The 8800 ain't dead, man!
Elitegroup, or ECS for those who can't find them under that name, are a relatively interesting bunch, with some rather interesting products. Just check out their 9800GTX+ Hydra pack in Issue 93 to see just how different they can be sometimes!
Today though, we're looking at their offering in the form of an 8800GT. While this isn't exactly the razor-sharp, cutting-edge any more, it certainly has more than enough grunt to compete with and even outperform many other cards. The g92 core is hard at work here, with a 65nm process and 112 stream processors linking up with a 256-bit memory bus, relying on 512MB of GDDR3 memory to store all the data needed. Clock speeds are the same as what we found on the 9800GT, though the shader clock is higher by 12MHz on this offering. Realistically this doesn't amount to any more performance, though it definitely can't hurt it.
The stock cooler used here is the updated model, and is not the full-length one (similar to the one used on the Foxconn card). Instead, it covers about two thirds of the card, a simple block of copper mating with the core and transferring the heat to a series of aluminium fins. A small squirrel cage fan is used to suck air through the card, and the power regulation components are treated to their own miniature heatsinks to ensure stability under heavy load. Idle temps were 54.5 degrees at 52.8dBA, which increased to 72 degrees and 65.2dBA loaded - the small fan can't move enough air at slower speeds.
Performance of such an old card is still impressive, and only a few points short of the 9800GT. Not only that, but Elitegroup have bundled a copy of Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 in as well - outstanding considering they were the only manufacturer in this whole roundup to do so.
Issue: 107 | December, 2009