eVGA e-GeForce® 8800 GTS, (640 MB) PCI Express Video Card
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- Special Features: HDTV Encoder HDTV TV-out Support
- Graphic Processor: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
- Card Interface: PCI Express
- Compatibility: PC
- Installed Memory / Technology: 640 MB (DDR3 SDRAM)
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Excellent gaming card!
Pros
Eats all current games at max quality and resolutions!
Cons
Pricey, runs hot, long card may be a challenge to fit in some systems
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Excellent gaming card for the money, but non-gamers will want something cheaper.
Why a new graphics card?
I had an EVGA GeForce 7900GT OC video card in my system that was aver 2 years old. When I updated the video driver with the most current one from the nVidia website, the card totally scrambled the screen, and I could not get it to work with the new driver and had to revert to the previous driver. After searching the EVGA forums, I discovered that the problem was that the card was either defective or getting ready to fry. I didn't really want to RMA (return for exchange) my two year old card and decided to just replace it with something faster that would also run DirectX 10 titles.
Selecting a new card
After doing some reading on the available cards, and looking at the performance charts on Tom's Hardware (http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html), it was evident that, as a gamer, I only had two choices; the Nvidia GeForce 8800 series, and the AMD/ATI HD 2900XT. There are a number of other, cheaper DirectX 10 cards, such as the Nvidia 8600, 8500, and 8400 series, and the AMD/ATI HD 2600 and 2400 series, but they are wayyyyy too slow for a gaming machine.
Looking at prices, the top of the line cards are way too expensive, $500-800 for the Nvidia based 8800GTX's, and around $450-500 for the AMD/ATI HD2900 XT. ATI really doesn't have a performance value card, so that just leaves the Nvidia based GeForce 8800GTS cards, which are powerful gaming cards that cost between $300 and $400. The next lowest level cards (GeForce 8600/ATI HD2600 XT) are just not fast enough for gaming.
So, I am basically left with the GeForce 8800GTS, which comes in two flavors - the 320MB version at around $300, and the 640MB version at around $400. I was initially confused as to which one I needed, so I did some more research. It turns out that the 340MB version pretty much matches the performance of the 640MB version until you get up into higher resolutions, or use AA or AF filtering. Since I have a high resolution monitor AND I prefer to game using AF and AA fltering, the 640MB version was clearly my only choice.
Selecting the EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (640MB)
Looking on my favorite computer geek site, TigerDirect (www.tigerdirect.com), I found the EVGA GeForce 8800GTS for $349 ($379 minus $30 rebate). Since I have had good experiences with EVGA hardware, and since EVGA offers a lifetime warranty on their cards, AND since this was the cheapest 640MB GeForce 8800GTS on the site, I selected it. I ordered the card on a Thursday, and it showed up on my doorstep the next day! That's why I love TigerDirect!!!
What's in the box?
The card was nicely packaged, with a pair of DVI to VGA adapters, power adapters, S-Video and composite video cables, installation CD, manual, and installation guide. At this price I didn't really expect any bonus software or hardware.
The card itself is a 16x PCI-Express, double width, full-length card. On the outside rail in the first slot are dual DVI connectors and an S-video output. The second slot is taken by two exhaust vents.
Installation
Installation was a bit of a hassle, since the GeForce 8800GTS is twice as wide and significantly longer than my old GeForce 7900GT. I had to move a hard drive and reroute a few wires to get it in there, but all in all it was only a 15-20 minute job. The main problem was the card length, it just butted up against one of my hard drives and would not fit without moving the drive.
Drivers
Since the drivers that came with the card were out of date, the first thing I did was go to the Nvidia site and download the most recent driver and install it. This time, as expected, I encountered no problems with the driver. It worked just fine.
Performance
Once I had the card installed I immediately ran a number of games to test out the performance of my new card. Note that the resolution of my main monitor is 1600x1050 (widescreen).
F.E.A.R.
First up was F.E.A.R., the title that gave my old card the most problems. The old card could not handle F.E.A.R. at max settings, period. Running with max settings resulted in framerates in the teens on the old card and the old card also messed up shadows so bad that I had to turn them off. With the 8800GTS, I could crank everything up to max and turn on shadows to maximum quality. Even at these settings, the GeForce 8800GTS absolutely ate the game up, averaging over 50FPS, with a high of over 100FPS and a low of about 30FPS. So far so good!
Oblivion
Oblivion is another title that likes to eat video cards for breakfast. With the old card and max settings, outdoor scenes were very choppy. With the new card, everything ran as smooth as glass. I didn't get any framerates (don't know how), but the difference was HUGE.
