processor didn't add anything.

The manufacturing company apparently thought for a long time about which functionality of the previous 8800 series cards was not fully used and could be reduced, and which should be left. The result was a design GPU, which, in terms of performance, is located somewhere between GTX and GTS, but with GTS functionality. As a result, the 8800 GTS card became completely redundant. The 8800 Ultra and GTX still provide more graphics power, but with fewer features, a much higher price, and higher power consumption. Against this background, the GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB card really took a strong position.

GPU architecture

The GeForce 8800 GT uses the same unified architecture that Nvidia introduced when it first announced the G80 processor. The G92 consists of 754 million transistors and is manufactured using TSMC's 65nm process. The substrate size is about 330 mm 2 , and although this is noticeably smaller than the G80, it is still a long way from being called a small piece of silicon. There are a total of 112 scalar thread cores, which run at 1500 MHz in the standard configuration. They are grouped into 7 clusters, each of which has 16 stream processors that share 8 texture address blocks, 8 texture filter sections and their own independent cache. This is the same configuration that Nvidia used in the G84 and G86 chips at the shader cluster level, but the G92 is a much more complex GPU than either of them.

Each shader processor can generate two MADD and MUL commands in one clock cycle, combined into unified structure blocks can handle all shader operations and calculations that come in both integer and floating point form. What's interesting, however, is that despite the stream processors' capabilities being the same as the G80 (except for number and frequency), Nvidia claims the chip can achieve up to 336 GFLOPS. However, NADD and MUL calculations require 504 GFLOPS. As it turned out, the manufacturing company took a conservative approach to determining computing power and did not take into account MUL in the calculation of overall productivity. At briefings and roundtables, Nvidia representatives said that some architectural improvements should allow the chip to approach its theoretical maximum throughput. In particular, the task manager has been improved, distributing and balancing data that comes through the pipeline. NVidia has announced that it will support double precision in future GPUs, but this chip only emulates it due to the need to follow IEEE standards.

ROP architecture

The ROP structure of the G92 is similar to that of any other graphics processor in the GeForce 8-series family. This means that each section has a L2 cache and is assigned to a 64-bit memory channel. There are a total of 4 ROP sections and a 256-bit data storage interface. Each of them is capable of processing 4 pixels per clock cycle, if each of them is specified by four parameters (RGB color and Z). If only the Z component is present, then each section can process 32 pixels per clock cycle.

ROPs support all common anti-aliasing formats used in previous GeForce 8-series GPUs. Since the chip has a 256-bit GDDR interface, Nvidia decided to make some improvements to ROP compression efficiency to reduce bandwidth and graphics memory usage when anti-aliasing is enabled at 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 resolutions.

As a derivative of the original G80 architecture, the filter and texture address blocks, as well as the ROP sections, operate at a different clock speed than the stream processors. Nvidia calls this the base speed. In the case of the GeForce 8800 GT, the video card's characteristics are determined by a frequency of 600 MHz. This theoretically results in a fill rate of 9600 gigapixels per second (Gp/s) and a bilinear texture fill rate of 33.6 Gp/s. According to users, the clock frequency is very low, and an increase in the number of transistors does not guarantee adding or maintaining functionality. When the company switched from 110nm to 90nm technology, it reduced the number of transistors by 10% through optimization. Therefore, it would not be surprising if there are at least 16 more stream processors on the chip that are disabled in this product.

Design

The reference design of the card provides for the core, shader unit and memory to operate at 600 MHz, 1500 MHz and 1800 MHz, respectively. The 8800 GT features a single-slot cooling system, and the glossy black metal casing almost completely hides its front side. The 50 mm fan corresponds to the design of radial coolers of top models and performs its duties very quietly in all operating modes. It doesn’t matter if the computer is idle, loaded only with work Windows table, or your favorite game is running - it will be practically inaudible against the background of other noise sources in the PC case. However, it is worth noting that the first time you turn on a computer with a new video card, you can be scared. The fan starts to howl when the GPU is loaded at full capacity, but the noise subsides before the desktop appears.

The metal front panel attracts fingerprints, but this is of little concern, since once installed it will be impossible to see them. According to user reviews, the cover helps prevent accidental damage to components such as capacitors on the front of the card. Printed circuit board painted in green color, combined with the black radiator bezel, gives the 8800 GT a distinctive look. The model is marked with the GeForce logo along the top edge of the front panel. Mark Rein, the company's vice president, told reporters that this entailed additional expenses, but was necessary to help users figure out which video card is the heart of the system at LAN parties.

Under the heatsink are eight 512-megabit graphics memory chips, giving a total of 512 MB of storage capacity. This is GDDR3 DRAM with an effective frequency of up to 2000 MHz. The GPU supports both GDDR3 and GDDR4, but this feature was never used in this series.

Heating and power consumption

The nVidia GeForce 8800 GT video card is very sexy. Its design is simply very pleasing to the eye and, given the internal changes to the G92, it exudes a sophisticated design feel.

More important than the aesthetic aspects, however, according to users, is the fact that the manufacturer managed to pack all the power into a single-slot device. This is not just a welcome change, it is a pleasant surprise. The characteristics of the GeForce 8800 GT are such that we can assume the presence of a cooler two slots high. The reason why Nvidia went with such a thin design was due to changes in the manufacturing process that reduced the heat to a level that a low-profile fan could handle. In fact, temperatures have dropped so much that even a relatively small cooler doesn't have to spin very quickly, resulting in the card remaining virtually silent even when handling intense games. However, the board temperature rises significantly, requiring a significant amount of air to prevent overheating. As a result of the decrease technological process GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB consumes only 105 W even under full load. Thus, only one six-pin power connector is required. This is another nice change.

The card was the first to support PCIe 2.0, allowing it to receive power up to 150 W. However, the company decided that for backward compatibility it is much easier to limit the power through it to 75 watts. This means that regardless of whether the card is connected to motherboards with PCIe 1.1 or PCIe 2.0, only 75 W comes through the connector, with the rest of the power coming through the auxiliary connector.

Processor VP2

Speaking about the possibility of transmitting HDCP signals, it is worth touching on the new generation video processor that nVidia incorporated into the G92. The VP2 is a single programmable SIMD processor whose flexibility allows it to be expanded in the future. It enables very intensive processing of H.264 encoded video, shifting the load from the CPU to the GPU. In addition to VP2 there is also stream processor H.264 and AES128 decoder. The first of these is specifically designed to accelerate CAVLC and CABAC encoding schemes - tasks that are very CPU intensive in a pure software environment. AES128 enables faster processing of the encryption protocol required by video content security schemes such as AACS and Media Foundation. Both of these schemes require encoding of video data (both compressed and uncompressed) when transferred over buses like PCI-Express.

Improving Image Quality

Nvidia is trying hard to improve the transparent anti-aliasing technique that first appeared in the 7-series GeForce. Multisampling reduces card performance slightly, but in most cases it is not effective. On the other hand, supersapling provides much better and more stable image quality, but at the cost of reduced operation speed - it is an incredibly resource-intensive method of anti-aliasing.

The drivers that come with your video card contain new algorithm multisampling. The differences are quite significant, but the final decision is made by the user. The good news is that since this is a driver-level change, any hardware that supports transparent antialiasing can use the new algorithm, including cards released after the GeForce 7800 GTX. To activate the new mode, you just need to download Latest updates on the manufacturer's website.

