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eVGA GeForce 8800 GTX Video Card
Price Range
$289.00 - $450.0

- Specs • Add Your Review
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Reviewed by: Ryokucha
Updated:07-11-07
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Has no problem playing any of the latest games at max settings. DX10, plenty of memory, and super fast!
Weaknesses: Cost, requires a lot of power, may need to upgrade power supply. The card is huge!
Overall Evaluation: EVGA has a lifetime warranty, if you register the card with in the first 30 days they also cut the price of their premium RMA services, which is a nice plus, since you can get cross shipment, and pre-paid shipping services, at very reasonable cost. This card does cost a lot, but you are definitely getting what you paid for, not only a excellent product, but service to match. This card is huge, it just fits my case, but it does cover a big chunk of my mother board, which requires me to remove the card to add or remove hdds from my motherboard. Requires a lot of power, using a 520w very high grade PSU with so far no problem. More then likely I am pushing close to the limit of the PSU at full load. If you have the money to spend, this card will not disappoint. I moved from a ATI 9800 Pro and well I am just blown away, so I have nothing of like to compare against.
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Reviewed by: lou2u
Updated:06-15-07
Duration of ownership:30 Days
Strengths: 1. Best graphics engine for games. 2. Good (not great video codec decoding). 3. Low CPU utilization.
Weaknesses: 1. Video codecs are handled better by other cards. 2. IT'S HOT! a water block helps. 3. It's a power hog.
Overall Evaluation: This is an amazing graphics card. It handles complex video tasks freeing the CPU for other jobs. It handles graphics for games better than any other card at this time. It is very good at video codecs, but there are better. I added a water block because the thing is HOT. I got this card on sale for $475.00 so prices ARE falling. It is THE card for serious gamers.
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Reviewed by: outlaw88
Updated:05-21-07
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Eats DX9 games alive, performs like a champ! Very quiet. Great warranty
Weaknesses: Not a whole lot...Bottlenecked by the rest of my system. Power requirements
Overall Evaluation: For a couple years I've had the sub-top-of-the-line video cards. I had 6800gt's in SLI when they came out and then I had 7800gt's in SLI when they came out. Obviously, this card blows away any experience I've had with the lower end cards in SLI. The only downfall, which I had forseen, was that this card would be bottlenecked by the rest of my system, which it definitely is, but only in limited spots of certain games. The only times I get lower framerates are when there's a lot of physics that need to be processed which makes sense because 1. I have a 3 year old Athlon FX-55 and 2. The FX-55 is an aged out architecture and is only single core. I'm solving this problem by getting an Intel Core 2 Duo setup though. Other than that though the framerates are silky smooth with everything maxed out, the performance and quality jump was HUGE compared to my 7800gt SLI. Anyway, many complain about the size of the card (and yes it is large) but its not an issue if you have a large case (I have the Thermaltake Armor). Also, many worry when they see that the idle temps are about 60 degrees C...these are just its normal operating temperatures. The next thing is power, I did have to upgrade my power supply to ensure sufficient power was getting to the card but I needed a new power supply anyway but just something to keep in mind. Overall, I love this card and would buy it again in a heartbeat. Can't wait to see what it will do with a new rig and DX10!
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Reviewed by: Gohoos81
Updated:05-13-07
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Blistering fast, excellent DX10 support, Quieter operation than expected, exceptional product warranty (EVGA), top of the line product
Weaknesses: Requires 2 PCI-e power connectors, must upgrade PS, can run hot, takes up 2 expansion slots
Overall Evaluation: The EVGA 8800 GTX is the top of the line DX10 graphics card, and current champ as fastest card on the planet. The 8800 ultra is too expensive, and is unnecessary.However, this product can run you well into debt too, is costs a pretty penny. The EVGA warranty is exceptional, which allows you to really push this card without worrying. Their warranty covers (after speaking with tech support twice to make sure) overclocking the card. No other nVidia launch partner, even those that offer a "life time" warranty, enable you to do this. You can use coolbits to edit its registry, ati tools (suggested by nVidia tech support) or the nTune function from the nVidia drivers. This card has excellent OCing potential and allows you to change the card bios and keep the warranty, exceptional.I have two of these bad boys running in SLI on a 680i MB also from EVGA. They run much quiter than you might expect, but do suck up a lot of power. You have to have at least a 750W power supply and its suggested to have 800+ W (I am using an 850W) if you want to run more than two hard disks with your setup (I am running two Raptors in RAID 0 and two Seagates 7200.10 in RAID 0). Also, its hard to find a case to fit this bad boy, some mid sized cases cannot fit this, some won't fit this in SLI, in fact, its the rare that fits this in SLI. nVidia provides a list of cases, but some will fit these in SLI, but very tight (I got two into an Antec 900 case after reading a review from extremetech that managed to do the same thing).The drivers are not mature yet even 6 months after launch and we still have no games (as of today, but in two weeks we will) that are DX10. The games should be beautiful. This card is faster than the top of the line card JUST launched by ATI (2900 XT), which occurs tomorrow officially (available today however), with the 2900 XTX nowhere to be found.If you can afford it, and have a 1920x1200+ setup, its a must buy. an 8800 GTS is also a thought for people running 1680x1050 or less.
