X-bit labs

From Extreme to Mainstream: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT from Leadtek (page 17)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 12/03/2007 | 03:09 PM ]

Performance in RPG

Gothic 3

The current version of the game doesn’t support FSAA, so we performed the test with anisotropic filtering only.

The Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT isn’t far better than the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB at 1280x1024 but then the gap between them grows to 20% at 1600x1200 and to 26% at 1920x1200.

The new card features the best result in the category of mainstream cards priced at $259 and delivers acceptable performance at every resolution, including 1920x1200, although the Gothic 3 engine is quite a resource-hungry one. For some reason, the overclocked version of the GeForce 8800 GT from Leadtek is always inferior to the reference card in terms of minimum speed here.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

The game loses much of its visual appeal without HDR. Although some gamers argue that point, we think TES IV looks best with enabled FP HDR and test it in this mode.

Outperforming the rest of the participating cards, the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT looks splendid in this test, but the walk along the dungeons of the empire’s capital is just a warm-up. The real test will follow next. Like in some other cases, the GeForce 8800 GT benefits the most from overclocking at high resolutions only: there is only a minor increase in the minimum speed at 1280x1024.

The Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT passes the open-scene test just as brilliantly. Its minimum speed is never lower than 30fps even in the worst case – you can have such a large reserve of speed only from a Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB. The new card has no rivals in terms of average performance: the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB is 20% behind at 1920x1200 while the other cards, including ATI’s Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB and Radeon HD 2900 Pro, are slower yet. Such a high level of performance could only be achieved previously by means of expensive, uneconomical and very hot multi-GPU tandems, but now it is available for every gamer who can afford a $259 graphics card.