According to user reviews, updating the driver for the GeForce 8800 GT will not be difficult. Although the video card's web page only contains links to files for Windows Vista and XP, searching with home page allows you to find what you need. For nVidia GeForce 8800 GT Windows drivers 7-10 are installed using the GeForce 342.01 Driver utility with a capacity of 292 MB.

Connectivity

The output connectors of the nVidia GeForce 8800 GT are quite standard - 2 dual-channel DVI-I ports with HDCP support, which are suitable for both analog and digital interfaces of monitors and TVs, and a 7-pin analog video port provides conventional composite and component output. DVI connectors can be used in combination with a DVI-VGA and DVI-HDMI adapter, so any connection option is possible. However, Nvidia still makes audio support for use with HDMI connectors an option for third-party manufacturers - there is no audio processor inside the VP2, so audio is implemented through the on-board S/PDIF connector. This is disappointing, since the thin and quiet card is ideal for gaming home theaters.

GeForce 8800 GT is the first graphic system compatible with PCI Express 2.0, which means the ability to access memory at a speed of 16 GB/s. - twice as fast as the previous standard. While this may be useful for workstations and intensive computing, it won't be of much use to the average gamer. In any case, the standard is fully compatible with all previous versions PCIe, so there's nothing to worry about.

nVidia's partner companies offer overclocked versions of the GeForce 8800 GT, as well as game packages.

BioShock from 2K Games

BioShock was one of the best games, existing at the time of release of the video card. It's a "genetically modified" first-person shooter set in the underwater city of Rapture, created on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean by a man named Andrew Ryan as part of the realization of his 1930s art deco dream. 2K Boston and 2K Australia have licensed and used Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 to best effect, and also leveraged some DirectX 10 capabilities. All of this is controlled through an option in the game's graphics control panel.

The BioShock setting forced the developers to use a lot of water shaders. DirectX 10 technology helped improve the ripples when characters move through water, and pixel shaders were used en masse to create wet objects and surfaces. Additionally, the DX10 version of the game uses a depth buffer to create "soft" particle effects where they interact with their surroundings and look more realistic.

nVidia GeForce 8800 GT, the characteristics of which allow it to prove its worth in the BioShock game strengths, at 1680x1050 resolution it is only slightly inferior to the GTX. As this parameter increases, the gap between the cards increases, but not by a large margin. The reason for this is likely due to the fact that the game did not support transparent anti-aliasing, making the 8800 GTX's massive memory bandwidth advantage moot.

According to user reviews, the 8800 GT also works quite well with SLI enabled. Although its capabilities are not close to those of the GTX, it competes with the Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics card with 512 MB of memory in the CrossFire configuration. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that at 1920x1200 the 8800 GT is almost as fast as the 640MB GTS!

Crysis Syngle Player Demo from Electronic Arts

This game will literally make your video card cry! The big surprise was its graphics - it surpassed everything that was in computer games before her. Testing with the built-in GPU speed meter is much faster than in reality. About 25 fps in the performance test is enough to get an acceptable frame rate for the user. Unlike other games, the low framerate here still looks pretty flat.

The nVidia GeForce 8800 GT video card, whose characteristics in Crysis allow it to achieve sufficient frame rates at a resolution of 1680x1050 with high detail under DirectX 10, is not as fast as the GTX, but is noticeably more productive than the Radeon HD 2900 XT and 8800 GTS 640MB. The GTS 320MB struggles to handle Crysis and will need to drop most settings to medium to get frame rates above 25 fps even at 1280 x 1024 image quality.

Performance

As you'd expect, the 8800 GTX remains unbeatable, but overall the GeForce 8800 GT GTS is ahead in most tests. At the most high resolutions and anti-aliasing settings, the GT's reduced memory bandwidth lets it down and the GTS pulls ahead from time to time. However, considering the price difference and other advantages, the 8800 GT is better in any case. Conversely, comparison GeForce GTX The 8800/GT 8800 proves every time why the first card costs so much. While other models begin to slow down significantly as the number of image pixels increases, transparent anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering are used, the 8800 GTX continues to demonstrate excellent results. In particular, Team Fortress 2 at a resolution of 1920x1200 with 8xAA and 16xAF on the 8800 GTX runs twice as fast as on the GT. However, for the most part, the GeForce 8800 GT video card shows good performance. Of course, if you don't take into account the incredible low frequency frames in Crysis.

Conclusion

While the GeForce 8800 GT doesn't have the same specs as the 8800 GTX series leader, it offers similar performance at a fraction of the price and includes a lot of features. additional features. And if you add small size and quiet operation, the model will seem simply phenomenal.

In our last article, we took a look at what is happening in the lower price range, in which new products from AMD recently appeared - the Radeon HD 3400 and HD 3600 series. Today we will slightly raise our gaze in the hierarchy of cards and talk about older models. The hero of our review this time will be GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB.

What is GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB? The title, frankly speaking, does not give a clear answer. On the one hand, this is somehow reminiscent of past top-end solutions based on the G80 chip. On the other hand, the memory capacity is 512 MB, i.e. less than its corresponding predecessors. As a result, it turns out that the GTS index, coupled with the number 512, is simply misleading to a potential buyer. But in fact, we are talking about, if not the fastest, then, in any case, one of the fastest graphic solutions, currently presented by NVIDIA. And founded this map not at all on the outgoing G80, but on the much more progressive G92, on which, by the way, the GeForce 8800 GT was based. To bring even greater clarity to the description of the essence of the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB, let's move on directly to the characteristics.

Comparative characteristics of GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB

Model	Radeon HD 3870	GeForce 8800 GT	GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB	GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB	GeForce 8800 GTX
Kernel code name	RV670	G92	G80	G92	G80
Those. process, nm	65	65	90	65	90
Number of stream processors	320	112	96	128	128
Number of texture blocks	16	56	24	64	32
Number of blending blocks	16	16	20	16	24
Core frequency, MHz	775	600	513	650	575
Shader unit frequency, MHz	775	1500	1180	1625	1350
Effective video memory frequency, MHz	2250	1800	1600	1940	1800
Video memory capacity, MB	512	256 / 512 / 1024	320 / 640	512	768
Data exchange bus width, Bit	256	256	320	256	384
Video memory type	GDDR3/GDDR4	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3
Interface	PCI-Express 2.0	PCI-Express 2.0	PCI-Express	PCI-Express 2.0	PCI-Express

Let's take a look at the table above. Based on these data, we can conclude that we have a well-formed and strong solution that can compete equally with the current top of the Californian company. Essentially, we have a full-fledged G92 chip with raised frequencies and very fast GDDR3 memory operating at almost 2 GHz. By the way, we talked about the fact that in the original version the G92 was supposed to have exactly 128 stream processors and 64 texture units back in the review of the GeForce 8800 GT. As you can see, it was not for nothing that a somewhat cut-down chip was allocated for the model with the GT index. This move allowed us to somewhat delimit the segment of high-performance video cards and create an even more advanced product in it. Moreover, right now the production of G92 is already well established and the number of chips capable of operating at frequencies above 600 MHz is quite large. However, even in the first revisions, the G92 easily conquered 700 MHz. You understand that now this line is not the limit. We will have time to verify this as the material progresses.

So, we have before us a product from XFX - the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB video card. Exactly this model and will become the object of our close study today.

Finally, we have the board itself. The basis for the XFX product is reference design, so everything that will be said about this product can be applied to most solutions from other companies. After all, it’s no secret that today the overwhelming number of manufacturers base the design of their products on exactly what NVIDIA offers.

