Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/02/nvidia_launches_8800_ultra/
It's the "world's fastest GPU", Nvidia claims, though it may not be long before AMD's ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT grabs the title from the GeForce 8800 Ultra, released today as forecast (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/19/nvidia_readies_8800_ultra/).
Actually, the Nvidia chip may even have the edge even then, if early tests of the 2900 XT and 2900 XTX (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/26/amd_radeon_2900_xtx_tested/) are anything to go by.
We'd have liked to have brought you a full review of the 8800 Ultra, but we were told Nvidia UK only has two samples, and we're not on the list. Presumably we were not considered... well, how would you decide who gets one of only two cards to test? Gamers themselves won't be able to get their hands on boards based on the chip until 15 May, apparently.
Whatever, the 8800 Ultra is said by its maker to deliver 10-15 per cent higher frame rates and benchmark scores than the 8800 GTX does. The Ultra is an overclocked GTX - both contain 128 unified shader processing units - running at 612MHz to the older part's 575MHz. Both connect to 768MB of memory across a 384-bit bus, but where the GTX's VRAM is clocked at 900MHz, the Ultra's is set at 1080MHz.
Ultra-based boards - when they eventually become available - are expected to retail for around €699 ($950/£476).
Nvidia Q1 yields big year-on-year gains (11 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/11/nvidia_results_q1_08/
BFG water-cools, overclocks Nvidia 8800 GTS card (9 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/09/bfg_water_cools_8800gts/
Nvidia takes GeForce 8M laptop GPUs on the road (9 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/09/nvidia_lauches_geforce_8m/
Nvidia targets Turion with AMD-oriented IGPs (9 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/09/nvidia_rolls_out_amd_igps/
Nvidia guns for integrated GPUs with $50 GeForce 7 board (8 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/08/nvidia_guns_for_integrated_gpu/
Nvidia whups Intel in Q1 desktop graphics (2 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/02/q1_graphics_stats/
AMD Radeon HD 2900 XTX tested on web (26 April 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/26/amd_radeon_2900_xtx_tested/
Nvidia updates multi-GPU SLI box for DirectX 10 era (25 April 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/25/nvidia_rolls_out_new_plex/
AMD to brand ATI Radeon 2000 series for HD era (13 April 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/13/amd_ati_radeon_2000_details/
Samsung shiny laptops to sport next-gen Nvidia GPU (19 March 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/19/samsung_launches_glossy_laptops/