Power Supply Requirements

NVIDIA does recommend at least a 450W power supply that can deliver up to 30A on the +12V rail. For our testing we used OCZ's GameXStream 700W power supply, which features two PCIe power connectors, perfect for the 8800 series.

OCZ sent us a pre-release version of its 1kW power supply for use in our GeForce 8800 GTX SLI tests.

Armed with four PCIe power connectors, the 1kW unit handled the incredible load placed on it by two 8800 GTX cards without a problem. Total system power consumption when running our benchmarks, at times, peaked at over 520W with the SLI setup.


Two 8800 GTX cards in action; four power cables are necessary

The Cards: 8800 GTX and GTS The 680i Platform
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  • dwalton - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link

    When using older cards sacrificing IQ for performance is typically acceptable. Who needs AA when running F.E.A.R on a 9700 Pro.

    However, on a just launched high-end card, why would anyone feel the need to sacrifice IQ for performance? Some may say resolution over AA, but I find it hard to believe that there is a lot of gaming enthusiasts with deep pockets, who play with insane resolutions yet no AA.
  • JarredWalton - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link

    If I look for jaggies, I see them. On most games, however, they don't bother me much at all. Running at native resolution on LCDs or at a really high resolution on CRTs, I'd take that over a lower res with 4xAA. If you have the power to enable 4xAA, great, but I'm certainly not one to suggest it's required. I'd rather be able to enable vsync without a massive performance hit (i.e. stay above 60 FPS) than worry about jaggies. Personal preference.
  • munim - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link

    "With the latest 1.09 patch, F.E.A.R. has gained multi-core support,"

    Where is this?
  • JarredWalton - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link

    I wrote that, but it may be incorrect. I'm trying to get in contact with Gary to find out if I'm just being delusional about Quad Core support. Maybe it's NDA still? Hmmm.... nothing to see here!
  • JarredWalton - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link

    Okay, it's the 1.08 patch, and that is what was tested. Since we didn't use a quad core CPU I don't know if it will actually help or not -- something to look at in the future.
  • Nelsieus - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link

    I haven't even finished reading it yet, but so far, this is the most comprehensive, in-depth review I've seen on G80 and I just wanted to mention that beforehand.

    :)
  • GhandiInstinct - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link

    What upcoming games will be the first to be fully made on DX10 structure? And does the G80 have full support of DX10?
  • timmiser - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link

    Microsoft Flight Simulator X will be DX10 compliant via a planned patch once Vista comes out.
  • JarredWalton - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link

    All DX10 hardware will be full DX10 (see pages 2-4). As for games that will be DX10 ready, Halo 2 for Vista will be for sure. Beyond that... I don't know for sure. As we've explained a bit, DX10 will require Vista, so anything launching before Vista will likely not be DX10 compliant.
  • shabby - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link

    They're re-doing a dx8 game in dx10? You gotta be kidding me, whats the point? You cant polish a turd.

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