Thoughts, awards, right2reply, where2buy
NVIDIA was smart to introduce two SKUs with its G80 line-up. The GeForce 8800 GTX is still the card to buy if performance is what matters most, assuming you can stretch to the £400 asking price. Put two together in a compatible system and hold on to your pants.If you can't stretch that far, and that will be the case for most regular folk, NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS is a fine buy. It has all the features trimmings of the GTX but with a range of snips that limit performance to three-quarters of the range-topping model, its performance should be good enough for Average Joe Gamer.
What's gratifying to see is that NVIDIA and its partners have also kept pricing at that ratio, as evinced by our bang4buck graph on the previous page.
The ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP/640M graphics card, then, ships with a retail price of around £275. Other options at or just below that price point include ATI's (yes, I'm still referring to the ex-red team for nostalgic reasons) Radeon X1950 XTX and NVIDIA's own GeForce 7950 GX2. Our performance numbers, surprisingly, have shown the latter two to be faster, but we're adamant the roles will be reversed when massively shader-heavy titles hit the shelves in 2007, mainly due to the GeForce 8800 GTS' intelligent architecture and Shader Model 4.0 compliance, where overall shading power and flexibility is the key and distinctions between traditional vertex and pixel shading will cease to exist.
The bottom line is that the GeForce 8800 GTS SKU is a fine buy for folks looking for decent framerates in games available today and, looking ahead, for the next couple of years. The ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP/640M package ships with a slightly overclocked core and decent bundle, along with an attractive price point. DX10 support doesn't hurt, either.
That being the case and looking at the broader picture, it's relatively easy to recommend it if you can't stretch the extra £100 for a GTX model.
HEXUS Awards
The ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP/640M is awarded the HEXUS Gaming Recommended award for offering a decent bundle and warranty on a future-looking graphics card that's based on sound technology.
ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP/640M
