Introduction
We have spent a bit of time lately looking at retail GeForce 8800 hardware, and while the GTX is quite a powerful part, the GTS 320MB is the most important card in NVIDIA's lineup right now. It is finally time for us to take a look at what the market has to offer in terms of the currently most affordable 8 Series hardware. As we saw in our initial review, the 8800 GTS 320MB provides excellent performance in all but the most memory intensive situations for people with the most popular panel sizes.
Our exploration of retail 8800 GTS 320MB hardware will look at a few different factory overclocked models alongside one stock speed card to get an idea of what kind of value these options offer. This is a parallel to our recent factory overclocked 8800 roundup, and we hope to learn if the same trends we saw in GTX and 640MB GTS hardware still hold true for the 320MB variety.
The major metric for judging the value of these cards will be in understanding how much performance gain an overclocked card offers relative to its price premium. In other words, we want to see if we can expect more or less performance per dollar when looking at any given card. It certainly is true that some people will want the fastest card they can afford and won't care if they're paying a premium, but price is more important for this class of card than for the ultra high end hardware; anyone looking for the fastest cards possible without regards to price is already going to be looking at 8800 GTX cards.
We have spent a bit of time lately looking at retail GeForce 8800 hardware, and while the GTX is quite a powerful part, the GTS 320MB is the most important card in NVIDIA's lineup right now. It is finally time for us to take a look at what the market has to offer in terms of the currently most affordable 8 Series hardware. As we saw in our initial review, the 8800 GTS 320MB provides excellent performance in all but the most memory intensive situations for people with the most popular panel sizes.
Our exploration of retail 8800 GTS 320MB hardware will look at a few different factory overclocked models alongside one stock speed card to get an idea of what kind of value these options offer. This is a parallel to our recent factory overclocked 8800 roundup, and we hope to learn if the same trends we saw in GTX and 640MB GTS hardware still hold true for the 320MB variety.
The major metric for judging the value of these cards will be in understanding how much performance gain an overclocked card offers relative to its price premium. In other words, we want to see if we can expect more or less performance per dollar when looking at any given card. It certainly is true that some people will want the fastest card they can afford and won't care if they're paying a premium, but price is more important for this class of card than for the ultra high end hardware; anyone looking for the fastest cards possible without regards to price is already going to be looking at 8800 GTX cards.
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gus6464 - Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - link
yeah same here, my first evga purchase was a 7800gt over a year ago and the next month the 7900gt came out so I sent my card to evga and they upgraded to a 7900gt at no extra charge. Shipping was fast and have had 0 problems with the card ever since. Now all I buy and recommend is evga.drebo - Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - link
From Page 12.
I don't quite agree with your conclusion here. Sure, the temperatures are only a few degrees cooler than the other stock cards, but the ACS3 card is also clocked higher than the rest of the cards. I think when you take that into account, the fact that the ACS3 solution cools better than nearly every other card is pretty impressive.
Other than some of the conclusions, very informative article. Definitely considering the eVGA card as an upgrade for my "aging" 7900GS KO.
RaistlinZ - Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - link
I usually enjoy AT's video card reviews, but this one seemed very rushed and with not much effort put into it at all. It reminded me of reviews you'd find from newbie review sites run by high-school kids.Sorry to say, but it's the truth. The whole "review" seemed like it only took you an hour to test the cards and post the review. :( Which is fine I guess, if that's what you were going for, but I expect more from Anandtech.
Anyone else feel this way?
yyrkoon - Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - link
You would probably be better served by waiting until nVidia irons out their drivers for these cards. However, I also must admit, I am tempted myself to buy one of these 8800GTS cards ( Titan Quest on my 7600GT does not seem to perform 'optimaly'). This being said, the games I play, for the most part play well enough, I think, for me to wait until nVidia gets their act together. Still, it IS tempting . . .