NVIDIA is first out of the gates with a DirectX 10 GPU, and it’s a screamer when it comes to performance. Make no mistake about it, NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTX is the fastest graphics card on the planet right now.
It’s interesting that it’s launching just days ahead of Sony’s next-gen PS3 console, which by the way, is powered by NVIDIA’s RSX GPU. All the buzz in gaming right now surrounds Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 game consoles, but the GPUs in both of these consoles ain’t got nothing on them that can’t be found in the GeForce 8800 GTX’s G80 GPU. It’s got a unified shader architecture just like Xbox 360’s Xenos GPU, and a whopping 128 shading units running at an astounding 1.35GHz! Meanwhile, the RSX GPU inside the PS3 is closer in comparison to NVIDIA’s G70/G71 GPUs found in the GeForce 7800/7900 series than GeForce 8800 GTX, and you saw how the 8800 GTX performed in comparison to NVIDIA’s previous graphics architecture in our benchmarks. It just isn’t close.
And as good as the GeForce 8800 GTX looks today, it’s going to get even better with newer, upcoming drivers. Today’s G80 driver still has some rough edges in it, for instance, we noticed strange anomalies and graphical glitches when running Oblivion with HDR+AA and NVIDIA’s still working out the kinks in Serious Sam 2 with HDR+AA as well. NVIDIA’s aware of these issues and is working hard to correct them, in fact, NVIDIA delivered a driver that they feel has fixed the Oblivion issue just in the past 48 hours, but we haven’t had a chance to test with it yet. Some of the earlier G80 drivers also didn’t scale as well with SLI.
Because of these issues, if you’re buying an 8800 card today, you’ll want to make sure that you download the latest GeForce 8800 driver off NVIDIA’s website rather than relying on the driver that ships with your card, as it’s bound to be a newer driver that resolves some issues. NVIDIA also ran into a problem with an early batch of 8800 GTX cards that had the wrong resistor value. NVIDIA and their board partners however have been working to pull cards from this batch back to be fixed and sent us this statement: Today NVIDIA announced the hard launch and immediate availability of our new flagship GeForce 8800 GPUs. Some recent reports on the web mention a BOM error (wrong resistor value) on initial GeForce 8800 GTX boards. All boards with this problem were purged from the production pipeline. Product on shelves is fully qualified and certified by NVIDIA and its board partners. We and our board partners stand behind these products and back them with our full warranty.
In our opinion, all this is par for the course in this industry. Whenever you’re dealing with an untested, next-generation product there are always bound to be issues. Normally they escape the public eye and are only an issue to reviewers and board partners, however this time things were different and word quickly spread like wildfire online. The bottom line is pretty simple: if you’re looking for all-out performance, there’s nothing faster than the GeForce 8800 GTX, it’s without a doubt the new king of the hill in 3D graphics.
The GeForce 8800 GTS does lag behind GTX pretty considerably in some tests, in fact it’s outpaced by the GeForce 7950 GX2 in some cases and the Radeon X1950 XTX came close in our testing with F.E.A.R. and Call of Duty 2, but it’s too early to say why. Perhaps NVIDIA cut down to many units in its architecture, or perhaps the driver needs a little more fine tuning. Most likely it’s some combination of the two. Considering it’s $450 MSRP is right in line with the current MSRP of the Radeon X1950 XTX, it definitely delivers a little more bang for the buck at current list prices (it remains to be seen what actual street prices will look like).
With the debut of the GeForce 8800 GTX and 8800 GTS, the GeForce 7950 GX2 and GeForce 7900 GTX will slowly go away, while the GeForce 7950 GT and 7900 GS carry over unchanged at $299 and $199 MSRP. If you’re looking for a hot deal, perhaps you may want to follow the pricing on these cards in the coming weeks. It’s beginning to look like ATI’s answer to GeForce 8800, R600, won’t debut until sometime early next year, so NVIDIA’s going to end 2006 in the same #1 performance position they held for most of last year. We’ll be looking into SLI performance next, as we’re eager to see how two GeForce 8800 cards perform together. Stay tuned…
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E Performance Review
Today marks the launch date for Intel’s Sandy Bridge-E line of processors, a new family of high-end Core i7 products based on the LGA 2011 platform. This new socket is poised to replace the existing LGA 1366 specification used by the more powerful Nehalem and Westmere parts from the past couple years, specifically Bloomfield and Gulftown, the Core i7-9xx+ line of CPUs.
With 6 cores, 15MB of cache, and support for quad-channel DDR3-1600 memory, the Core i7-3960X sounds like quite a catch. Want to know more about it and how it performs? Read on!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Review
The self-appointed "most anticipated game in history" launched worldwide this past Tuesday. Why, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, of course (of course), what else? Unsurprisingly, the military FPS debate between this and Battlefield 3 rages on, but now that both have been released, surely we can take a look and objectively evaluate them both? Luke's taken the Xbox version of MW3 for a spin this week, so to find out what he thinks of it in today's review!
Stronghold 3 Review
The latest sequel in the long-running real-time strategy franchise from FireFly Studios, Stronghold 3 is all about building your dream castle and defending it against sieging enemies. Almost exactly one decade after the first game was released, this new title promises a return to the classic and well-received gameplay that has been strayed so far from in more recent iterations. Does it live up to those expectations? Will (AKA Synchronous Failure) tells us all about it in his first official FiringSquad review, so read on!
Battlefield 3 PC Review - Single-player Impressions
One of the most highly-anticipated PC games of the year is upon us; Battlefield 3 is now available in North America! EA/DICE have finally delivered a sequel to the core Battlefield franchise, a proper follow-up to BF2. Having played through the game's single-player campaign already, ahead of the multiplayer festivities kicking off around midnight, I figured I'd share my impressions ASAP. Is it really a worthy addition to the core Battlefield series, or just another bullet point on the back of the box? Read on and find out!
Wrecked: Revenge Revisited Supersonic Software Interview
Following up on our hands-on preview from earlier this month, here's an interview with Supersonic Software, creators of Wrecked: Revenge Revisited. The game's coming out on XBLA and PSN in a matter of weeks, but for now, Luke chats with the developer about its predecessors Mashed and Micro Machines, how difficult it can be to get an indie game published, the closure of Codemasters' Guildford branch, and more!
Orcs Must Die! PC Review Orcs Must Die! is the first release from an independent developer named Robot Entertainment. Fans of classic real-time strategy games may have heard that name before, as the outfit is comprised of many veterans from Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires series.
Equal parts action and strategy, this is a tower defense game that not only puts you in command, but on the front lines of combat, as well. Slaughter thousands of orcs, ogres and other vile creatures of fantasy that invade your fortresses through 24 levels of the story-based campaign. With high levels of replayability thanks to its scoring and leaderboard functionality, multiple difficulty levels, and various styles of play, it sounds a steal at only $15. Does it deliver on all that’s promised, though? Read on and find out!
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