The New and Improved "G80 Stuff"

[Cookie Monster]

Thats just for 3dmark. 3dmark isnt that important. I dont care how many 3dmarks you get as long the real world performance is great.

 

[imported_RedStar]

Originally posted by: lopri
I think the purported 700 USD for GTX is almost beyond the many buyer's tolerance. I don't see myself throwing that kind of money for this crude-looking, brute-force...."

I'm not sure what the problem is -- I have seen vid cards break the 1000$ cdn mark (rare thankfully) without all the fuss.

But, if this card performs 30% better than the best .. then 700$ is pretty decent for a 1st time release. That said, I will wait for it to hit the 500$ mark --i think.

 

[lopri]

Pre-order prices from this UK shop are encouraging. Doesn't Euro usually translate to its face value when it comes to computer hardware?

8800 GTX: 347 Euro / 408 inc. tax: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119643
8800 GTS: 267 Euro / 316 inc. tax: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119644

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: lopri
Pre-order prices from this UK shop are encouraging. Doesn't Euro usually translate to its face value when it comes to computer hardware?

8800 GTX: 347 Euro / 408 inc. tax: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119643
8800 GTS: 267 Euro / 316 inc. tax: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119644

Looks like quite reasonable prices, considering Europe always overcharges.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225

Originally posted by: lopri
Pre-order prices from this UK shop are encouraging. Doesn't Euro usually translate to its face value when it comes to computer hardware?

8800 GTX: 347 Euro / 408 inc. tax: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119643
8800 GTS: 267 Euro / 316 inc. tax: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119644

Looks like quite reasonable prices, considering Europe always overcharges.

Doh!!! Those are pounds.

$775 and $600 equivalent. $659 and $507 w/o the VAT.

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo

Originally posted by: Nightmare225

Originally posted by: lopri
Pre-order prices from this UK shop are encouraging. Doesn't Euro usually translate to its face value when it comes to computer hardware?

8800 GTX: 347 Euro / 408 inc. tax: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119643
8800 GTS: 267 Euro / 316 inc. tax: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119644

Looks like quite reasonable prices, considering Europe always overcharges.

Doh!!! Those are pounds.

$775 and $600 equivalent. $659 and $507 w/o the VAT.

If EVGA doesn't have step-up available on Launch, me and a lot of other nvidia card owners are going to be pissed.

 

[Harmattan]

[/quote]

If EVGA doesn't have step-up available on Launch, me and a lot of other nvidia card owners are going to be pissed.[/quote]

I agree wholeheartedly considering I recently picked up 2 GTO's with step up in mind. However, they won't. EVGA forum mods have been stongly suggesting that G80 will be considered "limited release" upon launch. I'd be surpised if it shows up in the program before R600 arrives. I'd still check though...

This isn't too surprising though considering desirable 7900 models just recently started appearing for Step Up.

 

[nib95]

I have a question.

Is the 8800 GTX or GTS likely to be more powerful then a 7950 GX2?
If so, I dont mind making a £30 loss to get the 8800 GTX.

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: nib95
I have a question.

Is the 8800 GTX or GTS likely to be more powerful then a 7950 GX2?
If so, I dont mind making a £30 loss to get the 8800 GTX.

20-30% more powerful based on leaked 3dMark scores. Will be more in less SLI-optimized games.

 

[nib95]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225

Originally posted by: nib95
I have a question.

Is the 8800 GTX or GTS likely to be more powerful then a 7950 GX2?
If so, I dont mind making a £30 loss to get the 8800 GTX.

20-30% more powerful based on leaked 3dMark scores. Will be more in less SLI-optimized games.

WOW.

That is a nice performance boost.

On that note, I just slapped my old card on eBay. I'm hunting for an 8800 GTX now

 

[TheRyuu]

Great, now I have more motivation to get a job

 

[gramboh]

Originally posted by: apoppin
the inq's 'latest':

G80, Geforce 8800 GTX is very CPU dependent

If you test 3Dmark06 with a 1000MHz overclocked Core 2 Quad or Duo you get 11300 marks. But when you test the same card, same test on a same non overclocked CPU at 2.66GHz the situation completely changes.

You score about 8000+ with a single card, almost identical to our score with 7950 GX2, the two GPU card. Shocking isn't it, as you'd expect more? To be fair to Nvidia's latest greatest card, the Geforce 7800 GTX scores some 5200+ in the same test so Geforce 8800 GTX is significantly faster than this single GPU card but not from the dual chip one. We are sure that this is just case for 3Dmark and that games will benefit more.

Don't say that we haven't warned you - you will need a faster CPU to push this card to its limits.

It would be nice if this was the case, then people could stop arguing that an AMD X2 3800+ overclocked is all you need for gaming

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: gramboh
It would be nice if this was the case, then people could stop arguing that an AMD X2 3800+ overclocked is all you need for gaming

Umm.. Did you see the FPS on individual game tests.. (like SM2.0/SM3.0) Sadly, the frame rates are near identical between X6800 and Q6600. The difference in total scores was more or less the result of CPU scores.

