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ActiveWin: nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX Review | |
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| Time: 17:40 EST/22:40 GMT | News Source: ActiveWin.com | Posted By: Byron Hinson | ||
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This is a joint review between ActiveWin and Libertech and is based on the nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX. Previously we haven't been able to cover nVidia based hardware and this is the first of what we hope will be many new reviews on the site. Also we are pleased to announce that we will finally be reviewing Intel hardware as well within the next 2 weeks starting with the Q6600 G0 Quad Core Processor. Here is a piece from the GeForce 8800 GTX Review: I have to admit that I have been a stalwart fan of ATI's cards for sometime so doing this review of an nVidia based card that I have been sent from Liberating Technologies seems a little strange. ATI had long been the best card maker for some years before nVidia hit a home run with the 8000 series GPU's and this is our first full nVidia based review on this site so we will go into full details about this 8800 GTX, how well it runs games and just what benefit it will give Windows Vista users even on moderate PC's | ||
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| #1 By 20505 (216.102.144.11) at 3/27/2008 8:20:27 PM |
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Hey LLoyd,
If ya still read this forum... what version of Vista were you testing 32 or 64 bit? |
| #2 By 13997 (69.227.158.227) at 3/27/2008 9:29:01 PM |
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Ok, even though you have ignored every technical experts recommendations, that you don't performance benchmark anything on a Vista day one install, can you provide a follow up with the test system after letting the games and benchmarks run a few more cycles over the course of a few days so we can see the real world Vista performance?
(Vista doesn't even optimize drivers or load times until it has rebooted five times, and doesn't fully have accurate information placement on the hard drive until after the first defrag that it also processes based on prefetch and superfetch data, that isn't fully applied in Vista until after the user has used the system for more than three days, running the basic applications. So unless Vista has been running for a minimum of three days running the applications you are going to test, the numbers are not going to show any advantages that Vista offers, and the system performance will be on par to a new Windows XP installation, where a few days of usage and optimization in Vista will yield a significant boost. These improvements also apply to gaming, as content is loaded from the superfetch system, and how the GPU multi-scheduler/virtualization system swaps textures in and out of system RAM to VRAM based on how the application has performed in the past. Our testers 'used for our on internal numbers' often show load time differences on AVERAGE of 6x in Vista after 3-5 days of usage compared to a day one install. Some applications and games have even shown a 20x improvement, with a 10-20% increase in FPS and game smoothness. This could also account for your installation testing if the Hard Drive was used for the same testing from mainboard to mainboard and GPU to GPU, as the second tested will have an inherent performance advantage in Vista, even on a day one install, as some optimization is already taking place with regard to VRAM virtualization.) Additionally, can we get any performance tests that are non-full screen, as some games using the shared texture surface of Aero (On), run faster than they do full screen at the same resolutions. This is also important to document in ATI vs NVidia, as more users are moving to running multiple 3D applications onscreen at the same time since the FPS drop is minimal due to the GPU scheduler that virtually pre-emptively multi-tasks the GPU to the applications and Aero, since Vista is the only consumer level OS that can do this. (Also an ATI to NVidia comparison of running two 3D apps on screen at the same time, and the FPS drop with both running concurrently.) Thanks for the report, and surprised the difference in ATI and NVidia is as large at it currently has been, but more surprised you haven't had a chance to realize this for yourself. I personally have been an ATI person myself, but on and off over the past 6 years, NVidia tends to lead, especially in the mobile market, as you can get a 7950 or 8800m GPUs in laptops that run comparable with their desktop siblings and are more than 4-10x faster than any ATI mobile offerings. I hope ATI catches up on the desktop and and mobile markets. The MS designed ATI chip in the XBox 360 is technically faster than ATIs 2xxx generation of cards, and this very surprising since ATI should know how to also produce GPUs based off these designs. And the fact that the WDDM in Vista is designed based on what the XBox 360 team learned. (Comparatively, the PS3 uses a variant of the Geforce 7800, and is slower than most desktop GPUs.) I have high hopes for the future of ATI, but the AMD merge seems to be at the heart of softening the offerings lately. |
| #3 By 8556 (12.210.39.82) at 3/27/2008 10:38:34 PM |
| Lloyd: Can you get your hands on a GeForce 9800 GX2 and compare it to the 8800 GTX? |
| #4 By 23275 (68.186.182.236) at 3/28/2008 1:08:57 AM |
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@1, Hey oldog, Byron tested using a slip-streamed version of Ultimate x64 bit.
