NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX and 8800 GTS

The GeForce 8800 GTX needs no introduction and as recently looked at it as well as the lesser 8800 GTS when they launched, and then again in a vendor roundup of 8800 cards.



For this article we included these cards as a reference, and right now there are a few different versions available for purchase. The 8800 GTX sells currently for about $650 and the 8800 GTS for about $480. As of right now, we aren't seeing any overclocked versions of these cards, with the GTX clocked at 575/1350/900 MHz (core/shader/mem), and the GTS at 500/1200/800 MHz.

Both the 8800 GTX and GTS are fully HDCP compatible, and HDCP is enabled through both DVI ports. They also have an analog TV port that has component video support. Since most 8800 cards available right now are reference designs, we included the reference 8800 GTX. We also used the BFG GeForce 8800 GTS, which is clocked at reference speeds, and so we refer to it as an "8800 GTS reference" in our performance tests.

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  • DerekWilson - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    To be honest, this article was a very long time in production ... we got a hold of the drive almost two months ago iirc. It just took a whole lot of time and energy to get the tests done and the article written. We did go back and add the 8800 and 256mb 1900xt, but the x1950pro seemed to slip through the cracks.

    Sorry about that. We didn't exclude it on purpose, and we will try to include it in any future articles we write on HDCP protected content and high definition movies.
  • photoguy99 - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    If the article was done a while ago, does that mean it's now possible to playback h.264/vc1 Blu-Ray on a PC?

    It would be good to know what the missing link is to make sure we get it if we want to get playback on our own systems.

  • DerekWilson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    All BD movies are currently MPEG-2 -- and probably will be for a while.

    HD-DVD movies use VC1.
  • peternelson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link


    Wrong, the initial BR moves were mpeg-2 encoded content.

    There now exist BR discs with content in the other two main formats.

    Also discs with dual layers while original releases were single layer.

    The wikipedia page for bluray contains titles, launch dates of the non-mpeg-2 discs.
  • DerekWilson - Saturday, November 18, 2006 - link

    I stand corrected. Thanks for the info.
  • balazs203 - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link

    Thanks for the great review.

    At this link in the review of the new Panasonic BR player they mention a few non-MPEG2 BD titles they like quality wise:
    http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplayers/1106pan...">http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplayers/1106pan...

    I would be very much interested in an extension of your review with non-MPEG2 titles as obviously I would like to buy a computer which can play back all these titles and MPEG2 is the easisest type. Info about the other types is much more important for me when I consider what parts I want to buy.
  • JarredWalton - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    The article wasn't *done* a while ago - it was *started* two months ago. It took that long to get to this point, which says something about the state of the technology.
  • lujack26 - Monday, October 31, 2011 - link

    I was looking around the web for HDMI video cards after I read this article and came across this website E-bargainz.com. They seem to have great prices, a large selection, and reasonable shipping. Here is the direct link to their selection of HDMI video cards http://www.e-bargainz.com/index.php/cPath/143. I also found a coupon code "Thank You" for $5 off your first purchase. I'm going to try them out. Anything to keep from putting another dollar in Jeff Bezos pockets.

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