games only have 3 levels of settings 128mb 256mb and 512mb (openGl based games i think you can pass an command that will make it use more then 512mb framebuffer)

like on my 8800 GTX on ET:QW it fully states i have 756mb when i alt tab back into the game but says somthing like 512mb is going to be used

so the games need optimizing to use more then there is mroe then 512 Real framebuffer
(also SLI is Not 512+512 = 1gb same goes for the 3870 X2 its an 512mb card not 1gb it can Only use 512mb framebuffer)

It would have been nice for you to prove your statement:
"There is no speed gain from 1 gigabyte of graphics memory. The performance growth of the Bliss 8800 GT 1204MB GS over the reference card is due to the increased frequencies.".
You could have shown at least one benchmark with the reference 512MB 8800GT clocked at the same speed as the Gainward 8800GT. It seems a little wreckless to make statements/claims like that without a benchmark to prove it.

Yet another old review... with old drivers and old cards.
With ATI Catalyst 7.12 and no X2, not that Catalyst 7.12 would be much use with the x2! It just shows how old this review is.

Why did you use only 2GB of RAM?
This helps 1GB card becouse 4 GB limit means that you couldn't use more than 3GB while systems cards with 512 MB can use a little more RAM.
Also maybe some games could use more than 2GB. Big flaw in article IMHO.

Another great review. I love that you use such a wide variety of great games, but I wish you'd consider adding a section on your subjective opinion, you just to let us know you did actually play games with it, and not just benchmark.

All I can do is LOL at the fact you guys didnt include the 3870x2. What a bunch of "NOOBS"

"sound-over-HDMI"

HDMI supports much better sound formats than this 'Dolby Digital is good enough for anyone' approach.

Let's hope that these transitional acrobatics are no longer necessary within a year.

Any of you think the 8800GS is a decent card and worth picking up? All the other 8800 cards are a little over priced IMO.

RE Crysis: "Perhaps 1GB of graphics memory would be helpful if we tested the cards with enabled FSAA."

Well, I wish you had, so we could see even relative differences - playable or not.

Still, of course, we appreciate your work and what it does show us.

Thanks,
Arbie

Could somebody confirm my post #4 or say that I'm an idiot. ;) Becouse I kind of think that it(2GB RAM) is a big deal.

It's a shame that you didn't mention the HD3870 run AAA in SuperSampling mode, since the switch for MultiSampling is broken with newer drivers.

ATI cards running AAA at SuperSampling has no chance against NVidia using MultiSampling and therefore the HD3870 looks worse than it is in this review.

Ok, where's an 8800GTS with 1 GB of memory? There are quite a few manufacturers now offering the GT version with 1GB but for some reason nobody has dared to do it for a new GTS (now 2 months old). They started doing it for GT cards no later than 1 month after it was released (Palit was one of the first, IIRC). The guy who sells that new GTS with 1 GB will be the best seller, no doubt.. but why are they not doing it yet???

My theory is that Nvidia made it clear to them that they had no permission to do that with GTS G92 cards, since Nvidia has plans to release a *slightly* faster 9800GTX card based on a very similar G92 chip. 1GB of memory is pretty much guaranteed, perhaps with a 512-bit interface this time. And I think that DX10.1 support will also be incorporated, thus meriting a jump from the 8-series generation to the 9-series. Regarding 512-bit memory--Nvidia seems to be more interested in saving money by avoiding super-high-speed memory and using 512-bit instead (note: still no GDDR4 support predicted yet!). The 8800 Ultra used 2.2 GHz-rated GDDR3 memory, but only because Nvidia knew they could sell it at $649 a pop with that awesome feature: "100GB/s bandwidth at 768-bit interface".

Guys, those G92 cards are severely crippled, and Nvidia knows it. Only 16 ROP's, come on guys! Nvidia is actually delaying their next-gen cards because their G92 cards are selling like hot cakes. Of course I do appreciate the low prices, but that is only because of the 38xx cards from ATi. We need to start playing that "hard-to-get" game with Nvidia and they will start listening to us more. I mean, hey, it's not so hard to just slap on 1GB of 2.6GHz GDDR4 memory onto that 8800GTS G92 card.. if Nvidia would let Gainward or Evga do it themselves.

Nvidia just doesn't want to lose any thunder for its upcoming 9800GTX card that is supposed to be ONLY 30% faster than an 8800GTX (not the Ultra)!!! That's all??? Yeah, that's perfectly understandable, Nvidia.. with what you're doing right now.

I would like to see the testresults of 2 of these cards in SLI compared to the 9800x2
(maybe the GPU is this way not the limiter of the card(s) and can take more advantage of the extra memory)