Foxconn GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB OC Edition Review @ Hardwarezone
Hardwarezone reviews the Foxconn GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Overclocked Edition and writes:
We may be repeating ourselves but as our benchmark scores show, 640MB and higher memory size is the way to go if you fancy playing your games on a large display. Also, you probably do not need a ‘lesser’ DirectX 10 card like the GeForce 8800 GTS now if you already own a high-end graphics card like the Radeon X1950 XTX. With no DirectX 10 games expected till the second half of the year, there is frankly little reason to upgrade to a GeForce 8800 GTS now. On the other hand, if you intend to get a new card or planning to upgrade from a mid-range one like the GeForce 7600 (or even 7900 series if you wish), the GeForce 8 series is the way to go (assuming that it’s within your budget), given the absence of any DirectX 10 alternative from ATI at the moment. NVIDIA’s 320MB version of the GeForce 8800 GTS has just lowered the barriers to entry for a DirectX 10 graphics card.
Foxconn’s overclocked GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB is hopefully a sign of things to come, namely: custom clocked GeForce 8 cards from vendors. The scene has been too quiet of late, with few manufacturers given the leeway to experiment. There have been some special editions but the majority of GeForce 8 cards in the market are identical, standard models stamped with the manufacturer’s logo. Foxconn’s GeForce 8800 GTS is outwardly similar to the default design but at least the clock speeds are much more adventurous, being in the same league (numerically speaking) as the GeForce 8800 GTX. Performance was hence naturally faster than the standard clocked 320MB and even 640MB versions, giving existing owners a very good reason to overclock their cards if they haven’t done so.
However, the memory limitations that we noticed on the standard 320MB also surfaced in our tests and while the clock speeds did help somewhat, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle: there are some games and settings where clock speeds alone are not going to get you very far (Company of Heroes) while others (Quake 4) may be less forgiving. Like we mentioned before, the general and obvious rule of thumb is probably this: the newer the game, the higher the resolution, the more eye candy enabled, particularly anti-aliasing, the more memory you’ll need. This varies too from game to game but we believe recently released and future games will require greater frame buffer sizes, so the 320MB may not be the best long-term solution.
Nevertheless, the overclocked Foxconn did make us wonder how a 640MB GeForce 8800 GTS would perform if it was overclocked to such high clock speeds. Especially since we found that the Foxconn could go up to 650MHz for the core in our overclocking section. Could that exceed the hardware handicaps placed on the lesser GeForce 8800 GTS? Well, we do hope to find more daring, overclocked GeForce 8 cards from vendors in the near future, but for now, you should be prepared to pay more for this Foxconn card. A quick check with online retailers seems to place this Foxconn GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Overclocked Edition at US$310 - which is not a bad deal at all when considering that non pre-clocked version is at US299. Those who want a quick fix now may feel that 320MB and overclocking is good enough and they could well be right in some cases.
Read the full review of the Foxconn GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Overclocked Edition.