New Ultra High End Price Point With GeForce 8800 Ultra
by Derek Wilson on May 2, 2007 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Performance
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a relatively new benchmark for us, and we are working on tweaking it. Currently we just run in a straight line through grass and trees toward some buildings and people using FRAPS to record framerate. For this test, we've turned everything up as high as it can go (except the in game AA setting) and enabled grass shadows.
While MSAA is not supported due to the deferred rendering model used, playability at extreme resolutions is already pushed to the limits. In this game, edge antialiasing is not really an issue for us, as level design is quite good at avoiding extremely high contrast edges. Thin lines are a problem, so some sort of real AA would be nice. The in game AA setting isn't very good quality and doesn't do anything for thin lines.
Our performance tests show another case where the 8800 Ultra is within 10% of the performance of the 8800 GTX. As with our other run through FRAPS test in Oblivion, the EVGA card and the 8800 Ultra trade places going from 16x12 to 19x12. This test does seem to be more consistent than Oblivion, but with anything FRAPS, we do give it a little more leeway. But once again our conclusion is that the overclocked EVGA 8800 GTX and the 8800 Ultra perform the same.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a relatively new benchmark for us, and we are working on tweaking it. Currently we just run in a straight line through grass and trees toward some buildings and people using FRAPS to record framerate. For this test, we've turned everything up as high as it can go (except the in game AA setting) and enabled grass shadows.
While MSAA is not supported due to the deferred rendering model used, playability at extreme resolutions is already pushed to the limits. In this game, edge antialiasing is not really an issue for us, as level design is quite good at avoiding extremely high contrast edges. Thin lines are a problem, so some sort of real AA would be nice. The in game AA setting isn't very good quality and doesn't do anything for thin lines.
Our performance tests show another case where the 8800 Ultra is within 10% of the performance of the 8800 GTX. As with our other run through FRAPS test in Oblivion, the EVGA card and the 8800 Ultra trade places going from 16x12 to 19x12. This test does seem to be more consistent than Oblivion, but with anything FRAPS, we do give it a little more leeway. But once again our conclusion is that the overclocked EVGA 8800 GTX and the 8800 Ultra perform the same.
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strikeback03 - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
Since you always seem to think good graphics cards are for shooting aliens, are you aware that there are cards that sell for over $5000 for business applications?gigahertz20 - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
Well I was excited when I woke up this morning to find reviews on the 8800 Ultra but after reading this I'm very disappointed. All Nvidia did was overclock a 8800 GTX and are now calling it a 8800 Ultra while trying to sell it for $200-$300 more. It performs a few percent better but not enough to be noticeable in a game.I guess they decided a few people would buy it and it's not like Nvidia is losing money making them, the 8800 Ultras are the same as the 8800GTX just factory clocked a little higher. I guess as a business move it makes sense, make a little extra money while not having to change your product around at all except for a clock increase.
8800GTS 320MB is still the best deal, come on AMD/ATI I hope their benchmarks for the R600 won't be as disappointing as this, what I've seen from DailyTech on the R600 it looks like Nvidia could be holding the crown for quite some time.
Zefram0911 - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
guess what though... there are still going to be people who buy two of theses bad boys for Sli...... my goodness.DigitalFreak - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
Yeah, well... "A fool and his money are soon parted".johnsonx - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
Foxconn's 8800GTX OC runs at 630/2000 and is only $550 at NewEgg:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
This new GeForce 8800 Ultra really seems pointless, when almost identical performance can be had for $550. It just doesn't seem Ultra enough for an extra $300.
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
No kidding. Nearly $300 less than the 8800 Ultra. No wonder Nvidia wasn't too keen on letting their board partners overclock the 8800 GTX....JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
I'll make a note of this in the article, as the Foxconn should perform equal to the EVGA card.Sunrise089 - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
Theres also a similar spec'd BFG card at a lower price than the quoted eVGA. I'm all for reccomending eVGA in a buyers guide, but this article actually appears biased by leaving out other (cheaper) cards in favor of a single eVGA.munky - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
Nice job on the review, including an overclocked gtx really shows just what a joke the 8800u is. However, I suggest that in your future articles you keep the colors consistent between the cards in your resolution scaling graph. It's confusing if a card is shown in yellow on one graph, and then the same card is blue in the next graph.DerekWilson - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
sorry, it ended up that way because we had trouble enabling 4xAA on r6v with the ati x1950xtx. excel automatically picked the colors -- everything else is consistent though.