Quake 4 & Prey
The GeForce 8800GTS absolutely ate these games alive. Both are based on the Doom3 graphics engine, and the card ran them flawlessly with all settings at max.
Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes
These games are a little harder to judge, so I ran both from a specific save file, when there were a LOT of units in the game. I could definitely see a monumental difference in the performance of both games, I would say about a 100% to 150% improvement in both.
Bottom line: This card is the shiznit as far as performance goes!!! It totally blew my 7900GT out of the water! I would rate this card, at minimum, to be 2-3 times faster than the 7900GT.
I didn't have any DirectX 10 titles to test, as none exist right now - not any native DirectX 10 games anyways.
Heat
The 8800GTS does run a bit hot. When not playing games, the card stays at about 59 degrees celsius, and while gaming it goes up to around 70 degrees celsius. This is well within the operating range of the card, which specifies it's heat limits at well over 120 degrees celsius. Case cooling is critical here. I have 4x120mm fans in my case, plus the power supply fans, so it's not a problem for me, but if you have anything less than 3 case fans, I would definitely add more cooling (fans/water) before installing this card.
My system specs
Just so you know what to expect from your system, I am publishing my system specs for comparison. It does not make sense to drop this card into a low-end system, as the CPU will become the bottleneck on such systems, and you will not be able to utilize the full potential of this card. So here are my specs:
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 Overclocked to 3.0Ghz
Memory: 4GB OCX 667Mhz Dual Channel DDR2 DRAM @800Mhz
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Storage:
- 2x Seagate 400GB IDE HDD
- 16x DVD-RW Drive
- 1.44MB floppy/multi-flash card reader
Mainboard: MSI Platinum 975X
Sound: Creative Soundblaster Extigy external
Monitors:
- 22" Acer LCD (1600x1050)
- 19" Acer LCD (1480x960)
Bottom Line
This is a great gaming card. It's kind of disappointing that my only choice cost me $350, but I suppose it could have been worse. Given that EVGA includes a lifetime warranty with this card, I think it was a pretty good deal, and, give the performance I'm getting, I don't see having the need for a new card for 4-5 years, hopefully.
The best part of the purchase is being ready for the great DirectX 10 games that will be coming out soon, such as the must-have titles BioShock and Crysis.
All in all I am very happy with my new EVGA 8800GTS, and would definitely recommend it to any gamers out there who are in the market for a new card.
On the other hand, if you're not a hardcore gamer, I recommend that you look at the lower-tier offerings from Nvidia and AMD/ATI, as they cost significantly less.
I had an EVGA GeForce 7900GT OC video card in my system that was aver 2 years old. When I updated the video driver with the most current one from the nVidia website, the card totally scrambled the screen, and I could not get it to work with the new driver and had to revert to the previous driver. After searching the EVGA forums, I discovered that the problem was that the card was either defective or getting ready to fry. I didn't really want to RMA (return for exchange) my two year old card and decided to just replace it with something faster that would also run DirectX 10 titles.
Selecting a new card
After doing some reading on the available cards, and looking at the performance charts on Tom's Hardware (http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html), it was evident that, as a gamer, I only had two choices; the Nvidia GeForce 8800 series, and the AMD/ATI HD 2900XT. There are a number of other, cheaper DirectX 10 cards, such as the Nvidia 8600, 8500, and 8400 series, and the AMD/ATI HD 2600 and 2400 series, but they are wayyyyy too slow for a gaming machine.
Looking at prices, the top of the line cards are way too expensive, $500-800 for the Nvidia based 8800GTX's, and around $450-500 for the AMD/ATI HD2900 XT. ATI really doesn't have a performance value card, so that just leaves the Nvidia based GeForce 8800GTS cards, which are powerful gaming cards that cost between $300 and $400. The next lowest level cards (GeForce 8600/ATI HD2600 XT) are just not fast enough for gaming.
So, I am basically left with the GeForce 8800GTS, which comes in two flavors - the 320MB version at around $300, and the 640MB version at around $400. I was initially confused as to which one I needed, so I did some more research. It turns out that the 340MB version pretty much matches the performance of the 640MB version until you get up into higher resolutions, or use AA or AF filtering. Since I have a high resolution monitor AND I prefer to game using AF and AA fltering, the 640MB version was clearly my only choice.