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Reviewed by: Inversed
Updated:04-01-07
Duration of ownership:2 Weeks
Strengths: Speed. This card is FAST. I can't wait until I can test the Full potential of this card. Also you can't go wrong with a lifetime warranty!
Weaknesses: Size, Price, and Power. This thing is huge (almost 11 inches long!) and is power hungry. Also the price tag is a bit steep.
Overall Evaluation: I was a bit worried about fitting this card into my Coolmaster Mystique case, but it was a perfect fit. You also cannot go wrong with eVGA's lifetime warranty. Even if you choose to overclock (I know i will) you are still covered. Also, the free dark messiah was a bit of a bonus. I strongly suggest making sure you have enough power for this card. REMEMBER: This card is almost 11 inches long. Meassure before receiving this card and realizing it won't even fit in your case!
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Reviewed by: goawayou
Updated:01-17-07
Duration of ownership:6 Days
Strengths: fast, Fast, FAST!
Weaknesses: Only that this card runs around 60*C when idle, and is blocking my chipset fan...which now runs a bit hotter than normal too...
Overall Evaluation: All you ever wanted was your two front teeth...after playing Pure, Crisp games at 1600x1200, with video settings MAXED out, and still having games like F.E.A.R. run averages over 100fps! It almost brought tears in my eyes. There is nothing you can do to stop this Monster of a video card. And with EVGA?s great customer service and lifetime warranty...I know that I?m covered just in case something were to go wrong! - I was just a bit surprised to notice that this card reaches 60*C when it?s idle, but in my pc case it only reaches 84*C when I?m maxing it out in games, so I can tolerate it. The only problem with that is, it also makes EVERYTHING else next to it just as hot...like my other pci cards. Make sure you have plenty of fans running in and out of your case, and if at all possible, running directly on the card in the side of your case as well. - This card is almost 11? long. So again, make sure your case is adequate. I was not so lucky, but as you can see on the pic below I had to modify the way my hard drives sit in their bays just so I?d have enough room. And yes, i will find a new way soon to make it prettier...But it still looks pretty cool! I also have a Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D motherboard...so because of where my pci-e slots are, and how BIG this card is, it sits directly on top of my chipset fan AND the ONLY sata slots I have. Again, you should MAKE SURE that this card is going to not only going to run with the hardware requirements of your pc, but also that it will PHYSICALLY fit in your case. I got lucky, but only cuz I knew how to mod a few things to make it work. - I?m running an x2 4400+, 4x512Gb OCZ ram, 4 hdds, Audigy 4 SB, ATI HDTV, GameXStream OCZ 700w PSU, etc?. and soon plan on getting a 24inch monitor. I have no doubt that when I go to play my games at 1900x1200, and when I get new games in Vista with DX10, I will have any problems or have any lag what so ever. Buy this card, it was worth it!
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Reviewed by: utphfan
Updated:01-12-07
Duration of ownership:1 Months
Strengths: the best card rightnow, fully DX10 support, lifetime warranty
Weaknesses: too HOT, eat too much power, too expensive
Overall Evaluation: It's really a monster! It's too large so you need to make sure your case can fit it at least. Besides your psu would be at least 650W to drive it. This card is too hot:idle at 60C and 70C at full load. Don't forget to register your card to get lifetime warranty. My rig:cpu: E6600 @ 3.65Ghz mobo: p5w dh psu: ocz gameXstream 700wgraphic card: evga 8800gtxram: 2g corsair pc6400pro sound:Xfi blaster
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Reviewed by: timrobocop
Updated:01-03-07
Duration of ownership:2 Days
Strengths: Impressive speed and and graphics on Direct X 9 games. Fastest Graphics card out at this date. I was unable to test Direct X 10 games at this time.
