3DMark06

Wrapping things up, we threw 3DMark06 at the cards. We know a lot of manufacturers like to use this benchmark as it provides a simple baseline of how the hardware ranks with other competitors without running through a dozen benchmarks. Not much to say as the numbers are right there in front of us. We used similar hardware as NVIDIA used in their reviewer's guide, and while we were unable to score 10000+ like they did, the percentage increase over the 7950GX2 is similar.

Overclocking and Heat

Overclocking is possible with the MSI NX8800GTX-2D3768E-HD, and it's more extensive than before. In the past, you only had access to the core and memory. In the future, you will have the same access as before but you can also overclock the stream processors mentioned at the start of this review. Now, we mentioned "future" because at this time, overclocking the stream processors happens when you overclock the core.

We used nTune for overclocking since Coolbits no longer seems to work with the 8800. The stock speed of the MSI NX8800GTX-2D3768E-HD is 575MHz core and 900MHz memory. We managed to reach 645MHz core and 1GHz memory without experiencing any stability issues. We were able to reach a 650MHz core, but within 10 minutes the system would lock up. We got the memory as high as 1050MHz, but we experienced tearing in 3D games.

The MSI NX8800GTX-2D3768E-HD's cooler is quite impressive to look at and as we pointed out, it isn't very loud. After our benchmarks, we headed into the control panel immediately (it was actually up in the background during this particular test) and the GPU core was cooking along at 79°C. Idle was a much more comfortable 55°C.

Final Words

Without a doubt, if you're on the look out for one of the fastest video cards on the market, the MSI NX8800GTX-2D3768E-HD should definitely be on your list. Not only is it fast today, it will still be faster than anything else currently on store shelves (as of today) when Vista ships and DirectX 10 games follow. The MSI NX8800GTX-2D3768E-HD is also a fairly quiet card when compared to previous generation high-end video products.

Gaming performance was, on average, double of anything the multi-GPU MSI 7950GX2 was capable of. Battlefield 2142, the newest title we tested with, proved to be no challenge at all for the MSI NX8800GTX. Despite the fact that widescreen gaming isn't officially supported, our quasi-widescreen settings still looked very good and performance was right up there. In fact, now that we've really gotten used to it, we think it's going to be very difficult for anyone to go back to traditional 4:3 gaming once they've played games in widescreen mode. You will need the hardware for it though as widescreen gaming is more processing intensive than 4:3 resolutions. Don't let anyone who says "30fps or 60fps is enough". When it comes to PC gaming, more is better.

Image quality was superb, and with DX10 support, it can really only go up. In today's games, we did not really see any improvement going from the 7950GX2 to the 8800GTX. What we did see is we were able to play at the same image quality settings as before, but now the gameplay is much smoother. The most obvious case in point was Tomb Raider Legends. Playing with the next-gen features will immerse you more when compared to having the features turned off, and the MSI NX8800GTX allows us to play at these settings without having the game slow down to a slide show. Lest we forget, if HD video content is something that you're going to want to get into sooner rather than later, the MSI NX8800GTX is fully HDCP compliant.

The big question mark though is if you have a high-end, pre-November 2006 video card, do you really need the MSI NX8800GTX-2D3768E-HD? Truth of the matter is, it really depends on what kind of gamer you are. Sure, that answer is a safe one, but if you're absolutely satisfied with your card's performance in today's titles, there really is no reason to take the plunge until Vista and DirectX 10 is out. Furthermore, if your monitor is only capable of 1280x1024 resolution or lower, you will not be taking advantage of the improvements in performance.

However, if you own or plan to own a high resolution capable widescreen monitor, and you're still playing games at low resolutions, you're really doing yourself a disservice. Without a doubt, this is about a dramatic a leap in technology as we've seen most recently between the Core 2 Duo and the Pentium D. Speaking of the C2D, we do suggest you arm yourself with one, or a high-end AM2 CPU to get the most of the video card.

Ultimately, we are not looking at a small 10% bump in improvement and a couple new image quality features when compared to previous generation GeForce cards. The jump from the 7950GX2 to the 8800GTX is really night and day, especially when playing at resolutions and detail levels that will challenge the hardware. The forward thinking features will give the MSI NX8800GTX-2D3768E-HD a long life span, at least as long as we can hope for in this day and age.

If you have any questions or comments on this or other articles here at Viper Lair, then please feel free to leave your thoughts in our forums.

HOME