BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS

Overclocking:

We overclocked the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS using NVIDIA's nTune software. NVIDIA has told us that it will enable overclockers to increase not only the core and memory clocks, but also the shader clocks too. However, the current driver version doesn't give the end user control of the shader clock just yet - you're left with just the standard independent core and memory clock adjustments. From what we understand, when you overclock the core using the current drivers, the shader clock increases in line with the core clock.

Instead of overclocking using the standard coolbits registry hack, NVIDIA has moved GPU overclocking into its nTune software under the "Adjust GPU Settings" tab.

The default settings for BFGTech's GeForce 8800 GTS are actually 513MHz core and 792/1584MHz memory - these are slightly different from NVIDIA's reference clocks of 500/1600MHz but without having other vendor cards in, we're not sure whether these are the same clocks as other standard-clocked GeForce 8800 GTS cards have.

We managed to get the card stable through several hours of Company of Heroes at 610MHz core and 1002MHz on the memory (2004MHz effective) with no sign of artifacting or display corruption. That's a 19% increase in core speed and a 27% increase in memory clock - if that kind of clock speed overhead holds true across all GeForce 8800 GTS cards, that's pretty incredible headroom!

Final Thoughts...

BFGTech's GeForce 8800 GTS is a fine example of an 8800 GTS that comes with a reasonable bundle and an exceptional after sales support package including 24/7 technical support and a ten year warranty (in Europe). Add that to the fact that BFGTech's card is currently one of the cheaper GeForce 8800 GTS's on the market (coming in at under £300 including VAT on Overclockers UK) and you have yourself a killer deal on a next-generation video card.

From our initial experiments, it seems that the GeForce 8800 GTS overclocks exceptionally well and there is plenty of headroom in clock speeds, making the GeForce 8800 GTS the sweetspot for most enthusiasts. In current games, the GeForce 8800 GTX really only starts to come into its own at 2560x1600 - in next-generation games, the GeForce 8800 GTX is likely to show more dominance at 1920x1200, while the 8800 GTS will still be a capable card at that resolution.

The sweetspot for widescreen monitors at the moment is 1680x1050 and from our initial testing with GeForce 8800 GTS at this resolution, it's incredibly well suited to playing today's games with lots of anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. In the future, we reckon that a 1680x1050 screen and a GeForce 8800 GTS will be a match made in heaven for playing next-generation games at a decent widescreen resolution with high levels of detail enabled.

I actually believe that the GeForce 8800 GTS is a better deal than the 8800 GTX if you're playing games at resolutions up to 1920x1200. For those wanting to play at 2560x1600, you're going to need one or two GeForce 8800 GTX's for the best experience possible.