8800GTS shootout - XFX 8800GTS XXX vs Gainward 8800GTS "Golden Sample"
Game Tests - F.E.A.R., Quake 4 and Oblivion
Published: 5th March 2007 | Source: XFX | Price: |
F.E.A.R. is a game based on an engine that uses many features of DirectX 9.0c. It has volumetric lighting, soft shadows, parallax mapping and particle effects, with a slow-motion mode that really taxes today's top of the line GPU's. I fully patched version the game with the latest patch. I played three two-minute runs on a taxing part of the game with plenty of action, using slow-motion for the full time whilst firing at enemy soldiers and using grenades that produce a cool "blast" contortion effect when blown up.
Once again F.E.A.R. is a pretty even match for both cards, without the large lead shown by the XFX in Counter Strike: Source.
Quake 4
Quake 4 is a game built on the Doom 3 engine. This uses many DX 9.0c features and is a game that nVidia traditionally did well on being an OpenGL game. Once again I did three two minute runs on Quake 4 on each card and took the average of all my readings from these. I played a fast and furious part of the game that required both internal and external scenes.
The XFX had a slight edge in Quake 4, those faster stream processors giving the speed boost. I actually thought that the gameplay was slightly affected by the extra speed, but certainly not to a huge jump in gameplay.
Oblivion
Oblivion is an awesome RPG with a simply huge immersive environment, great graphics and incredibly realistic scenery. This game is currently one of the most testing games that you can buy and it is certainly a test of the high-end cards here. I chose to do a run-through of the Arena part of the game. I spoke to a character, did some magic whilst in a fight and fought in the arena that is pretty huge. Also as well as doing this test I took a wander around to make sure that the benchmark resembled the general gameplay with each card.
I enforced 4 x AA onto the game as nVidia cards now support AA and HDR in Oblivion.
Oblivion again shows a slight lead for the XFX card although this did not particularly affect the gameplay, once again.
Most Recent Comments
Yeah, thanks to your review, i bought the xxx gts 640, WOW wont need to look at staticice for another18 months!
Aye they do pwn somewhat :D
9500 on 3dmark06 - *sigh*, yeah. . . . .. they really DO pwn!
very interesting review :)
Great review Kemp.
Somewhere along the line I was wishing u`d take a screw-driver to those coolers, the pcbs look almost identical asif these guyz are working extremely close together. Like in the same building :p
I see many are already posing whether it`s better value to get a base card and do all the clocking uself. Meh.
Somewhere along the line I was wishing u`d take a screw-driver to those coolers, the pcbs look almost identical asif these guyz are working extremely close together. Like in the same building :p
I see many are already posing whether it`s better value to get a base card and do all the clocking uself. Meh.
Great review Kemp.
Somewhere along the line I was wishing u`d take a screw-driver to those coolers, the pcbs look almost identical asif these guyz are working extremely close together. Like in the same building :p
I see many are already posing whether it`s better value to get a base card and do all the clocking uself. Meh.
They're all the same as the reference boards i expect.
As for the clocking we can oc the core but not the stream processors:(
Aye they're all reference boards basically so the coolers the same as the reference. I could have taken em apart but not sure how much use it would have been.
I took the 8800GTX apart in that review.
If your particularly interested I could take apart another GTS and post some pics?
And ye you can OC the core clocks/memory clocks but I haven't found a way of doing the stream processors yet
I took the 8800GTX apart in that review.
If your particularly interested I could take apart another GTS and post some pics?
And ye you can OC the core clocks/memory clocks but I haven't found a way of doing the stream processors yet
Is the stream process likely to involve some kind of firm upgrade that some guy is probably working on in his pc room as we speak ? lol Now these are out I guess theres a further reference for him to work off.
If I`m the only one looking for hardcore up-cooler shots, I wouldn`t bother, if I do some searching there bound to be something out there ;)
If I`m the only one looking for hardcore up-cooler shots, I wouldn`t bother, if I do some searching there bound to be something out there ;)
I have pics of my EN8800 GTS nekkid if you want to have a look at them
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i use ATitool for my oc'ing and you can have it load the oc on startup and it tells the temp... i have mine running at 640/1000
havnt seen the temp go above 70*c yet cuz i got some insain air fed to my card at all times... two 80mm fans and a 120mm all blowing on it