GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB Round Up
PCI Express x16 graphics cardsChipset Radeon X1950 Pro 256 MB, 256 bit
This month, hardware review websites everywhere is filled with all the hoopla surrounding the recent launch of NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 Ultra and AMD's Radeon X2900HD XT. With such an extravagant price for the GeForce 8800 Ultra and the somewhat disappointing performance from the Radeon X2900HD XT, budget conscious users who want high end performance will likely find the GeForce 8800GTS a more attractive buy. Of the two flavor of the GeForce 8800GTS, the GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB may not offer much when it comes to high resolution gaming, but it does a very good job at 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024 or 960 with AA and AF enabled. It also doesn't hurt that you can find GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB card near or below the US$ 300 - or slightly more (but still below US$400) in some areas.
The GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB is also in a great position when considering there is no immediate threat to it from AMD. Although the Radeon X2900HD XT is out, the card is targeted to compete with the GeForce 8800GTS 640 MB version, and price as such with an MSRP of US$ 400. From our experience, the GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB offer about the same performance as the 640 MB version, except in high resolutions and in certain games where memory capacity is extremely important.
Unlike it's 640 MB cousin, factory overclocked 320 MB cards are still rare in some areas. Most manufacturers stuck to NVIDIA's reference clocks. That's actually not a bad thing. In our experience factory overclocked cards rarely push the limit, usually offering 'just enough' increase in clock for a 10 percent faster performance. Significantly higher factory overclocks cards are rare and they typically employ more beefed up fan / heatsink or some other exotic cooling. While they may be fun to review or write about, manufacturers have to remember that the main focus of the 320 MB is affordability - which means they should focus on price / performance.
Today, we're going to take a look at four difference GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB cards from four difference manufacturers. They are the ASUS EN8800GTS, Gigabyte NX8800GTS, Leadtek PX8800GTS TDH and MSI NX8800GTS OC Edition. Of the four, the MSI NX8800GTS OC Edition uses a slightly higher core and memory clock.
Overview
ASUS EN8800GTS 320 MB
NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS, 320 MB GDDR3Core / Shader Clock : 513 / 1188 MHz
Memory Clock : 792 MHz (1584 MHz GDDR3)
Overall Score: 92.5 points
Like most GeForce 8800GTS you see on the market, the ASUS EN8800GTS is based on NVIDIA's reference design. The only noticeable difference seems to be the stickers on the heatsink and fan. Don't take this the wrong way - reference designs are good, but once you've seen one, you've seen them all. As expected, you'll find the usual standard aacesories inside the box, along with the EN8800GTS card. There's an 6 pin to ATX connector cable, an HDTV cable (no S-video cables / connectors) and one DVI-to-analog dongle. So, users who (still) want to hook up a second analog monitor will have to find their own dongle. There's also a black CD case / pouch, an ASUS specialty. Software wise, you'll find one game - you guess it - Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and one application - 3DMark 2006. Now, we actually prefer to have a game instead of a benchmark, but that's just us. Of course, there's also the obligatory driver and manual CD and a SpeedSetup manual for quick setups.
The reference fan / heatsink does a good job of covering most of the card. It is in direct contact with the core, but additional thermal paddings are used. As always, we prefer a more direct contact for a better heat transmission between the memory and the heatsink.
ASUS is probably the only manufacturer in this round up to actually ship a working utility for their card. You'll find the usual software bundle - OSD, GameFace Messenger, SmartDoctor and ASUS Enhanced drivers in the driver CD. You can use the SmartDoctor utility to monitor core temperatures and change the core and memory clock, as shown below. You can also set presets for overclocking profiles and fan control settings with SmartDoctor. Pretty handy if you want a quieter setup with very low fan noise.
Let's see the fan / heatsink in action - we fired up Quake 4 for about 15 minutes to see just how hot the card gets under typical usage scenario. Below you'll see RivaTuner' hardware monitoring graph for the ASUS EN8800GTS.
60° Celsius on full loads is acceptable if not average. The reference heatsink does a good job of cooling down the card.
Overall, we think the ASUS EN8800GTS has some merits over the other standard reference based cards.. It is the only card with working utilities bundled. The rest of the package is pretty standard. For the price ASUS is asking, we certainly expect more differentiating factor than other reference based cards. The inclusion of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter can be a plus factor if you like the game, though personal choices will differ.
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