Regarding the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB, one cannot help but notice that the circuit board is borrowed from the GeForce 8800 GT. It is significantly simplified compared to G80 video cards, but fully meets the requirements of the new architecture. As a result, we can conclude that the release of the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB was hardly complicated in any way. We have the same PCB and almost the same chip as its predecessor with the GT index.

As for the size of the video card in question, in this regard it fully corresponds to the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB. As you can see for yourself based on the photo provided.

NVIDIA found it necessary to make changes to the cooling system. It has undergone major changes and now resembles the cooler of the classic GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB rather than the GeForce 8800 GT.

The design of the cooler is quite simple. It consists of aluminum fins, which are blown through by a corresponding turbine. The radiator plates are pierced by copper heat pipes with a diameter of 6 mm each. Contact with the chip is made through a copper base. Heat is removed from the base and transferred to the radiator, where it is subsequently dissipated.

Our copy of the GeForce 8800 GTS was equipped with the G92 chip, revision A2, released in Taiwan. The memory is composed of 8 chips manufactured by Qimonda with an access time of 1.0 ns.

Finally, we inserted the video card into the PCI-E slot. The board was identified without any problems and allowed us to install the drivers. There were no difficulties with regard to auxiliary software. GPU-Z displayed all the necessary information quite correctly.

The GPU frequency is 678 MHz, memory - 1970 MHz, shader domain - 1700 MHz. As a result, we again see that XFX does not change its habit of raising frequencies above the factory ones. True, this time the increase is small. But usually the company's assortment includes quite a lot of cards of the same series, differing in frequencies. Some of them probably have great performance.

Riva Tuner also did not let us down and displayed all the information on the monitoring.

After that, we decided to check how well the standard cooler copes with its task. The GeForce 8800 GT had serious problems with this. The cooling system had a rather dubious margin of efficiency. This, of course, was enough to use the board at nominal value, but for more, a cooler replacement was required.

However, the GeForce 8800 GTS is fine with this. After a prolonged load, the temperature only rose to 61 °C. This is an excellent result for such a productive solution. However, every barrel of honey has its own fly in the ointment. This could not have happened here either. Unfortunately, the cooling system is terribly noisy. Moreover, the noise becomes quite unpleasant already at 55 °C, which even surprised us. After all, the chip barely warmed up. Why on earth does the turbine start to work intensively?

This is where Riva Tuner came to our aid. This utility is useful not only because it allows you to overclock and configure the operation of the video card, but also has functions for controlling the cooler speed, if, of course, the board itself supports this option.

We decided to set the speed to 48% - this is absolutely quiet operation of the card, when you can completely forget about its noise.

However, such adjustments led to an increase in temperature. This time it was 75 °C. Of course, the temperature is a little high, but in our opinion it's worth it to get rid of the whine of the turbine.

However, we didn’t stop there. We decided to check how the video card behaves when installing any alternative cooling system.

The choice fell on Thermaltake DuOrb - an effective and stylish cooling system, which at one time did a good job of cooling the GeForce 8800 GTX.

The temperature dropped by 1 °C relative to the standard cooler operating at automatic speed (under load, the speed automatically increased to 78%). Well, of course, the difference in efficiency is negligible. However, the noise level has also become significantly less. True, Thermaltake DuOrb cannot be called silent either.

As a result, the new standard cooler from NVIDIA leaves only favorable impressions. It is very efficient and, in addition, allows you to set any speed level, which is suitable for lovers of silence. Moreover, even in this case, although it is worse, it copes with the task.

Finally, let's mention the overclocking potential. By the way, as it turns out, it is the same for both the standard cooler and the DuOrb. The core was overclocked to 805 MHz, the shader domain to 1944 MHz, and the memory to 2200 MHz. We can't help but be glad that the top solution, which initially has high frequencies, still has a significant headroom, and this applies to both the chip and memory.

So, we looked at the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB video card manufactured by XFX. At this point we could smoothly move on to the test part, but we decided to talk about another interesting solution, this time from the ATI mill, produced by PowerColor.

The main feature of this video card is DDR3 memory. Let me remind you that most companies release Radeon HD 3870 with DDR4. The reference version was also equipped with the same type of memory. However, the PowerColor company quite often chooses non-standard paths and endows its products with features that differ from others.

However, a different type of memory is not the only difference between the PowerColor board and third-party solutions. The fact is that the company also decided to equip the video card not with a standard turbine, which, by the way, is quite efficient, but with an even more productive product from ZeroTherm - the GX810 cooler.

PCB simplified. For the most part, this affected the food system. There should be four ceramic capacitors present in this area. Moreover, on most boards they are located in a row, close to each other. There are three of them left on the PowerColor board - two of them are located where they should be, and one more is located at the top.

The impression of such features is somewhat smoothed out by the presence of an aluminum radiator on the power circuits. During load, they can get seriously hot, so cooling will not be superfluous.

The memory chips are covered with a copper plate. At first glance, this may be pleasing, because this is an element that can reduce the temperature when the memory heats up. However, in reality this is not quite the case. Firstly, the plate on this copy of the card could not be removed. Apparently, it is firmly held on by hot glue. Perhaps, with some effort, the radiator can be removed, but we did not bother. Therefore, we never found out what memory was installed on the card.

The second thing we can't praise PowerColor for is that the cooler has a design that can direct air to the PCB, thereby reducing its temperature. However, the plate partially prevents this airflow. This is not to say that she is completely in the way. But any radiators in memory would be much better option. Or, at least, you should not use a thermal interface, after which the plate cannot be removed.

There were some problems with the cooler itself. Yes, of course, the ZeroTherm GX810 is a good cooler. Its efficiency is at an excellent level. This is largely due to the all-copper bowl as a radiator with a long copper tube piercing all the plates. But the problem is that the board has a 2-pin connector. As a result, the cooler always operates in one mode, namely maximum. From the very moment you turn on the computer, the cooler fan operates at maximum speed, creating very serious noise. One could still live with this if it applied exclusively to 3D; after all, we were familiar with the noisier Radeon X1800 and X1900, but when the cooler is so noisy in 2D... It cannot but cause irritation.

The only good news is that this problem can be solved. After all, you can use a speed controller. For example, we did just that. At minimum speeds the cooler is silent, but the efficiency immediately drops seriously. There is another option - change the cooling. We tried that too. To do this, we took the same Thermaltake DuOrb and found that installation was not possible.

On the one hand, the mounting holes are suitable, but large capacitors on the PCB interfere with fastening. As a result, we are finishing our inspection of the board on a rather negative note. Let's move on to how a video card behaves when installed in a computer.

The core frequency is 775 MHz, which corresponds to the reference. But the memory frequency is much lower than the traditional value - only 1800 MHz. However, this should not be particularly surprising. We are dealing with DDR3. So this is a completely adequate indicator. Also, keep in mind that DDR4 has significantly higher latencies. Thus, the final performance will be approximately the same. The difference will only appear in bandwidth-intensive applications.

By the way, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the board has BIOS 10.065. This is quite an old firmware and it probably contains the PLL VCO error. As a result, you will not be able to overclock your card above 862 MHz. However, the fix is quite simple. To do this, just update the BIOS.

Riva Tuner easily displayed all the necessary information about frequencies and temperatures.

The temperature under load was 55 °C, i.e. the card barely warmed up. The only question that arises is: if there is such a margin of efficiency, why use exclusively the maximum speed for the cooler?

