XFX GeFORCE 8800GTX XXX Review - PAGE 1

It is probably the fastest card on the planet right now!

For this review, I had done all of the bench testing and photos while my partner in arms, Michael had done the writing.

A couple of things about the XXX

First, we did see some GPU scaling with certain games. An example would be with Quake (I think) where the ATI card preformed better with AA and AF turned on. The XXX did the same thing, but prefroming better at 1280x1024 than it did at 1024x768. This is most likely a method of GPU scaling or throttling (turning off certian pipes or streams if they are not needed).

The other thing it could be is software related. Perhaps the drivers used are optimized for filtering turned on and resolutions above 1280x1024. Or maybe even an aspect of the game. The game programmers beleive that everyone uses LCDs that start at 1280 resolution. SO, naturally, they've elected to ignore 1024 and below. Regardless, it's a freakin' fast card!

As for water cooling, it can be done. I'm going to check tomorrow if a G71 footprint cooler will fit G80 mounting points. If it can. then a GeForce 7000 series aftermarket water cooler could be used on a G80. When overclocking a G80, the best util to use is ATI Tool! Don't ask me why, but it seems to work the best right now. Cool Bits doesn't work most of the tie, and nTune is limited. I've seen figures of G80 cards that have been OC'd using water cooling, and the best is a 10 percent gain in FPS.

Remember; if you're water cooling, you're going to want to have your radiator in the coolest place possible. A radiator can only bring the water temps down to the ambient room tempature. If you have a big enough fan, you can induce wind chill. But in a 20 degrees C room, a fan the size of a fridge might only get you down to 15 degrees if your lucky. If you have AC, then maybe you could position your H2O rad at the outlet of the AC, chill it down to 7 degress C, and get the water dozen to maybe 12 degrees.

It's going to take me a while, but I am going to be experimenting with some extreeme cooling techniquess. All quite top secret for now though.

JMicahG

(Forvige the spelling, but I typed this in less than a minute and did't read it over. We're all guilty of bad spelling, right?)

Okay. sorry for the rambling. I know what you mean now and I agree with what you said. I'll shut up now.

Just shut up.


Ok just to not leave you hanging water cooling doesnt necesarily mean its going to be any better.

Also what we mean is if you get a non watercooled version from BFG or any other *BRAND* and overclock it and change the cooler for any third party cooler it will void the warrenty....*UNLIKE EVGA* where it is perfectly acceptable.

To be honest i would rather have the card non-watercooled.

There you go.

why would you want to change the cooling? The Over clocked 8800 GTX is water cooled.

But not if you overclock and change the cooling.

Well, just so you know, BFG also has a lifetime warranty.

This is with the card from EVGA, theres no raeson to buy any other brand. EVGA gives lifetime warentee, even if you OC and change the cooling.

Is that with one card?

Also, which is better, this or the BFG Water cooled 8800 GTX?

This message was edited by tomy_b on Feb 01 2007.

quote Cheesysoapopra

My card came in. It's freaking unreal, more powerful than I expected. Oblivion on 1920x1200 8xQAA 16XAF maxed everything possible the game runs as smooth as silk no matter what I do.

That is truly insane. I can't imagine 8xAA/16xAF in 1920x1200 playing smoothly. Even with all settings maxed out, including the grass view distance, you keep 45+ fps? Or what is your lowest FPS?

quote Cheesysoapopra

My card came in. It's freaking unreal, more powerful than I expected. Oblivion on 1920x1200 8xQAA 16XAF maxed everything possible the game runs as smooth as silk no matter what I do.

Glad to hear that your having fun with it. Now lets get some games that will take advantage of that damn DX10, that is, when Vista gets it head out of it's ass.

My card came in. It's freaking unreal, more powerful than I expected. Oblivion on 1920x1200 8xQAA 16XAF maxed everything possible the game runs as smooth as silk no matter what I do.

Well, it's going to depend on your resolution size, and what kind of game you are playing. While the gtx is top dog, the gts is no slouch,especially if you overclock it. Check out this review of both the gtx, and the gts, now add an average of 5fps extra for the minimum for the gts when overclocked. I know I stated in an earlier post that eyesight is a 30fps limit,I was wrong, kinda. Eyesight is very subjective, but as a rule, any gameplay higher than 30fps is more enjoyable.

gts/gtx

I see. Hm, so basically... do you think the GTX is worth it, or should the GTS basically be fine for anyone's needs realistically?

quote Cheesysoapopra

The human eye will percive anything above 24FPS as a smooth image. If you're playing a game at a constant 60FPS, compared to a constant 24FPS, both will look like smooth images. Though I can seriously tell the difference between the two, the 24FPS is still a smooth moving image to my eye.

However, if you are playing a game at 60FPS, and then all of a suddon you drop to 30FPS, you WILL notice the drop. People love to go textbook on this and say that isn't true, but go ahead and try it. Go ahead and play something at 60fps, then play something at 24fps, you should notice that there is a difference in smoothness, though the 24fps is still smooth, but compare the two, and the lower one will look like a chop fest.

Something to chew on
fps