A new lower priced 8800

Today NVIDIA is announcing the availability of the new GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB graphics card — the same GPU we have seen in the existing 8800 GTS with half the memory and a lower price. Is it worth the money to drop half of your on-board buffer??

Introduction

Since the launch of the GeForce 8800 line by NVIDIA in November of last year, it has been sitting on the performance crown quite comfortably with both the GTX and GTS models beating out the very top of the competing ATI graphics cards.  But with the 8800 GTS cards selling for at least $390 for even the cheapest models, there is a noticeable gap in features and performance in the NVIDIA product lineup.  NVIDIA is attempting to address this very gap with the new 320MB model of the 8800 GTS that features an expected MSRP of $299-329.  Even better?  This card is available today from several board vendors in both reference and overclocked speeds!

NVIDIA’s new 8800 GTS 320MB

The new GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB card has identical specifications to the existing GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB card, but with half the memory.  Doesn’t get more cut and dry.  For those interested in the quick refresher, here is some info about the 8800 GTS card compared to the 8800 GTX flagship card from our previous 8800 GTS review:

BFG Tech NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB Review - Graphics Cards 54

Note: the new 8800 GTS 320MB models only have 320MB of memory, not 640MB as shown in this slide

The 8800 GTS sports a 500 MHz core clock and 1.2 GHz shader processor clock on 96 SPs.  In comparison to the GTX model, which has 128 SPs running at 1.35 GHz and a 575 MHz core clock, the GTS is definitely a step down in speed, but users looking for a price to performance metric in their range are probably still going to be pleased.  The memory system runs at 800 MHz with 640MB 320MB of GDDR3; the 8800 GTS features one fewer ROP which converts to a 320-bit wide memory bus.  Just as we saw in the 384-bit wide 768MB configuration on the 8800 GTX, the numbers are a bit odd compared to the usual standards, but in almost all cases, more memory is better. 

The card still supports dual dual-link DVI output and HDTV output as well.  HDCP support is included on the GPU as well but the board vendors are required to implement a seperate CryptoROM for full support — luckily for us BFG has included it!

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