Extremetech approved:
Final Thoughts: Does 320MB Make a Difference?
The 320MB version of the GeForce 8800 GTS is sort of an odd duck. At about $300 for the base model, it represents a really great bargain over the 640MB version, still selling for around $450. It even outperforms a Radeon X1900 XTX (a 512MB card) in many situations; a card that costs more.
But 320MB is an odd amount of graphics memory. Up until now, game developers have been able to count on a graphics card having either 256MB of RAM or 512MB. This card brings to market a configuration with a RAM amount in between those values, and that can potentially make for some strange performance results. Call of Duty 2 is a good example: Does the game need more than 320MB of RAM to run well at our test settings? Is 320MB enough but the game treats any card with less than 512MB as though it has 256MB? F.E.A.R. is another good example: Enabling antialiasing at high resolutions clearly causes the game to cross that 320MB boundary and reduces the performance of this new Nvidia card.
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XFX is offering three cards based on this new 320MB configuration. A base model at $299 ships at the standard GeForce 8800 GTS clock speeds. The Xtreme model boosts the core clock speed up to 560MHz (from 500MHz) and kicks up the memory clock speed a little bit, to 1.7GHz. The model reviewed here, the XXX Edition, pushes those clocks to 580MHz and 1.8GHz. At $335, that's a pretty good boost in performance for a comparatively low increase in cost. Sure, you might be able to overclock the standard edition card yourself and save $35, but you might not. Buying a card overclocked out of the box ensures that those speeds are tested and, more importantly, covered by warranty and supported. XFX sweetens the deal by packing in a full version of the excellent Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.
In all, these 320MB GeForce 8800 GTS cards are a really good value. We're a little concerned by the hiccups we see in the performance of Call of Duty 2 and F.E.A.R., though. If it's just a driver thing, great. If 320MB proves to be little better than 256MB for high-end gaming, though, the GeForce 8800 GTS is going to have some problems. DirectX 10 games are set to use even more graphics memory, so these problem cases could increase in scope as the year rolls on and games start to support DX10. We give this card a big thumbs up for its price/performance, tempered by concerns over the 320MB memory size.
a $300 XFX 8800 GTS card.
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