Back in November last year, Nvidia released the first of the 8800 cards into the market, the 8800GTS 640MB and the 8800GTX. These took the market by storm, as Nvidia has successfully took back the performance crown from ATI, being the first graphics manufacturers to introduce DirectX 10 solutions into the market, with ATI only responding 6 months later with a feeble attempt with the HD2900XT in May. In Febuary this year, we also see Nvidia releasing a 320MB version of the 8800GTS with the exact same specifications with its 640MB brother, which successfully help Nvidia grab hold of another market price point.

Offerings from Inno3D, Sparkle and MSI

Today, we will see the Geforce 8800GT 512MB cards, otherwise known as the G92 flood the market at a fantastic SRP of USD$ 249 (SGD$ 370~), successfully replacing the 8800GTS 320MB which falls into the same price point, and at the same time, outperforms the 8800GTS 320/640MB by a good 10~15% in most games. We will also see Nvidia employing a single slot cooling solution instead of the familiar beefy two-slot cooling that G80 sport. This is largely due to the reduction in die size, many thanks to the reduced die fabrication process to 65nm, 15nm down from the 80nm process used in the G80s. With the introduction of single slot cooling, many will be thankful as they will have the option to stuff one of these little monsters down microATX cases with slot cooling restrictions, especially on those mini-cube PCs from Shuttle and likes which cannot do with 2 slot graphic cards. In this review, we will be touching on high-resolution wide screen gaming at 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 in Windows Vista, indulging in DX10 goodness...

We've heard news about ATI countering with its HD3800 series in about 17 days at a similar price point but till then, let's focus on the Geforce 8800GT!

Some basic specification comparison before we continue...