ASUS 8800GT 1GB TOP

Do you really need a gigabyte of RAM on your video card? On your mid-to-high range video card, no less?

As the 9-series phases in there will be certain models that will be phased out, or at the very least drop in price.

A perfect case in point is this 8800GT from ASUS, featuring 1024MB of memory – 512MB above the reference design. To help it further stand out from the crowd, this particular model does not follow the NVIDIA reference design at all. It appears to be as far away from reference as possible, in fact, utilising a completely custom PCB, component layout, memory capacity and cooling method. The only thing keeping this an 8800GT, at least by NVIDIA’s books, is the G92 core with 112 stream processors slapped in the middle of it.

While it’s great to see innovation, it needs to have purpose. In this case, it appears to be a case of ‘because we can’ or ‘because the others did it’ – being ASUS and all, we have a feeling it’d suggest the former rather than the latter.

Having said that, Inno3D, XpertVision and Palit are all among a list of other brands to bring an 8800GT 1GB product to the market, albeit on average $20 cheaper than the ASUS offering. While $20 isn’t too significant, and for many the brand assurance of owning ASUS or bundled software is often enough to sway an unsure mind, what happens when the competition is broadened?

First and foremost, the 1GB model of the 8800GT will attract competition from the 512MB models as performance differences will be negligible. This is due to the 256-bit memory bus being a bottle neck for the 1GB models. Secondly, the 9600GT, with an overclocked core of 700MHz and shader of 1750MHz, will return equivalent performance – at least up to 1280 x 1024 resolutions – before the lower stream processor count bottlenecks the sub-system. And the final nail in the coffin, price.



This card comes to market at $350 yet for $100 cheaper you can get a 512MB version with comparable performance at resolutions such as 1680 x 1050. Or, if you’re gaming at 1280 x 1024, save yourself some further dosh – to the tune of $150 – and get a 9600GT and overclock it.

The 1GB model is priced out of contention – end of story.