Test System Setup

Processor(s): Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3GHz (333MHz x 9)

Cooling: Corsair Nautilus500 (Supplied by Corsair) with Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (Supplied by Arctic Cooling)

Motherboard(s): ASUS Blitz Extreme (Supplied by ASUS)

Memory: 2 X 1GB Corsair XMS3 DDR-3 1066MHz 7-7-7-21 (Supplied by Corsair)

Hard Disk(s): Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM SATA-2

Power Supply: SevenTeam ST 850W (Supplied by Bronet)

Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2, Windows Vista

Drivers: Catalyst 7.10, Forceware 169.01, Forceware 169.06 (8800GTS 512MB)

We would've loved to have included loads of cards for our comparison, but with limited time we just didn't get the chance. We don't have an 8800GTX on hand in the lab at the moment and hunting one down has become next to impossible with no one having any stock of the card.

What we have included though is what we believe to be a number of very important cards. There is of course the HD 2900 XT and the 8800GTS 320MB. What?! No 640MB card included you say? - Who are we kidding, the difference is so tiny that it doesn't really matter which one you use for the most part.

Next up is the new G92 based 8800GT which we looked at the other week along with the new AMD 3870 coming from ASUS.

If you're in the market for a new high-end video card you have three options; 8800GT, 3870 and of course the new 8800GTS 512MB. What's really important is which one should you buy?

With the standard array of benchmarks ranging from synthetic to real world and Windows XP to Vista we hope to be able to tell you that by the end of this review. Is the new G92 based 8800GTS worth looking at? Let's find out!

3DMark05

Version and / or Patch Used: Build 130

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark05/

Buy It Here

3DMark05 is now the second latest version in the popular 3DMark "Gamers Benchmark" series. It includes a complete set of DX9 benchmarks which tests Shader Model 2.0 and above.

For more information on the 3DMark05 benchmark, we recommend you read our preview here.

Straight away we see a good jump on the previous 8800GTS and a little lead on the 8800GT.