G80: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX

Originally Posted by Kevin_G
Great review Tim S, the best one I've seen about the Geforce 8800GTX so far.

Seeing that picture above in the forum means that SLI benchmarks are on the way which is something lacking in most Geforce 8800GTX reviews around the web. I notice that while there are two SLI connectors on the board, you're only using one to bridge two cards together. What happens when two SLI bridge connectors used? Any change in performance?

Any chance of doing some power tests without any video cards at idle and full CPU load? That'd get a much clearer estimate of how much power just the video card consumes by being able to subtract the test platform figures from those with the video cards.

Hi Kevin,

Welcome to the forums and thanks for your comments. ;)

I will see what I can do tomorrow re: power consumption.

SLI only requires one bridge connector and from what I've been told, the second connector won't have any performance benefits. I believe the second connector is for connecting a 3rd card in 3-way SLI, or for something like physics processing but NVIDIA hasn't confirmed anything just yet.

I was reading that!
Where did the article go?

Nick

Originally Posted by Nedsbeds
I was reading that!
Where did the article go?

Nick

We're trying to sort it now... minor glitch in the matrix

back now - sorry! :o

Originally Posted by Tim S
... minor glitch in the matrix...

Follow the white rabbit B)

not sure if this was posted but
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1069602
3d mark review of 8800gtx and more :)

Originally Posted by cire9753
not sure if this was posted but
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1069602
3d mark review of 8800gtx and more :)

Um, is that your idea of a constructive review? :?

Originally Posted by Tim S
SLI only requires one bridge connector and from what I've been told, the second connector won't have any performance benefits. I believe the second connector is for connecting a 3rd card in 3-way SLI, or for something like physics processing but NVIDIA hasn't confirmed anything just yet.

Have you got a 3rd GTX to plug in and see what it does? Who knows it may be something that works, but just hasn't been announced yet :D The BFG water cooled card is rather nice I must say!

Wouldn't you say though that this card is ultimately limited by CPU power? Intel and AMD can mutter all they want about multi core CPUs, but at the end of the day what counts is the clock speed :) Give me a 5GHz dual core over a 2.5GHz quad core any day!

I've got a 3rd one, yes but I don't think the drivers enable whatever it's going to do... The only issue is that my largest PSU (a 1kW PC Power & Cooling unit) only has four 6-pin PCI-E connectors. :)

At lower resolutions, the card is definitely CPU limited and I believe it's "DX9-limited" at the top end in many respects. I believe there's more performance to unlock once we get into the realms of DirectX 10, because it's going to remove a lot of the issues with CPU overhead.

Originally Posted by Tim S
I've got a 3rd one, yes but I don't think the drivers enable whatever it's going to do... The only issue is that my largest PSU (a 1kW PC Power & Cooling unit) only has four 6-pin PCI-E connectors. :)

At lower resolutions, the card is definitely CPU limited and I believe it's "DX9-limited" at the top end in many respects. I believe there's more performance to unlock once we get into the realms of DirectX 10, because it's going to remove a lot of the issues with CPU overhead.

3!? MEH! I am now going to storm off and tell my 9800 that everything is ok.... :'(

lol I was thinking about rhe DX10 aspect, this should unlock alot more performance right? or on the flipside, it will test the card properly to see if it still rocks and/or rolls? It was a given it would destroy anyting in DX9 and look amazing I assume?

Originally Posted by Tim S
At lower resolutions, the card is definitely CPU limited

That sounds about right to me, and surely will be even moreso in the case of your SLI results. Any figures on the GTX at stock with an overclocked X6800/QX6700?

The only question in my mind is will two of these fit in a Lian-Li PC777. I must admit though that SLi seems a complete wast of money for the time being with the 8800. I'm sure that will all change when DX10 is out and you can't set everything to the max then you might think about buying a second 8800.

Kinda suprised you didn't bring up Ms Curry Tim.

Originally Posted by neocleous
The only question in my mind is will two of these fit in a Lian-Li PC777. I must admit though that SLi seems a complete wast of money for the time being with the 8800. I'm sure that will all change when DX10 is out and you can't set everything to the max then you might think about buying a second 8800.

you'll have to measure for yourself - the card is ~27-28cm in length and the power connectors are on the size.

Originally Posted by DougEdey
Kinda suprised you didn't bring up Ms Curry Tim.

In all honesty, I forgot...

some high res shots:

http://staff.bit-tech.net/tim/adrianne/adrianne1.jpg

http://staff.bit-tech.net/tim/adrianne/adrianne2.jpg

http://staff.bit-tech.net/tim/adrianne/adrianne3.jpg

:D

Don't suppose you have the tech demo itself?

Originally Posted by DougEdey
Don't suppose you have the tech demo itself?

not yet, no.

New benchmark for you then :P

dear god those shots are incredible.. if the tech demo is of her moving her face and its that zoomed im very impressed

Well, I may be in a minority here, but I don't think the above pictures are all that impressive. In fact, I think them a bit dissapointing. If that's all DX10 can do, then it's maybe not such a great leap afterall.

Originally Posted by specofdust
Well, I may be in a minority here, but I don't think the above pictures are all that impressive. In fact, I think them a bit dissapointing. If that's all DX10 can do, then it's maybe not such a great leap afterall.

Remember, they are all rendered real time.

Originally Posted by DougEdey
Remember, they are all rendered real time.

Yeah, and if I saw it I'd probably be impressed, but on close inspection of the pictures parts are dissapointing to me. The skin is still far too plasticy, it has that doom3 shimmer on it that just shouldn't be there. The perfect complexion is understandable given it's a showcase, but I doubt we're going to see the capability to have real complexions on people which is dissapointing. The skin all looks too blurry, as if they've done that to get the blend of colours right, but it's just lead to something that looks in some respects illdefined. Lastly, the hair still looks like it's being done in clumps. If you look at the third pic, the hair coming down in front of her ear looks like it's being done in defined strands of two, and looks almost as if they've just repeated the same bit of wispy hair texture in some different directions.

I do think this is a step forward, it's just not as much of a leap as I'd been hoping for.

Just to point out though, the actual size of the images:

8.9" x 9.0" @ 300 DPI (2693 x 2700 Color JPEG)

Also Adrianne Curry is a playboy model.

the power which it consumes is incredible, it would almost certainly take my Corridor of my Halls, cos last time i tripped it i only took 800w, from the wall. and it tripped out...

Lucky my rig only needs 600w

Originally Posted by specofdust
The skin is still far too plasticy, it has that doom3 shimmer on it that just shouldn't be there.

I agree, however, i think the images are jpeg, so theres a slight loss there, but still, the skin looks plastic

Then again, maybe she has grease issues :)

Wow...

It took me almost 2 days to read (and understand) the review. Execelent job. A real thought-out repport about all the new stuff these cards have to offer. Cant wait to see some real dx10 games getting testen. Dx9 game performance is nice but a next gen card needs a next gen game to be sure. ;)