NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters
by Derek Wilson on October 29, 2007 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Power Consumption
As this is NVIDIA's first 65nm part, it certainly of interest to see how it stacks up to the current line up in terms of power consumption. NVIDIA quotes the max power of the 8800 GT as 105W, but in the real world, we aren't just stressing the GPU. Let's take a look at system power draw under 3dmark 06 (specifically the pixel shader test).
The 8800 GT draws less power than anything that competes with it in terms of performance. When G80 hit last year, we made a big deal out of how power related to performance. This card simply blows everything else away in terms of how much little power is needed to attain incredible performance.
8800 GT SLI does draw more power than the 8800 GTX, but it also performs much better in cases where performance scales with SLI. For those who want high performance, power is generally less of an object, but it's good to know that 2x 8800 GT cards won't break the bank like a pair of 2900 XTs in CrossFire.
As this is NVIDIA's first 65nm part, it certainly of interest to see how it stacks up to the current line up in terms of power consumption. NVIDIA quotes the max power of the 8800 GT as 105W, but in the real world, we aren't just stressing the GPU. Let's take a look at system power draw under 3dmark 06 (specifically the pixel shader test).
The 8800 GT draws less power than anything that competes with it in terms of performance. When G80 hit last year, we made a big deal out of how power related to performance. This card simply blows everything else away in terms of how much little power is needed to attain incredible performance.
8800 GT SLI does draw more power than the 8800 GTX, but it also performs much better in cases where performance scales with SLI. For those who want high performance, power is generally less of an object, but it's good to know that 2x 8800 GT cards won't break the bank like a pair of 2900 XTs in CrossFire.
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gamephile - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Based on benchmarks and price this card is finally in the sweet spot for me which means I can finally ditch my ATI X300! I only have one question remaining and that concerns the noise level. How does it compare to the 8800GTS? Why was this omitted from your review?Vidmar - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Ditto! Noise please!!!DerekWilson - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
we didn't measure noise, as it's a reference board which doesn't necessarily reflect final boards available from OEMs.of course, since you guys want this, we'll try to add it to future GPU launch articles.
For now, it'll have to suffice to say that it isn't a loud card, and it doesn't seem any louder than the 8800 GTS.
Missing Ghost - Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - link
Theses times most retail cards are pretty much the same as the reference cards...michal1980 - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
I want to know too. If its bettern then my 8800gts 640. I'll ebay that card now for the 8800. esspically with the smaller cooler and quiter.Dantzig - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Tom's Hardware did a noise comparison and found that the 8800GT was as quiet or quieter than any of the other 8800 series cards, the 8600 series, and the 2900XT.gamephile - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Yeah I saw that, I would just like confirmation from a source I trust.mpc7488 - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Lol - nice.The Tech Report did a good review, they have noise figures on page 7. http://techreport.com/articles.x/13479/7">Tech Report 8800GT Noise Levels
gamephile - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
Also the power consumption image doesn't load for me either. I'm not behind any firewall or proxy.DerekWilson - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
i'll look into the power graph thing