With the current disappointment in how budget gaming cards such as the GeForce 8600GTS and Radeon HD 2600XT handle today's games, I've personally been waiting for two cards to arrive; the GeForce 8800GT and the Radeon HD 38x0.
Today nVidia's GeForce 8800GT comes to market and as the reviews show it packs a major punch for its $249 msrp. Not only has the number of shader processors been increased over the 8800GTS, but it has increased texture addressing as well. Below is a collection of reviews around the web, and in one fell swoop nVidia has kicked its own GeForce 8800GTS out of the graces of budget gaming enthusiasts, replacing it with the GeForce 8800GT.
AnandTech
Hot Hardware
The Tech Report
FiringSquad
Tom's Hardware
HardOCP
And here are a few comments from the above reviews:
NVIDIA's second foray into 65nm GPU technology is a resounding sucess in our humble opinion. And how could anyone argue a Graphics product that consumes less power, costs less and performs better than the previous genertion? The proverbial hat-trick of high tech electronics is what we're looking at when we consider all of the performance metrics we showed you today against the backdrop of price. NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GT will be available in retail and e-tail immediately at an MSRP ranging from $199 to $249. Likely 256MB cards will weigh in at the lower cost price point with 512MB cards closer to the $249 tag. About the only thing we would mildly take issues with relative to this new product, is its thermal management solution that occasionally reminds you of its whiney existance. - Hot Hardware
It's really not often that we have the pleasure to review a product so impressively positioned. The 8800 GT is a terrific part, and it is hitting the street at a terrific price (provided NVIDIA's history of properly projecting street prices continues). The performance advantage and price utterly destroyed our perception of the GPU landscape. We liked the value of the 8800 GTS 320, and we were impressed when NVIDIA decided to go that route, providing such a high performance card for so little money. Upping the ante even more this time around really caught us off guard. - AnandTech
You've seen the results for yourself, so you pretty much know what I'm going to say. The 8800 GT does a very convincing imitation of the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB when running the latest games, even at high resolutions and quality settings, with antialiasing and high-quality texture filtering. Its G92 GPU has all of the GeForce 8800 goodness we've come to appreciate in the past year or so, including DX10 support, coverage-sampled antialiasing, and top-notch overall image quality. The card is quiet and draws relatively little power compared to its competitors, and it will only occupy a single slot in your PC. That's a stunning total package, sort of what it would be like if Jessica Biel had a brain. - The Tech Report
