Performance

Our DX10 titles show a slightly difference scenario though, one that hasn't been in the public eye long enough to get the full attention of both parties.  In our single GPU testing, the NVIDIA 8800 GTX was by far the best performer in the DX10 titles that are currently available.  The GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB card, closer to the actual price competitor to AMD's HD 2900 XT card, was also a strong performer and out matched the AMD card in just about all of our tests.

NVIDIA still has room to improve, and they have admitted as much, but their Vista multi-GPU experience is worlds above what AMD's is currently providing.  Logic says that AMD should be able to address both single and dual card performance with driver updates but when and by how much is up in the air.

Pricing and Availability

Availability of the NVIDIA 8800 GTX and 8800 GTS cards isn't an issue at all these days, and you can find them at some great prices too.  If you are looking for a low cost option, we have seen 8800 GTX cards for as low as $510 on our pricing engine and the 8800 GTS 640MB card for as little as $355.  If you want the factory overclocked models that run at higher than reference clock speeds though, you will have to pay a premium for them.  Overclocked and water cooled, high end 8800 GTX cards can get as high as $700 or a more reasonable $590 and you can get overclocked 8800 GTS 640MB cards from EVGA or BFG for around $410-$440.

The AMD Radeon HD 2900 XT cards are also well stocked across the web and prices for them have dropped as low as $390.  Unfortunately, that is still more than the 8800 GTS 640MB cards can be found for and with the performance wins going to the NVIDIA card more often, that puts the HD 2900 XT in a very tight spot.  If you want to splurge for some reason, you could also get 1GB models of the HD 2900 XT or even slightly overclocked models for under $500.

Final Thoughts

At the outset of this review I wanted to help you decide which of the high end graphics cards currently available were the best for playing the first wave of DX10 game titles and I think we have easily done that.  The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX is our pick for anyone looking to play the likes of Bioshock, Company of Heroes, Call of Juarez, Lost Planet or World in Conflict in DX10 modes.  The power of the G80 GPU and the time NVIDIA's driver development team has put into Vista are evident in our benchmark and gaming experience results. 

The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB makes a great second option though for users with a slightly smaller budget.  This card still does very well under Vista with the DX10 games and keeping another $150 in your pocket never hurt anyone.  The let down for me here was the Radeon HD 2900 XT from AMD; the card was only able to get off the bottom post in our results in a single test (Call of Juarez) and the multi-GPU results of CrossFire were abysmal when compared to what NVIDIA's SLI was able to accomplish.  AMD needs to put some work into the GPU segment if they want to maintain any kind of technological level with NVIDIA's products, whether that would require software fixes or hardware re-spins.  And there is no time like the present...

With other HUGE titles like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 just over the horizon, DX10 gaming is going to rocket-jump this holiday season.  Let the fun begin!

If you have any questions or comments on this article or our testing, please drop into a thread I started in our forums to discuss!