Product Description

The e-GeForce 8800 GT from EVGA brings you the latest in graphics card technology from Nvidia. Engineered for the enthusiast your system will be able to handle the latest games, high definition digital video, and Windows Vista with aplomb. The features of the 8800 GT Superclocked Edition 512-P3-N802-AR include the 256-bit GeForce 8800 GT(650MHz clock) chipset, 512MB of 256-bit 1 nanosecond GDDR3 memory with a 950 MHz clock with an effective rate of 1.9GHz, 1.625 GHz Shader Clock, 112 stream processors, PCI Express x16 compatibility, integrated NVIDIA TV encoder with HDTV and S-Video, Dual DVI-I connectors, 60.8 GB per second memory bandwidth, NVIDIA unified architecture with GigaThread technology, Full Microsoft DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0 support, NVIDIA SLI ready, 16x full-screen anti-aliasing, True 128-bit floating point hgh dynamic-range HDR lighting, NVIDIA Quantum Effects physics processing technology, NVIDIA PureVideo technology, OPEN GL 2.0 support, and NVIDIA ForceWare Unified Driver architecture. Built for Microsoft Windows Vista.This product comes with a lifetime warranty. Product must be registered at www.evga.com within 30 days of purchase to get the lifetime warranty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21698 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: EVGA
• Model: 512-P3-N802-AR
• Dimensions: 9.50" h x 2.88" w x 11.75" l, 1.95 pounds

Features

• PCI-Express video card with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory
• Full support for Microsoft DirectX 10.0 Shader Model 4.0
• PCI Express x16 compatibility; HDTV and S-Video, Dual DVI-I connectors
• NVIDIA SLI Technology allows two graphics cards to run simultaneously
• Built for Microsoft Windows Vista

Amazon.com Product Description
The eVGA 512-P3-N802-AR NVIDIA e-GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB PCI-E Graphics Card, Superclocked Edition is engineered specifically for the enthusiast in mind. It is designed to handle the latest games, high definition digital video, and Windows Vista with ease. The e-GeForce 8800 features a 650 MHz clock chipset, 512 MB of GDDR3 memory with an effective rate of 1.9 GHz.

This card offers full Microsoft DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0 support, PCI Express x16 compatibility, an integrated NVIDIA TV encoder with HDTV and S-Video, Dual DVI-I connectors, and 60.8 GB per second memory bandwidth. The card's NVIDIA SLI technology dramatically scales performance by allowing two graphics cards to be run in parallel, and its next-generation superscalar GPU architecture delivers up to 2x the shading power of previous generation products, taking gaming performance to extreme levels. The card is built for Microsoft Windows Vista. It measures 4.37-by-9 inches (HxL).

Customer Reviews

More power than the 9600 GT
I chose this card over the GeForce 9600 GT because, according to Tom's Hardware site, the 8800 GT has more raw power and performs about 10-12% faster. The two cards are comparably priced. The 8800 GT works out-of-the-box. I used the drivers from the CD and had no problems in Vista 32-bit & 64-bit versions. No crashes.

Very Good Graphics Card for a Great Price
The computer I bought this Graphics Card for is a great fast computer with a 30 inch monitor (2560 x 1600 native resolution). The only thing the computer was lacking on was its original graphics card, an 8500 GT.
Games Half-life 2 and BioShock, among others, were almost unplayable at the monitor's native resolution. The games would stagger and many times it would literally be a whole second between screen refreshes. (Yes, I love putting those game settings on high, and why not? The computer is fast has a lot of memory and terabytes of storage space. It just came with a video card that did not match its performance.) So needless to say I had to down the game settings to a quarter of the monitors resolution to 1280x800 to get the games to play well.
With the beautiful and delightful, and did I mention low cost when compared to other cards of only slightly better performance, GeForce 8800 GT everything is just perfect. All the games now play at 2560x1600 resolution and with an incredible frame rate. The lighting effects and texture mapping are way better as well. I can see this clearly because my son and I play the games together and I cheat and always look at his monitor. What's on my monitor in the same map looks incredible compared to his. By the way even with me cheating and looking at his monitor he always does better than me and manages to get me anyway.

