Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT graphics chip

Nvidia's bang-for-buck winner?

By Leo Waldock • Get more from this author

12th November 2007 12:10 GMT

Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT

Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT hits the streets with the promise of more graphics power at a lower price...

Suggested Price:: £188 (Asus) £176 (MSI)
Online Price:: from £209.35 — 1 sellers [Click for details]
More info:: Asus' EN8800GT page and MSI's NX8800GT page

Rating

Review Nvidia’s new 'G92' graphics chip is based on the 'G80' used in the GTS, GTX and Ultra versions of the GeForce 8800, and is a die-shrink that moves from the part from its predecessors' 90nm fabrication process to 65nm.

There are other changes inside the chip, which gains the VP2 video engine and bitstream processor used in the junior members of the GeForce 8000 family. Fans of HD video won’t have to work their CPU quite so hard in future. Nvidia also tells us that the 8800 GT gains an AES128 encryption/decryption engine for HDCP content.

MSI NX8800GT
MSI's NX8800GT: cool runner

Thanks to the extra hardware, G92 contains more transistors than G80, with the count increasing from 681 million to 754 million.

Other new features include a move from PCI Express (PCIe) 1.1 to 2.0, and the adoption of HDCP for content copy-protection over dual-link DVI. If you have a socking great display, the dual-link connection can drive a resolution of 2560 x 1600.

In terms of the core speed, memory speed and Stream processors, the GT is positioned right between the current GTS and GTX models.

	Standard				Asus	MSI
	8800 GTS	8800 GTS	8800 GTX	8800 Ultra	8800 GT	8800 GT
Fab Process	90nm	90nm	90nm	90nm	65nm	65nm
Transistor Count	681m	681m	681m	681m	754m	754m
Core Speed	500MHz	500MHz	575MHz	612MHz	600MHz	660MHz
Memory	320MB GDDR 3	640MB GDDR 3	768MB GDDR 3	768MB GDDR 3	512MB GDDR 3	512MB GDDR 3
Memory Speed	1600MHz	1600MHz	1800MHz	2160MHz	1800MHz	1900MHz
Memory Bus	320-bit	320-bit	384-bit	384-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	64GB/s	64GB/s	86.4GB/s	103.7GB/s	57.6GB/s	60.8GB/s
Stream Processors	96	96	128	128	112	112
Shader Speed	1350MHz	1350MHz	1350MHz	1500MHz	1500MHz	1650MHz
Typical Price	£195	£259	£349	£459	£188	£176

The new GT core runs at 600MHz, which is faster than both the GTS and GTX. The GDDR 3 memory runs at the same 1800MHz as the GTX and there are 112 stream processors - more than the GTS, less than the GTX - which run at the same 1500MHz as the 8800 Ultra.

Asus EN8800GT
Asus' EN8800GT: a single-slot 8800 at last

The one notable difference with 8800 GT is a change in the memory controller. The GTS has a 320-bit controller for the 320MB or 640MB of GDDR 3 memory, while GTX uses a 384-bit controller for its 768MB of memory, but the GT employs a 256-bit controller for 512MB of memory. Despite the faster memory speed used by the GT the memory bandwidth is narrow than it is on the GTS, significantly slower than the GTX and half that of the Ultra.