Last night I installed my 8800GTS and this is what I think.
I have a AMD X2 3800+ @ 2.5Ghz and a 19" TFT so CPU limitation is a factor.
But as it turns out CPU limitation is nothing to worry about, the CPU is more than capable of getting >60fps so I just keep on raising the AA/AF without much of a performance hit, you can never have too much GPU power.
IQ is indeed a lot better than G70, texture crawling and shimmering is gone, this alone is worth the premium.
The cooler is VERY quiet, even in 3D I can’t hear it over the sound of the PSU and I have a Enermax Noisetaker.
The difference between my old 7800GT is big in older games like HL2 and massive in GPU limited games like F.E.A.R. and Oblivion, I wish I had the 8800GTS when I played those games, I was amazed at the speed of the card when using 4xAA or 8xAA and 16xAF with High Quality and Gamma correct AA.
It also looks like the 8800GTS cards are overclocker friendly, I haven’t tested the max yet but 600Mhz/1800Mhz worked without problems.
Overclocking with nTune is a bit tricky as the “Find Optimal Clocks” setting does not work on my system, it goes to a black screen and stays that way bu manual overlocking does work fortunately.
Also I haven’t found any game issues yet with the 97.02 drivers and stability is very good, not once did it fail or give stability issues and I ran multiple 3Dmark runs and 6 games for a few hours.
Luckily I had no PSU issues with a 485W Enermax with 31A on the 12V rails, also I read some issues with certain mobo's but it works fine in my DFI NF4 Ultra-D, I just connected the PCI Express dongle to the molex marked Extra.
Are there any other things I need to test or look for that you experienced that are positive or negative?
I have a AMD X2 3800+ @ 2.5Ghz and a 19" TFT so CPU limitation is a factor.
But as it turns out CPU limitation is nothing to worry about, the CPU is more than capable of getting >60fps so I just keep on raising the AA/AF without much of a performance hit, you can never have too much GPU power.
IQ is indeed a lot better than G70, texture crawling and shimmering is gone, this alone is worth the premium.
The cooler is VERY quiet, even in 3D I can’t hear it over the sound of the PSU and I have a Enermax Noisetaker.
The difference between my old 7800GT is big in older games like HL2 and massive in GPU limited games like F.E.A.R. and Oblivion, I wish I had the 8800GTS when I played those games, I was amazed at the speed of the card when using 4xAA or 8xAA and 16xAF with High Quality and Gamma correct AA.
It also looks like the 8800GTS cards are overclocker friendly, I haven’t tested the max yet but 600Mhz/1800Mhz worked without problems.
Overclocking with nTune is a bit tricky as the “Find Optimal Clocks” setting does not work on my system, it goes to a black screen and stays that way bu manual overlocking does work fortunately.
Also I haven’t found any game issues yet with the 97.02 drivers and stability is very good, not once did it fail or give stability issues and I ran multiple 3Dmark runs and 6 games for a few hours.
Luckily I had no PSU issues with a 485W Enermax with 31A on the 12V rails, also I read some issues with certain mobo's but it works fine in my DFI NF4 Ultra-D, I just connected the PCI Express dongle to the molex marked Extra.
Are there any other things I need to test or look for that you experienced that are positive or negative?
