NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters
by Derek Wilson on October 29, 2007 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
What must AMD do? 8800 GT vs. 2900 XT
Alright, here's where things get really interesting. AMD has yet to come out with its 8800 GT competitor, but we've heard some rumors here and there. First, our understanding is that the RV670 based AMD part will not be any faster than the 2900 XT (and will likely be at least a little bit slower). While we can't confirm this, as we haven't heard from AMD on the subject or received hardware to play with yet (in fact if we had, we wouldn't even be able to bring up our speculation). But if we are right, then it makes sense to compare the 8800 GT to the 2900 XT and see what happens.
Given the performance of the 8800 GT relative to the 8800 GTS, we can expect the 8800 GT to perform on par with, if not better than, the Radeon HD 2900 XT. Our numbers, confirm this for the most part. It's also worth noting that as resolution increases, the 2900 XT really closes the performance gap. This information is quite important. Either AMD needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat and surprise us with performance higher than we expect, or they need to compete with the 8800 GT based on price. We are hearing that the upcoming part from AMD should be competitive with 8800 GT pricing, but we'd need to see availability of the RV670 based parts at prices lower than the 8800 GT to make them start looking worth while. This could be difficult for AMD if NVIDIA hits their target of $200 (or lower for the 256MB version).
Again, none of the info we have on the upcoming AMD part is confirmed by AMD. We are simply speculating based on our best guess at their direction and rumors we have heard. Regardless of what AMD does or doesn't have in the works, it will be difficult for them to afford just another moderate showing. They must either clearly out perform or out price the 8800 GT to stay in the game this generation.
Alright, here's where things get really interesting. AMD has yet to come out with its 8800 GT competitor, but we've heard some rumors here and there. First, our understanding is that the RV670 based AMD part will not be any faster than the 2900 XT (and will likely be at least a little bit slower). While we can't confirm this, as we haven't heard from AMD on the subject or received hardware to play with yet (in fact if we had, we wouldn't even be able to bring up our speculation). But if we are right, then it makes sense to compare the 8800 GT to the 2900 XT and see what happens.
Given the performance of the 8800 GT relative to the 8800 GTS, we can expect the 8800 GT to perform on par with, if not better than, the Radeon HD 2900 XT. Our numbers, confirm this for the most part. It's also worth noting that as resolution increases, the 2900 XT really closes the performance gap. This information is quite important. Either AMD needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat and surprise us with performance higher than we expect, or they need to compete with the 8800 GT based on price. We are hearing that the upcoming part from AMD should be competitive with 8800 GT pricing, but we'd need to see availability of the RV670 based parts at prices lower than the 8800 GT to make them start looking worth while. This could be difficult for AMD if NVIDIA hits their target of $200 (or lower for the 256MB version).
Again, none of the info we have on the upcoming AMD part is confirmed by AMD. We are simply speculating based on our best guess at their direction and rumors we have heard. Regardless of what AMD does or doesn't have in the works, it will be difficult for them to afford just another moderate showing. They must either clearly out perform or out price the 8800 GT to stay in the game this generation.
Getting Cocky: 8800 GT vs. the GTX
Out with the Old, In with the New: 8800 GT vs. 7950 GT and 1950 XT
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Spacecomber - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
TestEateryOfPiza - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
What kind of G92 variants can we expect by Christmas 07?Or Summer 08?
mpc7488 - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
ardOCP is reporting that nVidia is increasing the 8800GTS stream processors to 112.Spacecomber - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Testing ;-)Spacecomber - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
It appears that it was the bracketed h that was hiding all subsequent text. It needed a bracketed /h to close that "feature".mpc7488 - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Haha - thanks. I guess if anyone wants the explanation of the stream processors they can highlight the 'hidden message'.mpc7488 - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
I'm not sure why the first post lost my text unless it was the bracket I used around the H - but HardOCP is reporting that nVidia is changing the 8800GTS 640 MB to have 112 stream processors.mpc7488 - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Great article Derek - I think you can tell you're mildly excited about this product :)Is there a reason that you didn't do any tests with anti-aliasing? I would assume that this would show more deviation between the 8800GTX and the 8800GT?
chizow - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Nice job as usual Derek!Just wondering though, if you were able to test the cards at the same clock speeds. The GT by default has @100MHz advantage on the core over the GTS, which is a common reason the GTS falls so far behind in head to head testing. I expect the GT to have more OC'ing headroom than the GTS anyways, but it would be nice to see an apples to apples comparison to reveal the impact of some of the architecture changes from G80 to G92. Of note, the GT has fewer ROPs and a smaller memory bus but gains 1:1 address/filter units and 16 more stream processors.
Also, I saw an early review that showed massive performance gains when the shader processor was overclocked on the GT; much bigger gains than significant increases to the core/memory clocks. Similar testing with the GTS/GTX don't yield anywhere near that much performance gain when the shader core clock is bumped up.
Lastly, any idea when the G92 8800GTS refresh is going to be released? With a 640MB GTS this seems more of a lateral move to an 8800GT, although a refreshed GTS with 128SP and all the other enhancements of the G92 should undoubtedly be faster than the GTX...and maybe even the Ultra once overclocked.
Hulk - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
I'm looking to build a HTPC and this would be a great card if it does video decoding?