NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 (G80): GPUs Re-architected for DirectX 10
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on November 8, 2006 6:01 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
F.E.A.R. Performance
With the latest 1.08 patch, F.E.A.R. has gained multi-core support, potentially using even up to quad core CPUs in order to deliver improved performance. We were able to confirm a performance increase with Core 2 Duo, and we will try to take a look at whether or not Core 2 Quad helps in the near future. Either way, this means that we should now be completely GPU limited in F.E.A.R. testing.
The new GeForce 8800 GTX card still manages to come out faster than the competition, but this time a single 8800 GTX is not able to surpass the performance of dual X1950 XTX cards (or 7900 GTX SLI for that matter). Quad SLI also manages to make a decent showing in this particular benchmark, coming in second place except at the highest resolution. Meanwhile, GeForce 8800 GTS doesn't fare as well, only managing to tie the X1950 XTX for performance, and it even loses that battle at 2560x1600. F.E.A.R. is a game that can use a lot of memory bandwidth, so it's likely that the 2GHz GDDR4 memory on the X1950 XTX is helping out.
If money isn't a concern, 8800 GTX SLI will finally allow you to play F.E.A.R. at 2560x1600 with 4xAA without dropping below 30 FPS. Is that really necessary? Probably not to most people, but if a similar situation exists in other games it becomes a bit more feasible.
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yyrkoon - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
If you're using Firefox, get, and install the extension "flashblock". Just did this myself today, tired of all the *animated* adds bothering me while reading articles.Sorry AT guys, but we've had this discussion before, and its realy annoying.
JarredWalton - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
Do you want to be able for us to continue as a site? Because ads support us. Anyway, his problem is related to not seeing images, so your comment about blocking ads via flashblock is completely off topic.yyrkoon - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
Of course I want you guys to continue on as a site, just wish it were possible without annoying flashing adds in a section where I'm trying to concentrate on the article.As for the off topic part, yeah, my bad, I mis-read the full post (bad habit). Feel free to edit or remove that post of mine :)
archcommus - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
What browser are you using?falc0ne - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
firefox 2.0JarredWalton - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
If Firefox, I know there's an option to block images not on the originating website. In this case, images come from image.anandtech.com while the article is on www.anandtech.com, so that my be the cause of your problems. IE7 and other browsers might have something similar, though I haven't ever looked. Other than that, perhaps some firewall or ad blocking software is to blame - it might be getting false positives?archcommus - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
Wow to Anandtech - another amazing, incredibly in-depth article. It is so obvious this site is run by dedicated professionals who have degrees in these fields versus most other review sites where the authors just take pictures of the product and run some benches. Articles like this keep the AT reader base very very strong.Also wow to the G80, obviously an amazing card. My question, is 450W the PSU requirement for the GTX only or for both the GTX and GTS? I ask because I currently have a 400W PSU and am wondering if it will be sufficient for next-gen DX10 class hardware, and I know I would not be buying the highest model card. I also only have one HDD and one optical drive in my system.
Yet another wow goes out to the R&D monetary investment - $475 million! It's amazing that that amount is even acceptable to nVidia, I can't believe the sales of such a high end, enthusiast-targeted card are great enough to warrant that.
JarredWalton - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
Sales of the lower end parts which will be based off G80 are what make it worthwhile, I would guess. As for PSU, I think that 450W is for the GTX, and more is probably a safe bet (550W would be in line with a high-end system these days, although 400W ought to suffice if it's a good quality 400W). You can see that the GTX tops out at just under 300W average system power draw with an X6800, so if you use an E6600 and don't overclock, a decent 400W ought to work. The GTX tops out around 260W average with the X6800, so theoretically even a decent 350W will work fine. Just remember to upgrade the PSU if you ever add other components.photoguy99 - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
I just wanted to second that thought -AT articles have incredible quality and depth at this point - you guys are doing great work.
It's actually getting embarrasing for some of your competing sites, I browsed the Tom's article and it had so much fluff and retread I had to stop.
Please don't forget the effort is noticed and appreciated.
shabby - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
It wasnt mentioned in the review, but whats the purpose of the 2nd sli connector?