Final Verdict

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With DirectX 10 titles like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 shipping later this year, gamers in the process of upgrading today have been begging for a cheaper DirectX 10 graphics card from NVIDIA. Today’s introduction of the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB finally fulfills that need, with board prices starting at the $299 price point. But does it deliver?

With today’s games, the answer is a resounding yes. In our performance testing the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB often outperformed ATI’s Radeon X1950 XTX, in some cases by double-digit margins. It was by no means an outright victory for the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB, with the Radeon outperforming the GeForce in games like F.E.A.R. and vice versa in favor of the GeForce 8800, but we were surprised at how well the GTS card performed with just 320MB of memory. Even under 8xMSAA and 16xCSAA the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB turned in respectable performance numbers.

The greatest challenge NVIDIA’s board partners will face in our opinion is the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. Due to a wave of factory overclocked 640MB GTS boards from EVGA and other manufacturers, street prices on GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB cards are falling rapidly. Right now GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB cards can already be found for prices as low as $390, and with mail-in rebate you can pick up a 640MB GTS card for around $350 from e-tailers like Newegg. That’s only $50 higher than the official MSRP for the 320MB board.

With pricing like that, you can make a strong argument that the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB is the better value, particularly since we don’t know how well the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB will perform with next-gen games like Crysis once they debut. The 320MB board runs fine now as long as you keep the resolution in check, but that could all change as more graphically-demanding games ship later this year. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all plays out once next-gen content begins to be released.

EVGA’s overclocked e-GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked 320MB is one awesome performer though. The card even outran the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB in multiple cases, despite having half the memory. If you absolutely must stick to a budget, and can’t afford to splurge a little on a 640MB GTS board, the e-GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked 320MB would make a nice alternative to some of the more mundane GeForce 8800 GTS cards. Clearly EVGA has clocked this board for performance, overclocking the graphics core, stream processors, and memory all substantially over the stock GTS speeds, and thrown in a copy of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic for good measure. This RPG was just released at the end of last year and has received fairly decent reviews. And of course, like all EVGA cards, the e-GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked 320MB features a lifetime warranty and EVGA continues to offer their Step-Up upgrade program.

With all these features, we feel EVGA’s e-GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked 320MB will definitely be one of the most sought after GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB cards. This is one 90% rating that’s well deserved.