@2, The system had been fully bedded over many days and weeks - so the Vista install was matured in that context. @3, Hi Bobs... yes, we just this week began to rx new 9800 GX based cards - big *however* though in that existing drivers are not designed to take full advantage of them and while they do bench well, one is not going to see their full potential until both drivers and specific game patches bake a bit longer. There is tremendous promise, but it is going to take time. For current games and drivers, which seem to have slowed in terms of pace, the 8800GTX is the way to go. BFG and a select few others ship OC'd versions that actually perform above their Ultra big brothers. Byron Hinson was good enough to review and test the card for us. Look for reviews from him opposite our displays, laptops, systems and software. He puts a lot into them and the exchange has been fun and helpful - it is always good to get direct feedback from people outside the unit <tips hat to Byron for helping test our stuff> [no only if we can get the stinking EU to stop nailing him with excise taxes... I threw some tea in our lake in recgnition of Byron's discomfort]. Also look for part III of my Perfect Vista PC Arc this weekend, or Monday. I have it running at 27C and now a whopping 4GHz per core [x4]. Needless to say, it shreds. Byron will do a review of our new 13.3" laptops in coming weeks. We think he'll dig it, but ya can't be sure - he could hate it, too. Yes, I still read the site on occasion, and we still support it fully and are nearing the completion of our dev work on the new site. Good to hear from you all. Finally, what really ecites me most is the promise offered by <of all companies> Intel! Their new integrated multi-GPU/CPU designs that will ship next year will change both computing and gaming forever. Think of 8800 GTX 768 MB power in a proc about twice as fast as a current Q6700 Quad Core... thnk some more about very low power, little heat and a core archt that will open so many possibilities it will dazzle all of us. Take note of how fast and smooth Vista is on such kit - and at price points that are less than half of present high end GPU's. The very best that computing has to offer has not yet begun, but H1/H2 09 will look amazing to all of us. If MS wakes up perhaps we'll see Games for Windows really take off - after all, all of us will have access to Crysis capable systems for under $1,000 USD. That is our goal and I now we'll hit it. Last bit.. I swear... look for ultra thin and wild PC case designs. This stuff runs so cool and so fast that ATX will finally die off. Look for modular boards builders can arrange in many ways... layered... stepped.... etc... it will make for some very nice designs. Bluvg was so right... Apple's toast... MAch cannot scale in a world with so many core - much less when they have DX10.1 GPU's baked into them. Best to all, Lloyd - Hey, TL! Hope you are well. |
| #5 By 88850 (221.128.180.129) at 3/28/2008 7:44:53 AM |
| But why 8 series now? |
| #6 By 23275 (68.186.182.236) at 3/28/2008 8:04:48 AM |
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@5, Because everything has evolved so much and improved so much. Driver revs, the OS and game patches designed around both.
All of this is particularly useful as it will all move forward into new cards, etc... and the platform and ecosystem will deliver more consistent and better results for people. |
| #7 By 2960 (72.196.195.185) at 3/28/2008 8:13:23 AM |
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8800 GTX ?
How timely :) TL |
| #8 By 1896 (68.153.171.248) at 3/28/2008 10:23:51 AM |
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The 8800 GTX is a great card, so far I see no reasons to move to the 9xxx ones.
Note that having two 8800 GTX, Vista SP1 and 4Gb of memory did not fix my Vista slugginesh but this is another story. |
| #9 By 3 (86.1.38.147) at 3/28/2008 1:46:31 PM |
| Reason for reviewing the 8800 GTX now is that the prices will drop soon thanks to the new 9 series cards - also the drivers have matured as has Vista thanks to the new service pack. Also the latest 174 drivers from nVidia are really good and work out far better than any others that I have been using. |
| #10 By 3746 (72.12.161.38) at 3/28/2008 8:32:50 PM |
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#8
If you have those specs and Vista is still sluggish you have something else going wrong. I have a Dual core, 8800GTX, 4GB ram running 32bit Vista SP1 along with XP and Ubuntu 7.10. I find Vista to be the fastest system especially in normal use. Also, on my system Vista boots and shuts down faster then the other two also. It is really how crisp it feels in normal use where it really shines - program opening and response is great. SP1 has fixed my file copy/network issues so that is not a problem. Gaming is now starting to see similar FPS between XP and Vista now that the drivers have matured a bit. |
| #11 By 1896 (68.153.171.248) at 3/29/2008 1:58:43 PM |
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Maybe because I have Vista 64? Seriously speaking I have seen this kind of behaviour, meaning different performances in similar systems, since Windows 3xxx . I am aware that in a way it does not make sense but it is a fact and it is applicable to anything built by humans.
On that specific system XP is much responds much quicker than Vista and this in spite of the fact that the former OS is 32bit and therefore does not fully utilize the available memory. Btw the system is part of a Domain and I also have Office 2007 which surely does not help. The main reason I never cared for all these speed testing everybody seems to be in love with lately is that we could buy two identical systems and one could perform better than the other... or maybe perform exactly the same. This post was edited by Fritzly on Sunday, March 30, 2008 at 07:01. |
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