Selecting the EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (640MB)
Looking on my favorite computer geek site, TigerDirect (www.tigerdirect.com), I found the EVGA GeForce 8800GTS for $349 ($379 minus $30 rebate). Since I have had good experiences with EVGA hardware, and since EVGA offers a lifetime warranty on their cards, AND since this was the cheapest 640MB GeForce 8800GTS on the site, I selected it. I ordered the card on a Thursday, and it showed up on my doorstep the next day! That's why I love TigerDirect!!!
What's in the box?
The card was nicely packaged, with a pair of DVI to VGA adapters, power adapters, S-Video and composite video cables, installation CD, manual, and installation guide. At this price I didn't really expect any bonus software or hardware.
The card itself is a 16x PCI-Express, double width, full-length card. On the outside rail in the first slot are dual DVI connectors and an S-video output. The second slot is taken by two exhaust vents.
Installation
Installation was a bit of a hassle, since the GeForce 8800GTS is twice as wide and significantly longer than my old GeForce 7900GT. I had to move a hard drive and reroute a few wires to get it in there, but all in all it was only a 15-20 minute job. The main problem was the card length, it just butted up against one of my hard drives and would not fit without moving the drive.
Drivers
Since the drivers that came with the card were out of date, the first thing I did was go to the Nvidia site and download the most recent driver and install it. This time, as expected, I encountered no problems with the driver. It worked just fine.
Performance
Once I had the card installed I immediately ran a number of games to test out the performance of my new card. Note that the resolution of my main monitor is 1600x1050 (widescreen).
F.E.A.R.
First up was F.E.A.R., the title that gave my old card the most problems. The old card could not handle F.E.A.R. at max settings, period. Running with max settings resulted in framerates in the teens on the old card and the old card also messed up shadows so bad that I had to turn them off. With the 8800GTS, I could crank everything up to max and turn on shadows to maximum quality. Even at these settings, the GeForce 8800GTS absolutely ate the game up, averaging over 50FPS, with a high of over 100FPS and a low of about 30FPS. So far so good!
Oblivion
Oblivion is another title that likes to eat video cards for breakfast. With the old card and max settings, outdoor scenes were very choppy. With the new card, everything ran as smooth as glass. I didn't get any framerates (don't know how), but the difference was HUGE.
Quake 4 & Prey
The GeForce 8800GTS absolutely ate these games alive. Both are based on the Doom3 graphics engine, and the card ran them flawlessly with all settings at max.
Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes
These games are a little harder to judge, so I ran both from a specific save file, when there were a LOT of units in the game. I could definitely see a monumental difference in the performance of both games, I would say about a 100% to 150% improvement in both.
Bottom line: This card is the shiznit as far as performance goes!!! It totally blew my 7900GT out of the water! I would rate this card, at minimum, to be 2-3 times faster than the 7900GT.
I didn't have any DirectX 10 titles to test, as none exist right now - not any native DirectX 10 games anyways.
Heat
The 8800GTS does run a bit hot. When not playing games, the card stays at about 59 degrees celsius, and while gaming it goes up to around 70 degrees celsius. This is well within the operating range of the card, which specifies it's heat limits at well over 120 degrees celsius. Case cooling is critical here. I have 4x120mm fans in my case, plus the power supply fans, so it's not a problem for me, but if you have anything less than 3 case fans, I would definitely add more cooling (fans/water) before installing this card.
My system specs
Just so you know what to expect from your system, I am publishing my system specs for comparison. It does not make sense to drop this card into a low-end system, as the CPU will become the bottleneck on such systems, and you will not be able to utilize the full potential of this card. So here are my specs:
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 Overclocked to 3.0Ghz
Memory: 4GB OCX 667Mhz Dual Channel DDR2 DRAM @800Mhz
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Storage:
- 2x Seagate 400GB IDE HDD
- 16x DVD-RW Drive
- 1.44MB floppy/multi-flash card reader
Mainboard: MSI Platinum 975X
Sound: Creative Soundblaster Extigy external
Monitors:
- 22" Acer LCD (1600x1050)
- 19" Acer LCD (1480x960)
Bottom Line
This is a great gaming card. It's kind of disappointing that my only choice cost me $350, but I suppose it could have been worse. Given that EVGA includes a lifetime warranty with this card, I think it was a pretty good deal, and, give the performance I'm getting, I don't see having the need for a new card for 4-5 years, hopefully.
The best part of the purchase is being ready for the great DirectX 10 games that will be coming out soon, such as the must-have titles BioShock and Crysis.
All in all I am very happy with my new EVGA 8800GTS, and would definitely recommend it to any gamers out there who are in the market for a new card.
On the other hand, if you're not a hardcore gamer, I recommend that you look at the lower-tier offerings from Nvidia and AMD/ATI, as they cost significantly less.
