PNY - GeForce 8800 Ultra review
stonkingly fast Nvidia-based graphics card
Review date: 24 September, 2007. Review by: IT Reviews Staff
Slight tinkering with the efficiency of the 90nm core has allowed the 8800 Ultra to have better power consumption than the older 8800 GTX, the power rating dropping from the 185W maximum of the GTX down to the 175W of the Ultra - which is impressive considering the Ultra's faster clock speeds.
Talking of clock speeds, the Ultra has a core clock running at 612MHz which is an increase of 37MHz over the reference 8800 GTX, while the 128 stream processors run at 1,500MHz, up from 1,350MHz. The amount of GDDR3 memory stays the same at 768MB but the memory chips themselves are faster Samsung chips rated to a maximum of 1,100MHz (2,200MHz effective).
These are clocked down slightly here, running at 1,080MHz (2,160MHz effective), a rise of 180MHz (360MHz effective) over the standard 8800 GTX, all of which gives the 8800 Ultra a memory bandwidth of 103.68GB/sec - just the job for playing complex games at high resolution and detail.
The cooler may look different to the standard 8800 GTX cooler, but beneath the skin all that's happened is a slight re-design of the heat pipe to allow for better cooling, and as a result higher clock speeds; the cooler covers the whole 275mm-long PCB, unlike the GTX. The fan now sits a little higher up on the cooler to allow for better channelling of the air, as does the new front end. It's also quieter than the original. Sitting just behind the fan are the two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors.
The Ultra comes with two dual-linked DVI ports on the back plate, though only supporting HDCP over a single link, but it's not as bad as it sounds since it still supports 1080p, even with just the single link.
PNY's take on the 8800 Ultra is to use the reference design all the way, indeed the only thing that lets you know it's a PNY product is a small sticker on the fan.
Performance wise it doesn't take any prisoners. At a 1,024 x 768 resolution it gave a 3DMark05 score of 17,176, a 3DMark06 score of 12,634 and an average frame rate in F.E.A.R of 150fps. But people paying this much for a graphics card aren't going to be interested in playing at 'low' resolutions, so a better idea of its capabilities are when it's tested at resolutions of 1,280 by 1,024 and 1,600 x 1,200.
At 1,280 by 1,024 with 4x Anti-Aliasing and 4x Anisotropic Filtering it still gives over 100fps average for F.E.A.R, while at 1,600 by 1,200 with the same filtering it gives a more than playable 80fps average. Very fast and very expensive, the 8800 Ultra gives Nvidia even more of an edge over the opposition.
Verdict
If your wallet can stretch to it and it will fit into your case, you'll have the fastest single-card graphics solution around, more than enough to take on most at LAN parties. If you can afford two in an SLI setup, you'll be the envy of many.
Company: PNY
Contact: 01784 225 700