Now about overclocking. In general, it is no secret that the frequency reserve of the RV670 is quite small, but in our sample it turned out to be terribly small. We managed to increase the frequency only by 8 MHz, i.e. up to 783 MHz. The memory showed more outstanding results - 2160 MHz. From this we can conclude that the card most likely uses memory with an access time of 1.0 ns.

Video card performance research

You can see the list of testing participants below:

GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB (650/1625/1940);
GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB (513/1180/1600);
Radeon HD 3870 DDR3 512 MB (775/1800);
Radeon HD 3850 512 MB (670/1650).

Test stand

To determine the performance level of the video cards discussed above, we assembled a test system with the following configuration:

Processor - Core 2 Duo E6550 (333?7, L2=4096 KB) @ (456?7 = 3192 MHz);
Cooling system - Xigmatek HDT-S1283;
Thermal interface - Arctic Cooling MX-2;
RAM – Corsair TWIN2v6400С4-2048;
Motherboard - Asus P5B Deluxe (Bios 1206);
Power supply - Silverstone DA850 (850 W);
Hard drive – Serial-ATA Western Digital 500 GB, 7200 rpm;
Operating system - Windows XP Service Pack 2;
Video driver - Forceware 169.21 for NVIDIA video cards, Catalyst 8.3 for AMD boards;
Monitor - Benq FP91GP.

Drivers used

The ATI Catalyst driver was configured as follows:

Catalyst A.I.: Standard;
MipMap Detail Level: High Quality;
Wait for vertical refresh: Always off;
Adaptive antialiasing: Off;
Temporal antialiasing: Off;

The ForceWare driver, in turn, was used with the following settings:

Texture Filtering: High quality;
Anisotropic sample optimization: Off;
Trilinear optimization: Off;
Threaded optimization: On;
Gamma correct antialiasing: On;
Transparency antialiasing: Off;
Vertical sync: Force off;
Other settings: default.

Test packages used:

Doom, Build 1.1— testing in the BenchemAll utility. For testing at one of the game levels, we recorded a demo;
Prey, Build 1.3— testing via HOC Benchmark, HWzone demo. Boost Graphics switched off. Image quality Highest. Run the demo twice;
F.E.A.R., Build 1.0.8— testing via built-in benchmark. Soft Shadows turned off;
Need For Speed Carbon, Build 1.4— maximum settings quality. Motion Blur disabled. Testing took place via Fraps;
TimeShift, build 1.2— detailing was increased in two versions: High Detail and Very High Detail. Testing took place via Fraps;
Unreal Tournament 3, build 1.2— maximum quality settings. Running a demo at the VCTF?Suspense level;
World In Conflict, build 1.007— two settings were used: Medium and High. In the second case, quality filters (anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing) were disabled. Testing was carried out using the built-in benchmark;
Crysis build 1.2— testing in Medium and High modes. Testing took place via Fraps.

* After the name of the game, the build is indicated, i.e. the version of the game. We try to achieve maximum objectivity in the test, so we use games only with the latest patches.

Test results

For more than a year that has passed since the release of video cards based on NVIDIA GeForce 8800 line chips, the situation on the graphics accelerator market has become extremely unfavorable for the end buyer. In fact, an overclocker who could pay a tidy sum of money for top-end video cards simply had no alternative. A competitor from ATI (AMD) appeared later and, ultimately, was not able to compete with the GeForce 8800 GTX, and subsequently the Ultra version NVIDIA GeForce 8800. Therefore, NVIDIA marketers easily realized that in the absence of competition, it is not at all necessary to reduce the cost of top-end video cards. As a result, throughout this period, prices for GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra remained at the same high level, and only a few could afford such video cards.

However, the upper price segment has never been the determining and priority for manufacturers of graphics chips and video cards. Yes, leadership in this class is certainly prestigious for any company, but from an economic point of view, the most profitable is the middle price range. However, as recent tests have shown, those aspiring to supremacy in the middle class AMD Radeon HD 3850 and 3870, the performance of such video cards is unsatisfactory for modern games and, in principle, unacceptable for their quality regimes. The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT is faster than this pair, but also falls short of comfort in DirectX 10 games. What comes next if there is an opportunity to pay extra? Until yesterday, there was virtually nothing, since there is literally a gap in price terms between the GT and GTX and that’s all.

But technical progress does not stand still - the appearance of the new NVIDIA G92 chip, produced using 65 nm technology, allowed the company not only to attract overclockers with the quite successful GeForce 8800 GT video card, but also yesterday, December 11 at 17:00 Moscow time, to announce a new product - GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB. Despite the quite simple name of the video card, the new graphics accelerator has a number of significant differences from the regular version of the GeForce 8800 GTS. In today's material we will introduce you to one of the first video cards, GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB, appearing on Russian market, we’ll check its temperature conditions and overclocking potential, and, of course, we’ll study the performance of the new product.

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1. Technical characteristics of video cards participating in testing

The technical characteristics of the new product are presented to your attention in the table below in comparison with NVIDIA video cards GeForce 8800 family:

Name of technical characteristics	NVIDIA GeForce
Name of technical characteristics	8800 GT	8800 GTS	8800 GTS 512 MB	8800 GTX/Ultra
GPU	G92 (TSMC)	G80 (TSMC)	G92 (TSMC)	G80 (TSMC)
Technical process, nm	65 (low-k)	90 (low-k)	65 (low-k)	90 (low-k)
Core area, sq.mm	330	484	330	484
Number of transistors, million	754	681	754	681
GPU frequency, MHz	600 (1512 shader)	513 (1188 shader)	650 (1625 shader)	575 / 612 (1350 / 1500 shader)
Effective operating frequency video memory, MHz	1800	1584	1940	1800 / 2160
Memory capacity, MB	256 / 512	320 / 640	512	768
Supported memory type	GDDR3
Memory bus width, bits	256 (4 x 64)	320	256 (4 x 64)	384
Interface	PCI-Express x16 (v2.0)	PCI-Express x16 (v1.x)	PCI-Express x16 (v2.0)	PCI-Express x16 (v1.x)
Number of unified shaders processors, pcs.	112	96	128
Number of texture blocks, pcs.	56 (28)	24	64 (32)	32
Number of rasterization units (ROP’s), pcs.	16	20	16	24
Pixel Shaders/Vertex version support Shaders	4.0 / 4.0
Video memory bandwidth, Gb/sec	~57.6	~61.9	~62.1	~86.4 / ~103.7
shading, Gpixel/sec	~9.6	~10.3	~10.4	~13.8 / ~14.7
Theoretical top speed texture samples, Gtex./sec	~33.6	~24.0	~41.6	~36.8 / ~39.2
Peak power consumption in 3D operating mode, Watt		~106		~180
Power supply requirements Watt	~400	~400	~400	~450 / ~550
Reference video card dimensions design, mm (L x H x T)	220 x 100 x 15	228 x 100 x 39	220 x 100 x 32	270 x 100 x 38
Exits	2 x DVI-I (Dual Link) TV-Out, HDTV- Out, HDCP	2 x DVI-I (Dual Link) TV-Out, HDTV-Out	2 x DVI-I (Dual Link) TV-Out, HDTV- Out, HDCP	2 x DVI-I (Dual Link) TV-Out, HDTV-Out
Additionally	SLI support
Recommended cost, US dollars	199 / 249	349 ~ 399	299~349	499~599 / 699

2. Review of BFG GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB OC (BFGR88512GTSE)

The newest video card from a company well known to overclockers comes in a very compact box, decorated in dark colors.

