Introduction

While 2006 will be remembered as the year DirectX 10 hardware first became available, 2007 will likely go down as the year DirectX 10 really began to matter for gamers.

On the software side, 2007 will see the debut of a wide range of DX10 games. Arguably the most notable of these games is Crytek’s upcoming shooter Crysis, which has drawn a considerable amount of buzz since it was first announced in early 2006. But Crysis isn’t the only DX10 game in development coming later this year, other titles include Unreal Tournament 3, Hellgate: London, and Shadowrun. In addition to these titles, existing games like Company of Heroes, EVE Online, Flight Simulator X, and Supreme Commander will also be patched later this year to take advantage of DirectX 10 graphics. Looking further, in 2008 we’ll see even more DX10 games, such as Remedy’s Alan Wake.

In other words, there’s a lot of upcoming DX10 content to be excited about, and unlike previous DirectX introductions, gamers won’t have to wait a long time before games that take advantage of the new API are available. During the DX9 transition for example, it took over 18 months after the introduction of the hardware that the first software (in the form of Far Cry) truly took advantage of DX9.

With this in mind, gamers looking to upgrade their graphics card for these games currently have three options to choose from: the GeForce 8800 GTX, GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB, and the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB.

The GeForce 8800 GTX is easily the fastest of the three GPUs. It boasts 128 stream processors, a 384-bit memory interface, and blazing clock speeds (the stream processors run at 1.35GHz while the GPU and memory run at 575MHz and 1.8GHz respectively), but carrying an MSRP well north of $500, the GeForce 8800 GTX is by no means inexpensive. That’s where the GeForce 8800 GTS cards come in.

The 8800 GTS GPU has all the key ingredients found in the GeForce 8800 GTX, only NVIDIA disables two banks of stream processors, that’s 32 shaders total. This cuts the number of functional shading units down from 128 in GeForce 8800 GTX down to 96 in GeForce 8800 GTS. NVIDIA also disables one ROP.

Clock speeds and the memory subsystem are also slightly different between the two GPUs, as the GeForce 8800 GTX core clock speed is 575MHz versus 500MHz in the GeForce 8800 GTS, while the shading units on the GTX board run at 1350MHz versus 1200MHz on the 8800 GTS. NVIDIA also uses a narrower 320-bit memory interface on the GeForce 8800 GTS with slower 1.6GHz memory.

The two GeForce 8800 GTS SKUs, the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB and the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB are identical, the only difference is obviously the amount of memory and price, with the 320MB board shipping with half the memory of the GTS 640MB and carrying an MSRP that is officially $100 lower than the 640MB GTS card. As a result, the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB can often perform just as fast as the 8800 GTS 640MB at a lower cost -- as long you avoid situations where the board’s limited memory footprint becomes a limitation (i.e. very high screen resolutions such as 2560x1600 with 4xAA/8xAF, or you have extra high texture settings selected in-game), the card should perform similarly to a GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB.

In our EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Superclocked review, we ran the 320MB GTS card under a wide variety of settings, including NVIDIA’s new CSAA modes, and found that the overclocked 320MB board could actually outperform a stock GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB card in some cases.

Armed with this knowledge, enthusiasts on a strict $300 budget are opting for the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB. The reasoning behind this is simple – why spend the extra money if you may not need it? 20” LCD users are limited to resolutions as high as 1600x1200 or 1680x1050, which is well within the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB card’s reach in most cases, especially if you game at 2xAA or no AA at all.

But which GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB card is best? In this article we’ll be taking a look at six of the leading GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB cards currently available. We’ve got boards ranging from ASUS to XFX, with popular manufacturers like BFG, EVGA, MSI, and newcomer Foxconn in between. Let’s get started shall we?

GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Comparison
Card	Graphics Core (MHz)	Stream Processors (MHz)	Memory Speed (MHz)	Warranty length
ASUS EN8800 GTS/HTDP/320M	500	1200	1600	3 years
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 320MB	580	1350	1700	Lifetime
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Superclocked	576	1350	1700	Lifetime
Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC	575	1200	1800	2 years
MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD OC	575	1350	1700	3 years
XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB XXX	580	1350	1800	Lifetime