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| Introduction and Related Information | ||||||
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It's springtime here in the United States. The rain is pouring, the trees and flowers are blooming, and as usual NVIDIA is ready with a new product to refresh their existing high-end GPU line up. A few weeks ago we showed you the new mid-range GeForce 8600 GTS, GT and 8500 GT cards, which expanded NVIDIA's DirectX 10-compatible offerings to include products with price points ranging from $89 all the way on up to $649. But today we've got something for the hardcore enthusiasts among you, and along the way we'll have to revise the upper end of that price range a bit. Despite the fact that their main competition - AMD/ATI - hasn't launch a new product in months and that they don't have a DX10 capable part on store shelves just yet, NVIDIA saw fit to turn the screws add some more virtual horsepower to their 'Ultimate Gaming Platform'. The result is the card we'll be showcasing here today, NVIDIA's new flagship GeForce 8800 Ultra. As you'll see on the proceeding pages, not much has changed since the introduction of the GeForce 8800 GTX, but NVIDIA has made some tweaks to their high-end design to wring out more performance, while keeping the card's TDP and acoustic signature within the same general ranges. We've got lots to talk about and plenty of performance data to share, so let's jump right in and get down to business...
We've already covered the architecture and feature inherent to the NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series GPUs in previous articles, so we won't go into detail again here. To familiarize yourself with the features and capabilities of NVIDIA's GeForce 8x00 series cards, nForce chipsets, and their multi-GPU platform as whole, please take some time to peruse the articles listed below: The details and performance data in the articles listed above will give you much of the background information necessary to better understand the new GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics card we'll be showcasing here today. If you're unclear about anything on the proceeding pages, please look back to these articles for a multitude of background data related to today's subject matter. The 'NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX & GeForce 8800 GTS Launch' article in particular is loaded with information that also pertains to the new GeForce 8800 Ultra. |
| The GeForce 8800 Ultra | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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As we've already mentioned, the GeForce 8800 Ultra doesn't differ all that much from the previous flagship GeForce 8800 GTX from a feature standpoint. Their specifcation, however, differ in that the Ultra's GPU, stream processors, and memory are clocked somewhat higher. We've put together a simple chart to illustrate the main differences:
As you can see, the GeForce 8800 Ultra uses what is essentially the same GPU at the GTX, which is built using TSMC's 90nm fabrication processes. With the Ultra, however, NVIDIA has re-spun the chip to allow for higher clock speeds at a similar power budget. In comparison to the GTX, the GeForce 8800 Ultra's core GPU clock speed has been increased to 615MHz (up from 575MHz), the shader clock has also been increases to 1.5GHz, and the memory clock is up to 1.08GHz. With the increased clocks comes a higher fillrate, better shader compute performance, and of course more memory bandwidth. All of which will improve overall performance.
From a pysical standpoint, the GeForce 8800 Ultra looks almost nothing like the GeForce 8800 GTX at first glance, thanks to its redesigned cooler. Underneath the cooler, however, lies the same 10.5" PCB. Instead of the rounded cooler found on the GTX, the Ultra is equipped with a large rectangular shroud that runs the length of the card. The front edge is vented just like the GTX, but the fan is offset and rises above the edge of the PCB by about an inch. This design allows NVIDIA to use a slight larger heatsink to cool the GPU and RAM mounted to the front of the PCB. Like the GTX, the mounting plate on the Ultra is home to a pair of dual-link DVI outputs and a TV/HD video output. And along the top edge of the PCB lie the very same pair of SLI edge connectors. |
| Our Test System and 3DMark06 | ||||||||||||||
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HOW WE CONFIGURED THE TEST SYSTEMS: We tested all of the graphics cards used in this article on either an EVGA nForce 680i SLI motherboard (NVIDIA GPUs) or an Intel D975XBX2 board (ATI GPUs) powered by a Core 2 Extreme X6800 dual-core processor and 2GB of low-latency Corsair RAM. The first thing we did when configuring the test system was enter the BIOS and set all values to their default settings. Then we manually configured the memory timings and disabled any integrated peripherals that wouldn't be put to use. The hard drive was then formatted, and Windows XP Pro with SP2 and the April '07 DX9 update was installed. When the installation was complete, we then installed the latest chipset drivers available, installed all of the other drivers necessary for the rest of our components, and removed Windows Messenger from the system. Auto-Updating and System Restore were also disabled, the hard drive was defragmented, and a 1024MB permanent page file was created on the same partition as the Windows installation. Lastly, we set Windows XP's Visual Effects to "best performance," installed all of the benchmarking software, and ran the tests.
We've broken up our graphs into sections in an effort to make them easier to read. The top three data points represent the singe card configurations while the bottom represent dual-card SLI and CrossFire setups. As you can see, the GeForce 8800 Ultra put up a score roughly 700 points higher than the GTX in the single card setup, but the scores were somewhat closer in the SLI tests. The reason for this became clean as we drilled down into the results and looked at the SM 2.0 and SM 3.0 / HDR tests individually.
In dual 8800-card SLI configurations, even with a Core 2 Extreme X6800 at the heart of our test rig, 3DMark06's Shader Model 2.0 tests are CPU bound, hence the very close scores above. The Shade Model 3.0 / HDR tests, however, are more GPU bound and the new GeForce 8800 Ultra is able to pull ahread of the GTX by close to 300 points. We've also included numbers from ATI's current flagship configuration, but the aging Radeon X1950 XTX simple can't keep up with NVIDIA's current high-end offerings. |
| Half Life 2: Episode 1 | ||||||
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From this point forward, we'll have two graphs and an image on every page that contains 3D performance data. The graphs are split between standard, more common 4:3 resolutions and more taxing XHD, 16:10 resolutions. The images at the top of the page are simply to illustrate just how massive a 2560x1600 screen resolution is. As you'll see throughout this article, NVIDIA's high-end SLI configuraitons (and even single cards in some tests) are capable of perfectly playalke framerates at this high resolution, with anti-aliasing and high levels of anisotropic filtering enabled.
