eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS Video Card

Not the GTX, but still a great DX10 card.

Posted Apr 25, 2007 - I finally received my 2 8800GTS's (via EVGA Step-Up program) to put into an SLI configuration. First thing I noticed is that they are quite a bit shorter than the 8800GTX (and only take 1 PCI-e power supply instead of two), but they are tall enough that putting them in an SLI configuration starves the top card for air. However, these cards are performance beasts. In a rig that had previously had 2 x 7950GT's SLI'd and got 3DMark06 scores around 7200 (total score at 1920x1200 resolution), a _single_ 8800GTS produced a score of ~6700 (with temps maxing out at 61C in firefly Forest). With the SLI configuration installed and enabled (along with the usual headaches that accompany that setup -- in fact, more than the usual -- the new 8800 drivers seemed less willing to recognize an SLI-capable config than drivers for the 7900 and 7950 series cards), the 3DMark performance went to ~9700, with max card temps at 88C. (Comparing this to a single 8800GTX I had in another computer which I temporarily put in this rig for a comparable ran at ~72C with a score of ~9090). The prices of these cards are just starting to come down to earth, and right now if you're looking for a card in the ~$400-450 price range, not much is going to touch these either in terms of current performance, and if you need your DX10 card now, this is just about the only way to get it (at least as of the time of this writing). Not if only NVIDIA would do any decent beta-testing on their ntune software before releasing it, I'd be able to give them a thumbs-up for getting the first DX10 cards out to market correctly... Unfortunately, that's not totally the case here. 5 Stars for single card mode, 2 if you wnat to SLI them. If you're thinking of doing that, just buy one 8800GTX and save yourself the headace and your rig the radiating heat from the never-over-60% operating fans.

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eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS

Posted Feb 19, 2007 - It’s DX10 compatible, and it easily handles every game I’ve thrown at it (most with max settings and/or antialiasing). If that’s what you’re looking for, this is a relatively cheap alternative to the 8800 GTX. The dual slot design does not do a great job of cooling: idle temps at stock speed are about 60C, and overclocking under load brings it up to nearly 90C. Manually adjusting fan speeds lets you strike a balance between temperature and noise level. Also worth mentioning is eVGA’s lifetime warranty, which isn’t automatically voided by overclocking, but “physical damage” isn’t covered (so don’t set those clocks too high). This is currently a fantastic card for avid gamers, but it is overkill for casual gamers and most mainstream consumers.

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eVGA 8800GTS - Graphical Heaven

Posted Apr 7, 2007 - I have owned four eVGA cards in my life and between the customer support and quality build of their cards, I will continue to be a patron. This card is just awesome. The graphics are breath taking and it runs pretty quiet for it's size. It does get warm, but there is an exhaust vent present, so that should help in cooling the card and keeping the pc case less hot. Plus the added thirty dollar rebate makes this card a steal.

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Very Nice Video Card

Posted Jan 14, 2007 - If you really need a new video card upgrade I would recommend buying it now. If you have a newer video card and want to get a new one that will support Direct X 10 I would wait until the new Radeon version comes out so you can buy this one for cheaper or if the Radeon is better buy that. Other than that this card will give you no troubles. It ran on windows X64 edition and they had drivers on EVGA website, the drivers wont work on the disk that is provided.

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Too Hot

Posted Nov 22, 2006 - There isn't a solution to the overheating due to the fact that SLI mode requires the cards to be extremely close so the SLI bridge will fit. If you're only purchasing one of these cards, then make sure you put it into your system in a way where the slot next to it, is wide open.

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Good for HD DVD...sort of

Posted Apr 21, 2007 - I purchased this with the intent to play HD DVDs on my PC. Previously I had a Leadtek 6800 which stuttered, sometime refused to play due to no DHCP support, and absolutely destroyed crippled my pc performance. This card got rid of the stuttering, the DHCP issue, and enables me to multitask during HD DVD playback (I'm playing U2 Rattle & Hum while I write this). Now the bad...there is no HDMI support. What? Yes that is right no HDMI support. I have a brand new Samsung 4095 LCD (awesome) with no DVI inputs...HDMI is the format of the future and as of right now I can only use the PC input on my tv. Hopefully, they fix this soon....until they do..its 4 of 5 stars for me.

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Great Graphics Card!

Posted Apr 8, 2007 - This isa great product. I have been using it for more than 6 months without any problems. It was very expensive when I bought it, but the price has dropped. It is definitely worth the money. I highly recommend this product.

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An excellent video card

Posted Apr 12, 2007 - This is the best video card I have ever owned. Compared to my former ATI 1600 pro, it is much much much better. I could play any games with all the settings on without any problems. Price is a little bit high. It might be a good buy when this card becomes to cost around 200 bucks. Overall, however, I am fully satisfied, even though I spent more than 300 bucks.

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EVGA 8800GTS

Posted Apr 4, 2007 - This is a great card to upgrade to. It's cheaper than the GTX and smaller too. I also got a $30 rebate. I am not running SLI, so that isn't a problem for me. I am still running XP Pro, all I had to do was pop it in and load the drivers and I was off and running. I would recommend this card to anyone wanting to upgrade to a DirectX 10 capable card.

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One Card to Rule Them All

Posted Mar 24, 2007 - 640MB of video memory. Powerful. Quiet. This is a "Not So Lean But Mean 3D Rendering Machine". 1280x1024 Resolution, Max Quality, AA, and HDR at 60+ FPS in all games: Oblivion, Quake 4, Company of Heroes, etc. No lag on Windows Vista with the latest forceware drivers, even on Vista Ultimate with Dreamscene running in the background. Was just short enough to fit in my Antec Sonata II (may have problems if I get the GTX) and didn't need to upgrade the 450W power supply that I had. With the $30+ rebates going around, this is a better value than the 320MB GTS which is just as fast or faster in most games until you turn up the AA. Trouble-free card if you don't care for SLI.

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Great upgraded DX10 Card

Posted Mar 8, 2007 - Warning! This review will have little or no interest to gamers! I am adding a dedicated media-center computer to my household, so wanted to upgrade to a new DX10 card, and have been an nVidia devotee for years. I took my eVGA 7800 GT out of my desktop, and moved it to the media-center machine. I then plopped the 8800 GTS into my desktop machine. It came up, no problems. I donloaded the latest drivers from the eVGA site, so ignored the included install CD. The included eVGA ResChanger 2005 utility had not changed, so no reason to re-install. I'm viewing on a Dell 24" LCD, and it looks great. I did a quick run-thru with Call Of Duty 2, and it was awesome! Not sluggish in any way. The biggest improvement is that my system is extremely silent now! That 7800 GT is just plain loud!! Guess it pays to have such a monster video-card that they can put in a larger and more quiet fan. That's almost worth the upgrade alone! :-) But do note that this will take up two slots in your motherboard, so you better have a newer one that can handle this.

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GeForce 8800 GS 640MB

Posted Feb 25, 2007 - Card was $200 less than GTX, which made me conclude that I could purchase an additional GTS in the future if the need for more video power was necessary. As I mentioned above, I don't think the space was available for me to install a GTX.

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