Weaknesses: Power hungrey. Uses 105 watts extra system power just by displaying the desktop image. In a game it used 125 extra watts of system power.
Overall Evaluation: Prepare to crank up the AC in the summer because you system will run warm with the power requirements of this video card. They might of designed the graphics CPU to throttle down when graphics requirements are low. Besides that I can't wait to test the card with windows Vista when it comes out.
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Reviewed by:
Updated:12-19-06
Duration of ownership:1 Months
Strengths: Fast, top of the line, great visuals, DX10
Weaknesses: Price, size, power requirements
Overall Evaluation: This is a great card that beats my SLI'd 7800 GTX's hands down, all by itself.Now the practical stuff:1. Make sure you get an nVidia certified power supply for this monster. 28 amps continuous for one card! I tried a "recommended" 650 watt power supply, but it didn't have enough juice so my motherboard got fried.2. Make sure you have a big enough case with great cooling. This card won't fit in my Antec Super LANBoy case!3. Buy from eVGA because they have the best warranties and great customer service.Get this card now. You won't be disappointed. On, and the free Dark Messiah game is fun too.
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Reviewed by: geo442
Updated:12-13-06
Duration of ownership:2 Months
Strengths: DX10, copious memory, incredible power.
Weaknesses: Size (10.5" length), requires TWO PCI-e power adapters, power consumption, drivers need work.
Overall Evaluation: When I first got this card, it took me a while to physically install it (it's huge -- 10.5" long, it barely fit in an Ultra Aluminus case which is larger than most mid-tower cases), and it needs TWO PCI-E power connectors. Then getting the drivers right was a pain (with the 8800 series drivers, NVIDIA now forces you to use the new style of drivers and you don't have the option ofhte "Classic" interface which was what I had become accustomed to. Also made it mandatory to install nTune for most any tweaking (even of the fan on the card), which is inconvenient, especially as the latest version of ntune (5.05 I believe) feels rushed out -- some menu items are labeled incorrectly, and and will not save settings across reboots, period. Anyway, after install, I noticed the GPU was *idling* at 70C -- not good. But the fan never went past 60% speed. So I did some video stresses on it -- GPU temp ran up to the mid-80's (not terrible), but the fan was *still* at 60%... And at that point I noticed all my OTHER temps in the case were skyrocketing... my chipset temp was up 9C, motherboard ambient was up 6C, and CPU (at "idle" -- or as idle as it can be during a GPU stress test) was up 5C. So the driver defaults keep the GPU operating in a somewhat sane temp range, but rather than exhaust more air out of the case, it leaves teh fan almost half-off to radiate heat within the case (and, gee, upwards right at the the CPU and NB)... To the point where I was hitting my BIOS shut-down temps. So I was needless to say unhappy until I found that nvidia has moved all their tweaks from their drivers to the nTune utility, which I had avoided before since it always interfered more than helped. but I took a deep breath and installed the newest version. forced the vidcard fan to 100% ALWAYS, and not only did the GPU temps drop (55C at idle, high 70's at stress) but it relieved a lot of the heat from the inside of the case. the motherboard tmp is still up a degree of two, and the NB chipset is up about 4C (since it's like 2 cm directly above the GPU on the 8800 on my mainboard). But CPU temp was only ~1 warmer at idle, 2-3 at load. Back to stable -- so long as you manually adjust the fan at each boot -- NVIDIA: PLEASE FIX THE NTUNE PROBLEMS!!! But with all that said, here's where the fun began. When *not* set to behave as a space heater, it's a monster of a card. On 3DMark06 (which doesn't even use the new hardware DX10 or SM4 capabilities), performance benchmarks were pretty jaw-dropping... The 8800GTX benchmarked 40% faster (adjusted for CPU speed) than the 2x 7950GT-KO 512MB cards in SLI configuration I have in the case next to it. Mind-blowing to watch it zip along at 40-50 FPS on the cranked-up 3.0 shader models in 3DMark06 (at 1920x1200 res), or to just watch rthdribl zip shaded orbs around at roughly 100FPS at the same resolution. Oh, yeah, not to mention like 300fps on UT04, etc. etc. If you can stomach the price and are not too wary of not-well-tested drivers, this is, at the time of this writing, the best single-card solution for high-end gaming, I can't say enough good about it, at least when I'm not looking at the price on my invoice!
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