Asus EN8800GTS 320MB

Name: Asus EN8800GTS 320MB - Page 2
Brand: Asus

by Marco Chiappetta — Friday, April 06, 2007, 10:00 AM EDT

The GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB shares many of the same features as the 8800 GTX, but the two cards physically differ in a number of ways. For one, the 8800 GTS is built upon a shorter 9" PCB. GTS cards also requires less power; NVIDIA recommends a 400W PSU that can supply 26A on its 12V rails. As such the GTS has only one 6-Pin PCI Express power receptacle, whereas the more powerful GTX has two. The GTS also has only a single SLI edge connector, so at some point in the future the GTX is likely to offer a few additional features when running in SLI mode.

What you see pictured above is Asus' take on the 320MB GeForce 8800 GTS, the aptly named EN8800GTS/HTDP/320M. Underneath the card's cooler, which is identical to the one used on other GTS cards save for the custom Asus decal, lies a G80 GPU clocked at 513MHz and 320MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1584MHz. Please note that the 320MB GTS has the same 96 stream processors enabled in the GPU as the 640MB cards, and its memory has the same 320-bit interface. The GTX, however, has 128 stream processors and a 384-bit memory interface. The 320-bit memory interface means the GTS is outfitted with 10, 32-bit DRAMs. The PCB does have pads for 12, however. So, there is a possibility that future, unannounced GeForce 8800 series cards with 384-bit memory interfaces may use this PCB design.

Like other GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB cards, Asus' EN8800 GTS features a pair of dual-link DVI outputs and an HD/TV video output. The cooler is two-slots wide, with a barrel fan that sucks air in from within the system, and exhausts it out of the case through vents in its mounting bracket. The fan is variable speed and will spin up or down based on the temperature of the GPU. We found it to be relatively quiet most of the time, because it rarely spun up to full speed, even after an extended benchmark session.

Tags: Asus, GTS, N8, 320, GT

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com