G80: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX

Gameplay Evaluations - How We Tested:

There are no timedemos used in our evaluations - we're focusing on the real-world gameplay experience. Ultimately, this is what should determine your next video card purchase.

NVIDIA recommended that the minimum resolution we should test GeForce 8800 GTX at should be no lower than 1600x1200. However, in order to really see the benefits of GeForce 8800 GTX, you're going to need a 24" or 30" widescreen monitor. To paint a comprehensive picture of how NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX performs, we have evaluated the performance of ATI's Radeon X1950 XTX and NVIDIA's previous flagship GeForce 7950 GX2 across six different game titles on both a 24" widescreen monitor (1920x1200) and a 30" widescreen monitor (2560x1600).

Because the benchmarks are done manually, there are slight differences between runs. However, we have run each benchmarking scenario through at least three times to get consistent average and minimum frame rates. In order to understand our testing methodologies, you will not go far wrong by following the logic that the higher the anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and in game details, the faster the graphics solution in that particular title.

NVIDIA System Setup

• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX - operating at its default clock speeds of 575/1800MHz using Forceware version 96.94;
  
• BFG Tech GeForce 7950 GX2 - operating at its default clock speeds of 500/1200MHz using Forcware version 93.71 WHQL.

Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 (operating at 2.93GHz - 11x266MHz); EVGA nForce 680i SLI motherboard (NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI); 2 x 1GB Corsair XMS2-6400C3 (operating in dual channel at DDR2-800 with 3-4-3-9-1T timings); Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 200GB SATA hard drive; OCZ GameXtreme 700W power supply unit; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; DirectX 9.0c; NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI standalone drivers version 9.35.

ATI System Setup

• ATI Radeon X1950 XTX - operating at its default clock speeds of 650/2000MHz using Catalyst 6.10 WHQL.

Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 (operating at 2.93GHz - 11x266MHz); Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard (Intel 975X Express); 2 x 1GB Corsair XMS2-6400C3 (operating in dual channel at DDR2-800 with 3-4-3-9 timings); Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 200GB SATA hard drive; OCZ GameXtreme 700W power supply unit; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; DirectX 9.0c; Intel inf version 7.22 WHQL.


We use the following abbreviations on our best-playable settings tables:

• QA AA - Quality Adaptive anti-aliasing (ATI Radeon X1000 series);
  
• PA AA - Performance Adaptive anti-aliasing (ATI Radeon X1000 series);
  
• HQ AF - High Quality Anisotropic Filtering (ATI Radeon X1000 series);
  
• TSS AA - Transparency SuperSampled anti-aliasing (NVIDIA GeForce 7/8 series);
  
• TMS AA - Transparency MultiSampled anti-aliasing (NVIDIA GeForce 7/8 series).