NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS Refresh: Asus and XFX

 

Before we concluded our testing, we also spent some time overclocking the new GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB cards using the GPU core and memory clock frequency sliders available withing NVIDIA's Forceware drivers when nTune is installed.  We found that both the XFX and Asus cards overclocked to similar levels, so we've included only one overclocked result here.  And please keep in mind, your mileage may vary.


Overclocking the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB

Gotta Love 'Free' Performance

 
To find the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB card's peak core and memory frequencies, we slowly raised their respective sliders until we begun to see visual artifacts on-screen while running a game or benchmark, or until our test system was no longer stable.  In this particular case, we never saw any artifacts, but the test system would freeze almost immediately after launching a game.


 
GeForce 8800 GTS Overclock - GPU=802MHz, Memory=1104MHz (2.2GHz DDR)



  
GeForce 8800 GTS Overclock - GPU=802MHz, Memory=1104MHz (2.2GHz DDR)

The new 65nm GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB had some major overclocking headroom left in the tank.  Although NVIDIA's reference specifications call for a 650MHz GPU clock, we were able to take our sample up to just over 800MHz, with 2.2GHz memory.  While overclocked, we re-ran a couple of high resoultion benchmarks and saw some major gains.  In fact, while overclocked, the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB was the fastest card of the bunch.


Tags:  Nvidia, Asus, GeForce, XFX, GTS, force, fx, refresh, GT, id, and
Marco Chiappetta

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

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