With a single GeForce 8800 GTX or Ultra installed, our custom Half Life 2: Episode 1 benchmark is effectively CPU bound until the resolution is increased to 2560x1600. And in the dual-card SLI configurations, the game is CPU boung regardless of resolution. Because of this, the Ultra and GTX put up similar scores, which are significantly higher than anything the Radeon can muster. |
| F.E.A.R. v1.08 | ||||||
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The new GeForce 8800 Ultra, whether running in a single card configuration or in dual-card SLI mode is about 6% - 10% faster than the GEForce 8800 GTX is usurps at the top of the NVIDIA's current GPU line-up. The performance delta is more pronounced at the higher resolutions, where the Ultras faster GPU and increases memory bandwidth come into play. |
| Quake 4 v1.4.1 | ||||||
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The GeForce 8800 Ultra was between 2% and 10% faster then the GeForce 8800 GTX in our custom Quake 4 benchmark, depending on the system configuration and resolution. The peformance delta is more pronounced at the higher resolutions, but thanks to its higher core GPU and memory clock speeds, the Ultra was obviously faster than the GTX throughout. And once again, the Radeon X1950 XTX, while capable of some decent numbers, simply couldn't compete with 8800s. |
| Prey v1.3 | ||||||
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The performance trend in our custom Prey benchmark essentially mirrors those of Quake 4 on the previous page. The new GeForce 8800 Ultra puts up the best scores regardless of resolution or system configuration. The single and dual-Radeon X1950 XTX-powered configurations performed relatively well, but once again the GeForce 8800 cards finished way out in front. |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R. v1.0001 | ||||||
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At the settings we used to benchmark S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the game's performance is heavily determined by pixel shader performance at the lower resolutions. As such, the GeForce 8800 Ultra is only marginally faster then the GeForce 8800 GTX until we hit the XHD resolutions, but it was way out in front of the Radeon X1950 XTX in every configuration. |
| Power Consumption and Noise | ||||
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We'd like to cover a few final data points before bringing this article to a close. Throughout all of our benchmarking adn testing, we monitored how much power our test system was consuming using a power meter and also took some notes regarding its noise output. Our goal was to give you all an idea as to how much power each configuration used and to explain how loud the configurations were under load. Please keep in mind that we were testing total system power consumption at the outlet here, not just the power being drawn by the video cards alone.
In a single-card configuration, the GeForce 8800 Ultra consumed only slightly more power than the GeForce 8800 GTX while idling and while under a heavly load. When we installed the second card, however, and enabled SLI-mode, the delta separating the two GeForce 8800 configurations became much more pronounced. The idle scores between the two SLI configurations weren't all that different, but under load the Ultra consumed 38 more watts. It seems the increased heat associated with the running a pair of high-end cards like these in a single system caused a larger than expected increase in power consumption. Lastly, we have some comments regarding the noise generated by the new cooler used on the GeForce 8800 Ultra. Throughout our testing, the fans on both cards spun up after only a few minutes of gaming. The noise output wasn't relatively low, however. We couldn't register a solid result on our aging sound level meter, but we can say that the 8800 Ultra is as quiet or quieter than the GTX and clearly quieter than the Radeon X1950 XTX. We definitely wouldn't categorize the fans as quiet when spun-up, but we don't think the noise output will be an issue for any gamer or enthusiast, even with a pair of card installed. |
| Our Summary and Conclusion | ||||
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Performance Summary: Throughout out entire battery of benchmarks, the new GeForce 8800 Ultra was the top performer. In every GPU bound test, whether running in a single card configuration or double-up in SLI mode, the GeForce 8800 Ultra put up the best scores regardless of game, resolution, or configuration. In general, the card is about 3% to 12% faster then the GeForce 8800 GTX and it's in another league in comparison to the aging Radeon X1950 XTX.
The GeForce 8800 Ultra represents the current pinnacle of graphics cards on the PC. From its feature set to its performance, and the NVIDIA platform on the whole, there is nothing else available right now that can match it. When NVIDIA announced their nForce 680i SLI and 8800 series cards and christened them the 'Ultimate Gaming Platform', they weren't kidding. There is no other gaming platform - including consoles - that can offer the features and performance if NVIDIA's current high-end products. The news isn't all good, however. NVIDIA has set the MSRP of the GeForce 8800 Ultra at an extremely expensive $829. Considering the price of standard GeFore 8800 GTX cards has fallen to about $550 and pre-overclocked GTX cards that will perform similarly to the reference clocked Ultra are available for a only few dollards more, the Ultra doesn't represent a good value. Of course, flagship graphics cards never represent the best value and there has never been a shortage of enthusiasts willing to ride the bleeding edge, regardless of price. Regardless, $829 is an exhorbitant amount of money to spend on graphics card. NVIDIA has also informed us that some of their partners will be offering factory-overclocked GeForce 8800 Ultra cards in the coming weeks that will push its performance even higher, but expect the performance delta that'll separate factory-overclocked Utlras from GTXs to be similar to what we've shown you here. In the end, the new GeForce 8800 Ultra is what NVIDIA intended it to be - the most powerful desktop graphics card available, bar none.
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