Is the 8800GT the big jump we all expected?

If there was ever going to be a new model that simply confused everyone, it was going to be the 8800GT. Not only does it carry the new G92 code name for the core, which we didn’t expect to see until the next generation of high-end performance cards (9800 Series), but one would also think that its GT naming scheme should put it just below that of the 8800GTS. However, not all is as it seems.

Fewer shader processors, less texturing power and not as many ROPs are found in the new core, yet we see an increase in transistors by 73M, taking the total count to 754M. The reason for the increase in transistors is thanks to the new video processing 2 engine being integrated into the core itself instead of a separate chip this time around.

While it may sound bad for the G92 core, it’s not. Nvidia has managed to tweak the architecture and now offer a 1:1 texture address units — texture filtering units ratio which was only seen in the 8600GTS previously. The difference is that a higher-end card like the 8800GT is able to make better use of the feature. The G92 introduces us to the 65nm die; in comparison the 8800 series which currently uses a 90nm die, while AMD uses an 80nm die on the HD 2900 series. The smaller die generally means a smaller size, higher clocks and more-efficient cooling.

The card continues to be PCI Express as you would expect, but it also supports the new higher-bandwidth PCI Express 2.0 specification. Don’t worry if your motherboard doesn’t support the new standard though, as full compatibility is offered to anyone with a PCI Express 16x slot.

This is where everything begins to get confusing: spec-for-spec the 8800GT is almost better than the bigger-sounding 8800GTS every time. The GT carries with it 112 stream processors while the GTS sees only 96. The core is bumped up to 600MHz, which is 100MHz higher than the GTS, and the memory moves from 1,200MHz up to 1,500MHz. While the same GDDR3 memory is used, the bus width has been cut from 320-bit seen on the 8800GTS to 256-bit on the GT; the change in bus width also means that the memory amount has changed so we now get 256MB and 512MB offerings instead of the weird 320MB/640MB we saw for the first time with the 8800 GTS. We also see PureVideo move to the new high-definition PureVideo2 standard; this was a feature that was only seen in the 8600 series and below.

What all of this has done is give us a great-performing card that starts at under $400 for a 512MB offering. The ability to beat the 8800GTS in every situation and climb towards the 8800GTX makes it the new card of choice.

It’s not all smiles, however: the new single-slot cooler is extremely loud and does a horrible job of cooling the card in general. With that said, it’s still the best value for money video card on the market at the moment — and for $400 there’s simply nothing else worth getting.