Manufacturers have long been practicing the release of cheaper solutions based on graphics processors in the upper price segment. Thanks to this approach, the variety of ready-made solutions significantly increases, their cost decreases, and most users often prefer products with the most favorable price/performance ratio.
NVIDIA did the same with the latest G80 chip, the world's first graphics processor that is a carrier of a unified architecture and supports Microsoft's new API - DirectX 10.
At the same time as the flagship GeForce 8800 GTX video card, a cheaper version called the GeForce 8800 GTS was released. It is distinguished from its older sister by the reduced number of pixel processors (96 versus 128) and video memory (640 MB instead of 768 MB for the GTX). A consequence of the reduction in the number of memory chips was a reduction in the bit capacity of its interface to 320 bits (for the GTX - 384 bits). More detailed characteristics of the graphics adapter in question can be found by examining the table:

Our Test Laboratory received the ASUS EN8800GTS video card, which we will review today. This manufacturer is one of the largest and most successful partners of NVIDIA, and traditionally does not skimp on packaging design and packaging. As they say, “there should be a lot of a good video card.” The new product comes in a box of impressive size:

On its front side there is a character from the game Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. The matter is not limited to one image - the game itself, as you may have guessed, is included in the package. On the back of the package there are brief characteristics of the product:

ASUS considered this amount of information insufficient, making a kind of book out of the box:

To be fair, we note that this method has been practiced for quite some time and, by no means, only ASUS. But, as they say, everything is good in moderation. Maximum information content turned into a practical inconvenience. A small breath of wind - and the top of the cover opens. When transporting the hero of today's review, we had to contrive and bend the retaining tongue so that it would justify its purpose. Unfortunately, bending it can easily damage the packaging. And finally, let’s add that the dimensions of the box are unreasonably large, which causes some inconvenience.

Video adapter: equipment and close inspection

Well, let's move directly to the configuration and the video card itself. The adapter is packaged in an antistatic bag and a foam container, which eliminates both electrical and mechanical damage to the board. The box contains discs, DVI -> D-Sub adapters, VIVO and additional power cords, as well as a case for discs.

Of the discs included in the set, the GTI racing game and the 3DMark06 Advanced Edition benchmark are noteworthy! For the first time, 3DMark06 was seen in a set of serial and mass-produced video cards! Without a doubt, this fact will appeal to users who are actively involved in benchmarking.

Well, let's move directly to the video card. It is based on printed circuit board reference design using a reference cooling system, and is distinguished from other similar products only by a sticker with the manufacturer’s logo, which retains the Ghost Recon theme.

The reverse side of the printed circuit board is also unremarkable - many SMD components and voltage stabilizer regulators are soldered on it, that’s all:

Unlike the GeForce 8800 GTX, the GTS requires only one additional power connector:

In addition, it is shorter than its older sister, which will certainly appeal to owners of small bodies. There are no differences in terms of cooling, and the ASUS EN8800GTS, like the GF 8800 GTX, uses a cooler with a large turbine-type fan. The radiator is made of a copper base and an aluminum casing. Heat transfer from the base to the fins is carried out partly through heat pipes, which increases the overall efficiency of the design. Hot air is expelled outside system unit, however, part of it, alas, remains inside the PC thanks to some holes in the cooling system casing.

However, the problem of strong heating is easily solved. For example, blowing a low-speed 120 mm fan improves the temperature of the board quite well.
In addition to the graphics processor, the cooler cools memory chips and elements of the power subsystem, as well as the video signal DAC (NVIO chip).

The latter was moved outside the main processor due to the high frequencies of the latter, which caused interference and, as a result, interference in operation.
Unfortunately, this circumstance will cause difficulties when changing the cooler, so NVIDIA engineers simply did not have the right to make it of poor quality. Let's look at the video card in its “naked” form.

The PCB contains a G80 chip, revision A2, and 640 MB of video memory, composed of ten Samsung-made chips. Memory access time is 1.2 ns, which is slightly faster than the GeForce 8800 GTX.

Please note that the board has two slots for chips. If they were soldered on the PCB, the total memory volume would be 768 MB, and its width would be 384 bits. Alas, the video card developer considered such a step unnecessary. This scheme is used only in professional Quadro series video cards.
Finally, we note that the card only has one SLI connector, unlike the GF 8800 GTX, which has two.

Testing, analysis of results

The ASUS EN8800GTS video card was tested on a test bench with the following configuration:

processor - AMD Athlon 64 3200+@2400MHz (Venice);
motherboard - ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe, NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI chipset;
RAM - 2x512MB DDR400@240MHz, timings 3.0-4-4-9-1T.

Testing was carried out in operating system Windows XP SP2, chipset driver version 6.86 installed.
The RivaTuner utility confirmed that the video card's characteristics correspond to the declared ones:

The video processor frequencies are 510/1190 MHz, memory - 1600 MHz. The maximum heating achieved after repeated runs of the Canyon Flight test from the 3DMark06 package was 76 ° C at a fan speed of the standard cooling system of 1360 rpm:

For comparison, I will say that under the same conditions, the GeForce 6800 Ultra AGP that came to hand heated up to 85 °C at maximum fan speed, and after prolonged operation it completely froze.

The performance of the new video adapter was tested using popular synthetic benchmarks and some gaming applications.

Testing with Futuremark development applications revealed the following:

Of course, on a system with a more powerful central processor, for example, a representative of the architecture Intel Core 2 Duo, the result would be better. In our case, the outdated Athlon 64 (even overclocked) does not allow us to fully unleash the potential of the top video cards of our time.

Let's move on to testing in real gaming applications.

In Need for Speed Carbon, the difference between the competitors is clearly visible, and the GeForce 7900 GTX lags behind the 8800 generation cards more than noticeably.

Since playing Half Life 2 comfortably requires not only a powerful video card, but also fast processor, a clear difference in performance is observed only at maximum resolutions with anisotropic filtering and full-screen anti-aliasing activated.

In F.E.A.R. There is approximately the same picture as in HL2.

In the heavy modes of the Doom 3 game, the card in question performed very well, but the same weak central processor does not allow us to fully appreciate the gap between the GeForce 8800 GTS and its older sister.

Since Pray is made on the Quake 4 engine, which in turn is a development of Doom3, the performance results of video cards in these games are similar.
The progressiveness of the new unified shader architecture and some “cutback” of capabilities relative to its older sister put the GeForce 8800 GTS between the fastest graphics adapter from NVIDIA today and the flagship of the seven thousandth line. However, it is unlikely that the Californians would have acted differently - a new product of this class should be more powerful than its predecessors. I'm glad that the GeForce 8800 GTS in terms of speed capabilities is much closer to the GeForce 8800 GTX than to the 7900 GTX. Support for the latest graphics technologies also inspires optimism, which should leave owners of such adapters with a good performance reserve for the near (and, we hope, more distant) future.

Verdict

After examining the card, we were left with exceptionally good impressions, which were greatly improved by the cost factor of the product. So, at the time of its appearance on the market and some time later, according to price.ru, the ASUS EN8800GTS cost about 16,000 rubles - its price was clearly overpriced. Now, for a long period of time, the card is sold for approximately 11,500 rubles, which does not exceed the cost of similar products from competitors. However, given the package, the brainchild of ASUS is undoubtedly in an advantageous position.

pros:

DirectX 10 support;
reinforced chip structure (unified architecture);
excellent level of performance;
rich equipment;
famous brand;
the price is on par with products from less reputable competitors

Minuses:

Not always a convenient big box

We thank the Russian representative office of ASUS for providing the video card for testing.

