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MSI NX8800GT Official Review from Tweaktown

Soldato
Joined
27 Jan 2003
Posts
6,097
Location
Chesterfield, UK
Its up early

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1210/msi_geforce_nx8800gt_512mb_graphics_card/index.html

"There are two models coming out, the 512MB one we have here today and a 256MB model, both of which carry GDDR3 memory. The standard clocks come in at 600MHz on the GPU and 1800MHz DDR on the GDDR3. MSI have decided to mix it up a bit; the core gets a 10% increase to 660MHz while the memory gets bumped to 1900MHz DDR. "


Here's the conclusion if its taken down early. ( I have the results downloaded )

"The absolute worst thing about the 8800GT is the name. It’s confusing as all buggery. It’s bad enough that people think 512MB 8600GTS cards are faster than 320MB 8800GTS’, but what’s going to happen now that the 8800GT is faster than the 8800GTS? There will no doubt be a lot of people correcting each other as they try to buy a more expensive 8800GTS.

Speaking of price, while we don’t have anything official we should see it retail for around $250USD / $350AUD depending on the brand and bundle.

While the package didn’t do a whole lot for us, the overclock is nice and really seems to help make it that little bit better and extend its lead over everything else in the price bracket.

The bad news is that it’s a real kick in the pants for people who have just recently bought an 8800GTS. While knowing that the GT was coming we run into the name problem again where people think that it’s going to be slower. This is completely understandable as well with NVIDIA offering an 8600GT that is slower than the 8600GTS.

Performance....it’s great and a lot better than we thought. It also doesn’t look like they’re going to do an AMD with press samples only, as we have heard that ASUS, BFG Tech, MSI, Inno3D and Palit are all due into Australia as early as Monday.

This model is probably a bit of a core dump so NVIDIA are ready to ramp up production of their new cards due out later this year, but this isn’t something you would complain about. It allows people to turn around and pick up a high performance DirectX 10 offering without breaking the bank, and with the anticipated Crysis just around the corner this could be the card to get."
 
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It's louder than a 2900XT :( Not good.

However we cant complain they had to cut costs somewhere :)



8800 GT
Load 73.3 dB
Idle 65.3 dB
temp under load 72.4

2900XT
Load 72.5
Idle 67.3
temp under load 62

320 GTS
Load 65.5
Idle 63.7
temp under load 56.4

"The little fan clearly struggles here and you can see that the heat is way up on the 8800GT. The card is screaming for a nice aftermarket cooler with a bigger fan on it."
 
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So long as the price dont take the ****, i might be sold on the idea of one of these. It was obvious when looking at the design of stock heatsink that it was going to be leafblower though, roll on aftermarket cooler please.
 
Looks a good card however noisy it is, wonder how the 3870's will fair, I still wont upgrade till the next gen r700's/G90's as I doubt these refreshes are capable of playing crysis at very high with some AA/AF.
 
msi88gt_g_15.gif


Over twice as fast as the GTS320/2900pro in HL2:LC :eek:
Although, I do wonder a bit about their benchmark because my GTS320 with slower cpu/ram gets well over 120fps in the benchmark at a higher resolution with the same levels of AA/AF.
 
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if this is true this is the new 6600GT

Being a bit harsh on it there. The 6600GT wasn't anything special and was only around the same speed as the card it was replacing (the 6800). It was still considerably slower than the 6800GT.

I'd say a better analogy might be to compare it to the 7900GTO.
 
BFG and EVGA are doing 700Mhz pre-oc ones :D

Price to be at the top end £170-£180.

I might be tempted to order a EVGA oc on Monday. That way I might even use the step up program for a new revision GTS or GTX later :)
 
Its impressive to say the least and really makes the gtx almost redundant as im sure the price wont reach gtx levels even if it is higher than people think.
On the side of money personally i think the card is going to be around the £170 mark though i could be wrong as that is just a wild guess, one thing that puzzles me is how well and were the uprated 640mb gts is going to come into this. We thought it was upped to stay between the gt and gtx when infact its just so it can try and keep up with the gt
 
Interesting results in the HL2 Lost Coast demo, although I'm not sure what's going on with the 8800GTS result?

I just ran the demo again on my 8800GTS, albeit at 1440 x 900, but more or less the same as 1280 x 1024, with 4 x AA/16 x AF/Full HDR/High Detail and I got 147.44 FPS...

So, undoubtedly the 8800GT is a great little card, but that benchmark is maybe showing the gap to be a lot more than it is?
 
i was really really tempted to offload my card now and buy one of these but im hanging on, if these are like this then i can only imagine what the 9xxx series cards are going to be like
 
It's louder than a 2900XT :( Not good.

However we cant complain they had to cut costs somewhere :)



8800 GT
Load 73.3 dB
Idle 65.3 dB
temp under load 72.4

2900XT
Load 72.5
Idle 67.3
temp under load 62

320 GTS
Load 65.5
Idle 63.7
temp under load 56.4

"The little fan clearly struggles here and you can see that the heat is way up on the 8800GT. The card is screaming for a nice aftermarket cooler with a bigger fan on it."


That's enough to put me off.
I can't stand fan noise.

I'm definitely going to wait a little bit longer now, and either wait for a review of one of the branded cards that has a quieter cooler, or wait for the new GTS. The cards are still great value for performance, sure, but I really can't stand that noise, and would honestly stop me from using the PC.

V1N.
 
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