I personally think overclocked single-core A64 (preferably 1MB L2) is all you need for gaming.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
Doh!!! Those are pounds.

$775 and $600 equivalent. $659 and $507 w/o the VAT.

OMG stupid me! Thanks I stand corrected. Those prices still don't look too bad, however.

Edit: OK I'm a total idiot. Those prices are horrible indeed.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Note that there is NO such thing as VCAA. But there is such thing as Coverage Sampling AA. The new AA method is most probably called CSAA.
So you get MSAA, CSAA, SSAA.

The whole VCAA thing was made up.

 

[lopri]

Well, but honestly the point was more about what it actually does, than what the exact acronym is.. Anyway, do you have any information regarding what the CSAA is?

 

[Gstanfor]

While its good to see more MSAA modes coming up (and should quiten down those who moan about performance hits with the *xS modes), I personally hope nvidia doesn't see fit to not support *xS modes on G80, that would be very disappointing.

 

[BFG10K]

I don't think the new AA modes are like regular MSAA; if they were they would work in all games where MSAA already works, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

But yeah, if nVidia dropped the xS modes I'd be seriously thinking of upgrading to X1950 Crossfire to get the Super AA modes.

 

[Nightmare225]

FYI, one week left guys.

 

[Brahmzy]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225
FYI, one week left guys.

I hear that - I sold my gaming vid card and have nothing to game with. I need my 8800GTX now. Paypal's bloated n waiting.

 

[Cookie Monster]

From b3d:

Someone who has a G80 for testing posted some more info on a Dutch forum:

Lumenex engine supports Coverage Sampling AA with 8x, 8xQ, 16x, 16xQ. Q-modes are optimised for best IQ. Performance impact of 16xQ CSAA is comparable to 4xMSAA. AF seems to be much better compared to previous generations.

G80 is very CPU limited. It's 50 - 70% faster than a GF7900GTX at 1920x1200 with HDR + AA + AF, but barely reaches 20-30 fps more on 1280x1024.

AA performance is very good. Turning on HDR + AA in high resolutions results in an average 20fps performance drop. Note: the card reaches 100 fps in most games. Edit: make that tested games, which probably are Prey, Serious Sam, Far Cry, Fear, BF2.

The Quantum Physics engine isn't a seperate thing. Physics are done by the streamprocessors (that's why it has so many of them).

DX10 performance can not be tested yet and in DX9 applications the unified architecture works as a fixed function architecture (dedicated pixelshaders and vertex shaders).

Performance impact of 16xCSAA = 4xMSAA.

 

[Polish3d]

I'm obviously no non-enthusiast, but what the heck are you guys buying the card for (other than benchmarking)? I mean what SINGLE good game is coming out before r600 and a G80 refresh that is going to make this card useful??

UT2007, Crysis, Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, etc etc all 2007

 

[Lockout]

Originally posted by: Frackal
I'm obviously no non-enthusiast, but what the heck are you guys buying the card for (other than benchmarking)? I mean what SINGLE good game is coming out before r600 and a G80 refresh that is going to make this card useful??

UT2007, Crysis, Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, etc etc all 2007

Coming out before R600 and a G80 refresh I can't say specifically, but even a few games that are out right now could stand to run a bit more smooth IMO (Oblivion comes to mind.)

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
From b3d:

Someone who has a G80 for testing posted some more info on a Dutch forum:

Lumenex engine supports Coverage Sampling AA with 8x, 8xQ, 16x, 16xQ. Q-modes are optimised for best IQ. Performance impact of 16xQ CSAA is comparable to 4xMSAA. AF seems to be much better compared to previous generations.

G80 is very CPU limited. It's 50 - 70% faster than a GF7900GTX at 1920x1200 with HDR + AA + AF, but barely reaches 20-30 fps more on 1280x1024.

Hmm. 50-70% faster than 7900GTX at 1920x1200?? So really it's like SLI'd 7900GTX with a few more features. With a pair of 7900GTX's or X1900XT's being cheaper than the initial 8800GTX offerings, I don't see a whole lot of reason to upgrade from a performance aspect.

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
From b3d:

Someone who has a G80 for testing posted some more info on a Dutch forum:

Lumenex engine supports Coverage Sampling AA with 8x, 8xQ, 16x, 16xQ. Q-modes are optimised for best IQ. Performance impact of 16xQ CSAA is comparable to 4xMSAA. AF seems to be much better compared to previous generations.

G80 is very CPU limited. It's 50 - 70% faster than a GF7900GTX at 1920x1200 with HDR + AA + AF, but barely reaches 20-30 fps more on 1280x1024.

Hmm. 50-70% faster than 7900GTX at 1920x1200?? So really it's like SLI'd 7900GTX with a few more features. With a pair of 7900GTX's or X1900XT's being cheaper than the initial 8800GTX offerings, I don't see a whole lot of reason to upgrade from a performance aspect.

Im curious. Judging on some quick math and logic, the reviewers must have been testing some really old, non-demanding games. Because, going from 70% to "only" 30 fps more on a game with HDR + AA + AF seems kind of impossible on a current-generation game.