Feedback, suggestions and comments on this material are accepted in the forum website.

Comparative testing of four GeForce 8800GTS 512 and 8800GT

Let's get acquainted with the GeForce 8800GTS 512 boards, compare them with the cheaper GeForce 8800GT and the veteran GeForce 8800GTX. At the same time, we are running a new test bench and collecting flaws in drivers for DX10

Release new series GeForce 8800GTS 512 video cards NVIDIA has significantly strengthened its position. The new product replaced the more expensive, hotter and bulkier GeForce 8800GTX, and the only drawback compared to its predecessor was a narrower memory bus of 256 bits (versus 384 for the GeForce 8800GTX) and a smaller amount of memory, equal to 512 MB (versus 768 MB for the GeForce 8800GTX) . However, the new product has undergone not only reductions, but also some improvements: the number of texture blocks has been increased from 32 to 64, which undoubtedly partly compensates for the simplifications in the card. Also, to compensate for the simplifications, the frequencies were increased compared to its predecessor, and the amount of video memory is easily expanded to 1 GB by simply installing chips of larger capacity, which, by the way, some manufacturers have already begun to do. But, despite the fact that the GeForce 8800GTS 512 video card replaced the GeForce 8800GTX, its main competitor is not its predecessor at all, but its closest relative, the GeForce 8800GT, and the whole point is in its lower price. The GeForce 8800GTS 512 and GeForce 8800GT video cards are not much different from each other, since the GeForce 8800GT is a stripped-down version of the GeForce 8800GTS 512 and, oddly enough, appeared on the market before the full-fledged version. Both video cards are equipped with 512 MB of video memory and, as today's research showed, they have the same memory. The main differences lie in the graphics processor, and specifically, in the GT version some of its functional blocks are disabled. More detailed information is shown in the table below:

As you can see, the GeForce 8800GT differs from its older sister in that the number of universal processors has been reduced to 112 and the number of texture units has been reduced to 56. Initially, the cards also differ in clock speeds, but this does not matter for our today's review, since almost all cards have been factory overclocked. Let's find out how the differences on paper translated into reality.

Leadtek 8800GTS 512

The designers from Leadtek chose a bright orange color to attract attention to their video card, and they were absolutely right: the new product will not go unnoticed.
The face of the new product was an image of a scene from a fictional shooter, under which were the technical characteristics of the video card and a note about the bonus - the full version of the game Neverwinter Nights 2.
The back of the box contains the specifications of the video card, a list of the delivery kit and standard information from NVIDIA.

S-video splitter > S-video + component out;
DVI > D-sub adapter;
CD with drivers;
CD with Power DVD 7 program;

The Leadtek 8800GTS 512 video card is based on the reference design familiar to us from the GeForce 8800GT boards. Externally, the new product is distinguished by a “two-story” cooling system, which, unlike its predecessor, throws hot air outside the computer. The advantages of such a solution are obvious, and the reason for using an improved cooling system is, most likely, not that the “new” chip heats up more, but that for more money the buyer has every right to get a better product. After all, to be frank, the reference system of the GeForce 8800GT does not cope with its responsibilities in the best way.
The reverse sides of the GeForce 8800GTS 512 and GeForce 8800GT look almost identical and differ in that the 8800GTS 512 version has all the elements mounted. However, we will be able to see the differences later on the example of the Leadtek 8800GT video card, but for now let’s get under the hood of the new product.
By removing the cooling system, we can again verify that the boards are identical. However, pay attention to the right side of the board, where the power subsystem is located. Where the GeForce 8800GT is empty and has only seats, the Leadtek 8800GTS 512 has a space densely populated with radio elements. It turns out that the GeForce 8800GTS 512 has a more complex power subsystem than the GeForce 8800GT. In principle, this is not surprising, since the GeForce 8800GTS 512 has higher operating frequencies, and, consequently, more stringent requirements for power quality.
There are no external differences between the G92 chip in the Leadtek 8800GTS 512 and the G92 chip in the GeForce 8800GT video cards.
The new video card uses the same Qimonda chips with a 1.0 ns access time as the GeForce 8800GT. A set of eight chips forms 512 MB of video memory. The nominal frequency for such chips is 2000 MHz DDR, but the actual frequency set in the video card is slightly lower.
The cooling system for the video card is aluminum with a copper plate. This combination of two materials has been used for a long time and allows one to achieve the required efficiency with less weight and a lower price.
The processing of the copper “core” is at a satisfactory level, but no more.
After removing the casing from the cooling system, we are presented with an amazing picture: as many as three heat pipes are engaged in removing heat from the copper base, which go to different parts of the radiator made of aluminum plates. This scheme serves to distribute heat evenly, and the large dimensions of the radiator should have the best effect on the quality of cooling, which cannot be said about the reference cooling system of the GeForce 8800GT. There are also three heat pipes, but their dimensions are noticeably smaller, as are the dimensions of the radiator itself.

Differences, overclocking and cooling system efficiency

The differences from the GeForce 8800GT lie in the number of universal processors increased from 112 to 128, as well as the operating frequencies of the entire GPU.
The Leadtek 8800GTS 512 frequencies correspond to the recommended ones and are equal to 650/1625 MHz for the graphics processor and 1944 MHz for video memory.

Now - about the heating of the video card, which we will check using the game Oblivion with maximum settings.

The Leadtek 8800GTS 512 video card heated up from 55 degrees at rest to 71 degrees, while the noise from the fan was practically inaudible. However, this was not enough for overclocking, and using the same Riva Tuner, we increased the fan speed to 50% of the possible maximum.
After this, the GPU temperature did not rise above 64 degrees, while the noise level remained low. The Leadtek 8800GTS 512 video card was overclocked to 756/1890 MHz for the GPU and 2100 MHz for the video memory. Such high frequencies were unavailable for the GeForce 8800GT, apparently due to the simplified power system.

Well, let's get acquainted with the next participant in our testing today - the ASUS EN8800GTS TOP video card.

ASUS EN8800GTS TOP

When looking at the packaging of powerful ASUS video cards, you may get the feeling that this is not a video card at all, but, for example, a motherboard. It's all about the large dimensions; for example, in our case, the size of the box is noticeably larger than that of the first participant in today's testing. The large area of the front side of the package made it possible to fit a large image of a branded archer girl and a considerable diagram showing a 7% increase in speed compared to the “regular” GeForce 8800GTS 512. The abbreviation “TOP” in the name of the video card indicates that it has been factory overclocked. The downside of the packaging is that it is not obvious that the video card belongs to the GeForce 8800GTS 512 series, but, by and large, these are minor things. At first it is surprising that there is too little information on the box, however, the truth reveals itself later, by itself, and in the literal sense.
As soon as you take the box by the handle, at the first whiff of the breeze it opens like a book. The information under the cover is entirely devoted to proprietary utilities from ASUS, in particular, ASUS Gamer OSD, which can now not only change brightness/contrast/color in real time, but also show the FPS value, as well as record video and take screenshots. The second utility described, called Smart Doctor, is designed to monitor the value of the supply voltages and frequencies of the video card, and also allows you to overclock it. It is impossible not to say that proprietary utility from ASUS can change two GPU frequencies, that is, the core and the shader unit. This brings it very close to the famous Riva Tuner utility.
The back of the box contains a little bit of everything, in particular, a brief description of the Video Security utility, designed to use your computer as a “smart” online video surveillance system.
The configuration of the card is made according to the “nothing superfluous” principle:

adapter for powering PCI-express cards;
adapter S-video > component out;
DVI > D-sub adapter;
bag for 16 discs;
CD with drivers;
CD with documentation;
Brief instructions for installing a video card.