Well anyway, it was easy to install. But regardless of what the instructions say, and they say that the secondary power input is optional and is only recommended, definitely attach the secondary power input. When I first installed the card without the secondary power source I got a nice funny sounding beep from the motherboard and then nothing. Again, I thought the power from the video card slot alone would be enough, I mean the 8500 GT used only that. Well I than pulled those extra power cables that they always cram together in the computer case in some inconvenient location that barely reaches, and I actually got it to just reach the video card power input. After that everything was perfect.
Summary
The card is great, fast and a great price. Well worth it if you have a large high resolution monitor, do 3D work or just play high end video games. .NVidia's web site told me just how much faster graphics rendering I could expect over the other graphics card that I had

Make sure you attach the power cable when you install and don't just rely on the power from the video card slot. Check your computer first and make sure you have one that will reach to where the video card will be. If you don't have it, get the cables before you are ready to install.

Probably the high end DirectX 10 PCIe card you want.
You are probably well aware that the PCIe revolution now replaces the AGP. With this card and with the release of the Intel q6600 there is very good reason to just build a new PC from the ground up with these revolutionary components. You will probably need to do that if you want to play the latest dx10 games on high settings.

Since my Nvidia TNT2 days I decided to try ATI, especially for the Half-Life 2 experience. I got the ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256 MB card which lasted since 2004 until 2008. I replaced it with an ATI Radeon 9550 because the 9800 pro was prone to overheating problems and the technology is very sensitive, plus the fan is not good quality (mine fused to the metal box which sits over the card to cool it). I never overclocked. Anyway I did it mainly for the ATI experience. Frankly though I think I should have stuck with the Nvidia because I had no problem with the TNT2. However the first Nvidia 8800 I picked up was damaged and I had to replace it. The second one I got I had no problems with. This is just the way things are with hardware like this.

The big question is why the 8800GT and not the 8800GTS? The answer is that the GTS costs more money and the increase in quality may not be worth paying that much extra for. If you have money to spend then I am sure that the 8800GTS in SLI and overclocking the whole sweet system will beat anything else out there, but for those who just want a working system with a nice 8800 card will be looking to the 8800GT and it is a solid bet. The only question is why 512MB and not something larger? Well 512MB cards are considered the standard for high end gaming and cards promoting larger memory are very expensive. It is up to you but again the GeForce 8800GT 512MB is for those who want to buy a high end dx10 card without digging too deep.

Installing may not be that easy. I noticed with the Intel DP35DP Motherboard designed for the q6600 that it was a tight fit with some memory millimetres away from the wiring with some cards in the PCI-e slot, so get the memory in before the video card. Other than that, PCIe slotting is simple. The driver comes with a CD so just install it and if the card is working you are ready to play. Personally I will not be updating the driver unless absolutely necessary because with the ATI and the latest Catalyst versions (7) I had a problematic experience with driver updates. Personally, with the ATI, I will never risk driver updates with the 9550 card. Nvidia might be different but again with the experience I have I think sticking with the CD until the very end of this card's lifespan is what I will do.

While I could not play Crysis on maxed out settings with the q6600 and this card, I just lowered one or two settings and everything was smooth, but this is to be expected because Crysis was developed for maxing out on systems that are yet to arrive (or else SLI). Still Crysis on near max settings will blow you away and this is what you get with this type of rig. Bioshock can be maxed out on it. That's all you really need to know. Once you can play Crysis on near max settings you can run anything else that is out there or will be arriving over the next few years.

This is also a HDMI card. While there is a VGA/HDMI adaptor know that it is built for HDMI. Also it is a nightmare if you setup your card on a television and then forget to change it back for use with a monitor. So learn a lesson well about these monitor/television compatible cards. Make sure to change the Display Properties to whichever type you are using next because if you don't then you will not see anything and thus can not change it back unless you use the last source type again.

The 8800 doesn't make much noise. It sounds less than a 50cfm fan in your box. You do not need a very good environmental setup to keep this card cool so automatically it shines in that department because overheating is always an issue with high end cards. However a 400W PSU or better is recommended.

So if you have the kind of rig mentioned above, or something similar, and are looking to run the top end games released between 2008 and the next four years the 8800GT will do just that but there is one last word of caution and this will make or break getting a dx10 card for you. Dx10 is not available with Windows XP. It is only available with Vista. So you need Vista if you want the dx10 experience and if you don't want Vista and are happy with a dx9 experience then you may want to rethink buying a dx10 card.

This is VISTA compatible and can run Aero. You can overclock it but most people just want a system that works, doesn't overheat, doesn't explode and doesn't give headaches. This might just be that card and four years after Half-Life 2 and the 256MB series that supported it now is the time to make that jump in video card technology.

Pros:
Play Crysis
It is the 8800 series
It looks great
Plays high end games on max settings
Doesn't overheat easily
Nvidia

Cons:
Some bad cards are floating around
Really needs a brand new rig