X-bit labs

1GB Is a GB: Gainward Bliss 8800 GT 1024MB GS Graphics Card Review (page 18)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 02/14/2008 | 11:04 AM ]

Conclusion

As we found out in our review of the Bliss 8800 GT 512MB GS GLH the problem with the cooling system was just a defect of the particular sample, and the Bliss 8800 GT 1024MB GS, described in this review, leaves only positive impressions. We could find no serious flaw in this product except for the unassuming design of its box. Otherwise, the card is very good.

Gainward’s idea to install 1 gigabyte of graphics memory on a GeForce 8800 GT proved to be not as totally useless as we had anticipated. We had thought the performance gain would be zero or provoked by the pre-overclocked frequencies only but the Bliss 8800 GT 1024MB GS has saved the manufacturer from the accusation in squandering. There was a considerable effect from the double amount of memory in such games as Call of Juarez, Call of Duty 4, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Tomb Raider: Legend, Hellgate: London, and Gothic 3. This is 6 out of 15 games we use for benchmarking graphics cards. That’s a serious achievement. The performance gain is really valuable in Call of Duty 4, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Hellgate: London as it allows playing at high resolutions and (in the latter case) at the highest graphics quality settings without investing into Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra. Of course, the Gainward Bliss 8800 GT 1024MB GS is going to be more expensive than an ordinary Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, yet still considerably cheaper than the top-end G80-based products. In the other cases there was a performance growth too, but due to the increased GPU and memory frequencies. The Gainward behaved then like any other pre-overclocked GeForce 8800 GT 512MB.

Besides high performance, the card also features a near-silent and very efficient cooler and supports the audio-over-HDMI feature, which is not available on many other versions of GeForce 8800 GT. Of all versions of this graphics card we have tested so far, the Gainward Bliss 8800 GT 1024MB GS seems to be the closest to ideal. Without a doubt, it is a unique product with an appropriate price which duffers greatly from the price recommended by Nvidia. It is indeed so high than the potential buyer may think about purchasing a GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB that has more advanced specs except for the amount of graphics memory. It’s up to you to decide if the advantages provided by 1 gigabyte of graphics memory are really worth the money.

Highs:

• Excellent performance in contemporary games;
• 1024MB of video memory onboard;
• Wide range of supported FSAA modes;
• Excellent quality of anisotropic filtering;
• Fully-fledged hardware HD video decoding support;
• Advanced HD-video post-processing;
• Sound-over-HDMI support;
• PCI Express 2.0 support;
• No compatibility problems;
• Quiet and highly efficient cooling system;
• Decent accessories bundle.

Lows:

• Outdates DVD player bundled with the card;
• Extremely high price.