Externally, the video card is almost an exact copy Leadtek 8800GTS 512, and this is not surprising: both cards are based on the reference design and, most likely, were produced at the same factory by order of NVIDIA itself, and only then sent to Leadtek and ASUS. Simply put, today, a card from Leadtek could very well become a card from ASUS, and vice versa.
It is clear that the reverse side of the video card is also no different from that of the Leadtek 8800GTS 512, except that they have different branded stickers.
There is also nothing unusual under the cooling system. The power supply system on the right side of the board is fully assembled, in the center is the G92 graphics processor with 128 active stream processors and eight memory chips, totaling 512 MB.
The memory chips are manufactured by Qimonda and have an access time of 1.0 ns, which corresponds to a frequency of 2000 MHz.
The appearance of the GPU does not reveal its noble origin, just like the Leadtek 8800GTS 512.
The cooling system of the ASUS EN8800GTS TOP video card is exactly the same as that of the Leadtek 8800GTS 512 video card: a copper “core” is built into the aluminum radiator to remove heat from the GPU.
The polishing quality of the copper core is satisfactory, like its predecessor.
The heat from the copper core is distributed across the aluminum fins using three copper heat pipes. We have already seen the effectiveness of this solution using the example of the first card.

Rated frequencies and overclocking

As we have already said, the TOP prefix after the name of the video card indicates its factory overclocking. The standard frequencies of the new product are 740/1780 MHz for the GPU (versus 650/1625 MHz for Leadtek) and 2072 MHz for video memory (versus 1944 MHz for Leadtek). Note that for memory chips with 1.0 ns access time, the nominal clock speed is 2000 MHz.

We managed to overclock the card to the same frequencies as the Leadtek 8800GTS 512: 756/1890 MHz for the GPU and 2100 MHz for the video memory at a fan speed of 50% of the maximum.

Well, now let's go down a notch and get acquainted with two video cards of the GeForce 8800GT class.

Leadtek 8800GT

The Leadtek 8800GT video card is a typical representative of the GeForce 8800GT series and, in fact, is not much different from the majority. The whole point is that GeForce 8800GT video cards are cheaper than the “advanced” GeForce 8800GTS 512, so they don’t become any less interesting.
The Leadtek 8800GT box is almost the same as the more expensive 8800GTS 512. The differences are in the smaller thickness, the absence of a carrying handle and, of course, in the name of the video card. The inscription “extreme” after the name of the video card indicates its factory overclocking.
The back of the box contains brief information about the video card, its advantages and a list of accessories. By the way, in our case, the game Neverwinter Nights 2 and instructions for installing the video card were missing.
The new product package includes:

adapter for powering PCI-express cards;
S-video splitter > S-video + component out;
DVI > D-sub adapter;
CD with drivers;
CD with Power DVD 7 program;
CD with full version games Newerwinter Nights 2;
Brief instructions for installing a video card.

The Leadtek 8800GT video card is manufactured according to the reference design and differs in appearance only by the sticker on the cooling system casing.
The reverse side of the video card also does not stand out in any way, however, after getting acquainted with the GeForce 8800GTS 512 video card, the missing row of chip capacitors on the left of the board attracts attention.
The cooling system is manufactured according to a reference design and is well known to us from previous reviews.
When examining the printed circuit board, one notices the absence of elements on the right side of the card, which, as we have already seen, are mounted in the 8800GTS 512 version. Otherwise, it is a completely ordinary board with a G92 graphics processor “cut” to 112 stream processors and eight memory chips, in total forming 512 MB.
Like the previous participants in today's testing, the memory chips of the Leadtek 8800GT are manufactured by Qimonda and have an access time of 1.0 ns, which corresponds to 2000 MHz.

Rated frequencies and overclocking

As already mentioned, the Leadtek 8800GT video card has a standard factory overclock. Its nominal frequencies are 678/1700 MHz for the graphics processor and 2000 MHz for video memory. Very good, however, despite such a considerable factory overclock, the video card did not show the best result when overclocked manually, only 713/1782 MHz for the graphics processor and 2100 MHz for video memory. Let us recall that the participants in previous reviews were overclocked to frequencies of 740/1800 MHz for the video processor and 2000-2100 MHz for video memory. We also note that we achieved this result at the maximum speed of the cooling system fan, since, as we have already said, the reference system of the GeForce 8800GT does not cope with its duties in the best way.

Now let's move on to the next participant in today's testing.

Palit 8800GT sonic

The face of the Palit 8800GT sonic video card is a combat frog in a spectacular design. Silly, but very funny! However, our life consists of nonsense, and it doesn’t hurt to remember this once again. Moving from fun to business, you should pay attention to the lower right corner, where there is a sticker indicating the frequencies of the video card and its other characteristics. The frequencies of the new product are almost the same as those of the GeForce 8800GTS 512: 650/1625 MHz for the graphics processor and 1900 MHz for video memory, which is only 44 MHz less than the 8800GTS 512.
The back side of the box does not contain anything remarkable, because everything interesting is located on the front side.
The new product package includes:

adapter for powering PCI-express cards;
adapter S-video > component out;
S-video adapter > tulip;
DVI > D-sub adapter;
DVI > HDMI adapter;
CD with drivers;
CD with the full version of the game Tomb Raider The Legend;
Brief instructions for installing a video card.

It should be noted that this is the first video card of the GeForce 8800GT class with a DVI > HDMI adapter that has been in our test laboratory; Previously, only some video cards of the AMD Radeon family were equipped with such an adapter.
Here comes the first surprise! The Palit 8800GT sonic video card is based on a printed circuit board of its own design and is equipped with a proprietary cooling system.
The reverse side of the video card also has differences, but it is still difficult for us to judge the pros and cons of the new design. But we can fully judge the installation of video card components and its quality.
Since the height of the stands between the heatsink for the GPU and the board is less than the gap between them, and the heatsink is secured with screws without any damping spacers, the board itself and the graphics chip substrate are very curved. Unfortunately, this can lead to their damage, and the problem lies not in the strength of the PCB from which the board is made, but in the tracks, which can burst under tension. However, it is not at all necessary that this will happen, but the manufacturer should pay more attention to mounting cooling systems on their video cards.
The cooling system is made of painted aluminum and consists of three parts - for the graphics processor, video memory and power subsystem. The base of the heatsink for the GPU does not boast any special treatment, and a solid gray mass is used as a heat-conducting interface.
Changes in the design of the printed circuit board affected the power subsystem; small elements were replaced with larger ones, and their layout changed. Otherwise, we have before us the well-known GeForce 8800GT with a G92 graphics processor and eight video memory chips, totaling 512 MB.
Like the rest of today's test participants, the memory chips are manufactured by Qimonda and have an access time of 1.0 ns.

Cooling efficiency and overclocking

We will test the effectiveness of the proprietary cooling system used in the Palit 8800GT sonic using the Oblivion game with maximum settings, as always.

The video card warmed up from 51 to 61 degrees, which is, in general, a very good result. However, the fan speed increased noticeably, as a result of which the already not quiet cooling system became clearly audible against the general background. Therefore, it is difficult to recommend a video card from Palit to lovers of silence.

Despite changes in the power subsystem and improved cooling, the Palit 8800GT sonic video card was overclocked to the usual frequencies of 734/1782 MHz for the graphics processor and 2000 MHz for video memory.

Now we have finished getting acquainted with the participants of today’s testing, and therefore let’s move on to reviewing the test results.

Testing and conclusions

Today's testing differs not only in that we compare four video cards with each other, but also in the fact that we performed it on a test bench different from the one you are familiar with, the configuration of which is as follows:

The change in the test platform is due to the fact that it was initially planned to test the Leadtek 8800GTS 512 and ASUS EN8800GTS TOP video cards in SLI mode, but, unfortunately, the ASUS video card could not withstand our bullying by the end of the tests, and the idea collapsed. Therefore, we decided to move SLI testing into a separate article as soon as we have the necessary hardware in our hands, but for now we will limit ourselves to tests of single video cards. We will compare seven video cards with each other, one of which is the GeForce 8800GTS 512 overclocked to frequencies of 756/1890/2100 MHz. For comparison, we added the GeForce 8800GT and GeForce 8800GTX video cards, operating at the frequencies recommended by NVIDIA. To make it easier for you to navigate, we present a table with the clock frequencies of all testing participants:

Video card name	GPU frequency, core/shader unit, MHz	Effective video memory frequency, MHz
Leadtek 8800GTS 512	650 / 1625	1944
ASUS EN8800GTS TOP	740 / 1780	2072
Leadtek 8800GT	678 / 1674	2000
Palit 8800GT	650 / 1625	1900
Overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512 (in the diagram 8800GTS 512 756/1890/2100)	756 / 1890	2100
GeForce 8800GT (8800GT in the diagram)	600 / 1500	1800
GeForce 8800GTX (8800GTX in the diagram)	575 / 1350	1800

We used ForceWare 169.21 and ForceWare 169.25 drivers for Windows XP and Windows Vista, respectively. Let's traditionally start getting acquainted with the test results with the 3DMark tests:
Based on the 3DMark test results, of course, you can see who is stronger and who is weaker, but the difference is so small that there are no obvious leaders. But still, it is worth noting the fact that the most expensive of the participants - the GeForce 8800GTX video card - took last place. To complete the picture, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the results of game tests, which, as before, we performed with 4x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering.
In the Call of Duty 4 game, attention is drawn to the fact that the Leadtek 8800GT video card is almost on a par with the Leadtek 8800GTS 512, and the ASUS EN8800 TOP video card is almost not behind the overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512. The Palit 8800GT video card was in penultimate place, slightly ahead of the reference GeForce 8800GT. The winner was the GeForce 8800GTX video card, apparently due to a wider (compared to other testing participants) memory bus.
In the game Call of Juarez under Windows XP, the Leadtek 8800GTS 512 video card is almost on par with the GeForce 8800GTX, which is no longer saved by a wider memory bus. Let us note the fact that the Leadtek 8800GT video card does not lag behind them, and at a resolution of 1024x768 even outperforms them, which is explained by higher frequencies compared to the other two video cards. The leaders are the video card from ASUS and the overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512, and in the penultimate place is again the video card from Palit, right after the GeForce 8800GT.
In the game Call of Juarez under Windows control Vista had problems with the 1600x1200 resolution, in which there were large differences in speed and in some places very strong “brakes”. We assume that the problem is a lack of video memory in such a heavy mode, and whether this is true or not, we will check in the next review using the example of the ASUS 8800GT video card with 1 GB of video memory. Let's immediately note that there were no problems with the GeForce 8800GTX. Based on the results in two lower resolutions, it is clear that the balance of power has remained virtually unchanged compared to Windows XP, except that the GeForce 8800GTX recalled its noble origins, but did not become a leader.
In the game Crysis under Windows XP, the balance of power has changed a little, but essentially everything remains the same: the Leadtek 8800GTS 512 and Leadtek 8800GT video cards are at approximately the same level, the leaders are the ASUS EN8800GTS TOP video cards and the overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512, and the last place goes to the video card GeForce 8800GT. We also note the fact that as the resolution increases, the gap between the overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512 and the GeForce 8800GTX is reduced due to the latter's wider memory bus. However, high clock frequencies still take over, and yesterday's champion remains out of work.
The problem in Windows Vista with a resolution of 1600x1200 did not bypass the game Crysis, passing only the GeForce 8800GTX. Like Call of Juarez, there were some speed bumps and sometimes very severe drops in performance, sometimes below one frame per second. Based on the results in two lower resolutions, it can be seen that this time the Leadtek 8800GTS 512 video card surpassed its younger sister, taking third place. The first places went to the ASUS EN8800GTS TOP video cards, the overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512 and the GeForce 8800GTX, which finally took the lead with a resolution of 1280x1024.
In the game Need for Speed Pro Street Racing, the GeForce 8800GTX video card is in the lead, and at a resolution of 1024x768 - by a large margin. Following it is the Leadtek 8800GTS 512 video card, followed by the ASUS EN8800GTS TOP and the overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512, and the last places go to the GeForce 8800GT and Palit 8800GT sonic cards. Since the GeForce 8800GTX video card has become the leader, we can conclude that the game is highly dependent on video memory bandwidth. After this, we can guess why the overclocked versions of the GeForce 8800GTS 512 turned out to be slower than the non-overclocked version. Apparently, this is due to increased video memory latencies due to an increase in its clock frequency.
In the game Need for Speed Carbon, we see a familiar picture: the Leadtek 8800GTS 512 and Leadtek 8800GT video cards are approximately on par, the first places are taken by the overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512 and ASUS EN8800GTS TOP, and the last place is taken by the GeForce 8800GT. The GeForce 8800GTX video card looks good, but nothing more.
In the Oblivion game, attention is drawn to the fact that at a resolution of 1024x768, the overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512 and ASUS EN8800GTS TOP took last place. We assumed that the problem was the memory latencies that had increased due to the increase in frequency, and we were right: after lowering the memory frequency of the overclocked GeForce 8800GTS 512 video card to its nominal value, it showed a result of over 100 frames per second. As resolution grows, things return to normal and former outsiders become leaders. By the way, it is noteworthy that the Leadtek 8800GT outperforms the Leadtek 8800GTS 512, apparently due to the high frequency of the shader unit.
The Prey game turned out to be undemanding to all video cards, and they were arranged according to their clock frequencies. Except that the GeForce 8800GTX behaved a little differently, but this is understandable, because it has a wider memory bus, and the game is highly dependent on its bandwidth.

conclusions

The purpose of today's testing was to find out how much the video cards differ from each other, and how justified is the high price for the “advanced” video card GeForce 8800GTS 512. Based on the results obtained, it is clear that the cards are very close to each other, and this despite the fact that The characteristics of the GeForce 8800GTS 512 are superior to the GeForce 8800GT, including in terms of active functional units inside the GPU. The obvious advantages of the new GeForce 8800GTS 512 video cards are a high-quality and quiet cooling system and greater overclocking potential than the GeForce 8800GT. Particularly noteworthy is the video card from ASUS, which, thanks to factory overclocking, occupies a leading position. Of course, you can overclock the card yourself, and, most likely, all GeForce 8800GTS 512 video cards will “take” the frequencies of the video card from ASUS. In general, we note once again that the new family of video cards based on G92 graphics chips turned out to be very successful and may well replace the recent leader GeForce 8800GTX.

Pros and cons of individual video cards: