Customer Reviews

EVGA 512-P3-N802-AR e-GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB DDR3 Superclocked Edition PCI-Express Graphics Card

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I chose this card over the GeForce 9600 GT because, according to Tom's Hardware site, the 8800 GT has more raw power and performs about 10-12% faster. The two cards are comparably priced. The 8800 GT works out-of-the-box. I used the drivers from the CD and had no problems in Vista 32-bit & 64-bit versions. No crashes.

The computer I bought this Graphics Card for is a great fast computer with a 30 inch monitor (2560 x 1600 native resolution). The only thing the computer was lacking on was its original graphics card, an 8500 GT.
Games Half-life 2 and BioShock, among others, were almost unplayable at the monitor's native resolution. The games would stagger and many times it would literally be a whole second between screen refreshes. (Yes, I love putting those game settings on high, and why not? The computer is fast has a lot of memory and terabytes of storage space. It just came with a video card that did not match its performance.) So needless to say I had to down the game settings to a quarter of the monitors resolution to 1280x800 to get the games to play well.
With the beautiful and delightful, and did I mention low cost when compared to other cards of only slightly better performance, GeForce 8800 GT everything is just perfect. All the games now play at 2560x1600 resolution and with an incredible frame rate. The lighting effects and texture mapping are way better as well. I can see this clearly because my son and I play the games together and I cheat and always look at his monitor. What's on my monitor in the same map looks incredible compared to his. By the way even with me cheating and looking at his monitor he always does better than me and manages to get me anyway.

Well anyway, it was easy to install. But regardless of what the instructions say, and they say that the secondary power input is optional and is only recommended, definitely attach the secondary power input. When I first installed the card without the secondary power source I got a nice funny sounding beep from the motherboard and then nothing. Again, I thought the power from the video card slot alone would be enough, I mean the 8500 GT used only that. Well I than pulled those extra power cables that they always cram together in the computer case in some inconvenient location that barely reaches, and I actually got it to just reach the video card power input. After that everything was perfect.
Summary
The card is great, fast and a great price. Well worth it if you have a large high resolution monitor, do 3D work or just play high end video games. .NVidia's web site told me just how much faster graphics rendering I could expect over the other graphics card that I had

Make sure you attach the power cable when you install and don't just rely on the power from the video card slot. Check your computer first and make sure you have one that will reach to where the video card will be. If you don't have it, get the cables before you are ready to install.

You are probably well aware that the PCIe revolution now replaces the AGP. With this card and with the release of the Intel q6600 there is very good reason to just build a new PC from the ground up with these revolutionary components. You will probably need to do that if you want to play the latest dx10 games on high settings.

Since my Nvidia TNT2 days I decided to try ATI, especially for the Half-Life 2 experience. I got the ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256 MB card which lasted since 2004 until 2008. I replaced it with an ATI Radeon 9550 because the 9800 pro was prone to overheating problems and the technology is very sensitive, plus the fan is not good quality (mine fused to the metal box which sits over the card to cool it). I never overclocked. Anyway I did it mainly for the ATI experience. Frankly though I think I should have stuck with the Nvidia because I had no problem with the TNT2. However the first Nvidia 8800 I picked up was damaged and I had to replace it. The second one I got I had no problems with. This is just the way things are with hardware like this.

The big question is why the 8800GT and not the 8800GTS? The answer is that the GTS costs more money and the increase in quality may not be worth paying that much extra for. If you have money to spend then I am sure that the 8800GTS in SLI and overclocking the whole sweet system will beat anything else out there, but for those who just want a working system with a nice 8800 card will be looking to the 8800GT and it is a solid bet. The only question is why 512MB and not something larger? Well 512MB cards are considered the standard for high end gaming and cards promoting larger memory are very expensive. It is up to you but again the GeForce 8800GT 512MB is for those who want to buy a high end dx10 card without digging too deep.

Installing may not be that easy. I noticed with the Intel DP35DP Motherboard designed for the q6600 that it was a tight fit with some memory millimetres away from the wiring with some cards in the PCI-e slot, so get the memory in before the video card. Other than that, PCIe slotting is simple. The driver comes with a CD so just install it and if the card is working you are ready to play. Personally I will not be updating the driver unless absolutely necessary because with the ATI and the latest Catalyst versions (7) I had a problematic experience with driver updates. Personally, with the ATI, I will never risk driver updates with the 9550 card. Nvidia might be different but again with the experience I have I think sticking with the CD until the very end of this card's lifespan is what I will do.

While I could not play Crysis on maxed out settings with the q6600 and this card, I just lowered one or two settings and everything was smooth, but this is to be expected because Crysis was developed for maxing out on systems that are yet to arrive (or else SLI). Still Crysis on near max settings will blow you away and this is what you get with this type of rig. Bioshock can be maxed out on it. That's all you really need to know. Once you can play Crysis on near max settings you can run anything else that is out there or will be arriving over the next few years.

This is also a HDMI card. While there is a VGA/HDMI adaptor know that it is built for HDMI. Also it is a nightmare if you setup your card on a television and then forget to change it back for use with a monitor. So learn a lesson well about these monitor/television compatible cards. Make sure to change the Display Properties to whichever type you are using next because if you don't then you will not see anything and thus can not change it back unless you use the last source type again.

The 8800 doesn't make much noise. It sounds less than a 50cfm fan in your box. You do not need a very good environmental setup to keep this card cool so automatically it shines in that department because overheating is always an issue with high end cards. However a 400W PSU or better is recommended.

So if you have the kind of rig mentioned above, or something similar, and are looking to run the top end games released between 2008 and the next four years the 8800GT will do just that but there is one last word of caution and this will make or break getting a dx10 card for you. Dx10 is not available with Windows XP. It is only available with Vista. So you need Vista if you want the dx10 experience and if you don't want Vista and are happy with a dx9 experience then you may want to rethink buying a dx10 card.

This is VISTA compatible and can run Aero. You can overclock it but most people just want a system that works, doesn't overheat, doesn't explode and doesn't give headaches. This might just be that card and four years after Half-Life 2 and the 256MB series that supported it now is the time to make that jump in video card technology.

Pros:
Play Crysis
It is the 8800 series
It looks great
Plays high end games on max settings
Doesn't overheat easily
Nvidia

Cons:
Some bad cards are floating around
Really needs a brand new rig

I got this card because I came to the conclusion that it's the best entry card out there and a good bang for the buck. It's powerful enough to play pretty much everything on its own, it supports DirectX10, but it's also not so crazily priced as some of the new ones that have come out. I've been using it with Oblivion, X3: Reunion, Overlord and C&C3 and the performance on all of those is excellent. Also it's SLI compliant, so if you have an SLI motherboard, down the road when the games suck up even more juice and it's not cutting the cheese you can plug another one in. By that time the price should be a lot cheaper so adding a new one won't be a big deal.

compared to my old card, the 256mb 8600gts, the 512mb 88000gt oc is like night and day... i am amazed at how much faster my frame rates are, as well the clarity and smoothness of the graphics is great, and i am even seeing special effects that the other card could not produce... i highly recommend this card.. if i could run sli i would buy another one for it!

Even though at the time i bought this card it was a Little bit overpriced, it was worth every penny. You have to take in to consideration the fact that this particular card runs very hot (70°-90° without proper cooling), and the factory settings will not modulate the fan right even with the latest drivers. It plays all the games with very high settings, but it has its exception's like Crysis, World in Conflict, etc.
Finally vie had it for almost 5 months now and I enjoy it very much. For all of yo looking for a good card at an incredible price this is a safe bet. I've had no issues so far.
Some things about the card:
Its big, make sure you have appropriate space
When fan is after 80% it's noisy
It's hot, I know I've said it but trust me it is
It gets Vista 5.9 (obviously) Rating.
Buy it if you have the doubt.

Amazon delivers again with the best price, this time it was for the 8800GT superclock! This GPU is a beast! This is an A+ product, Plug and PLAY!

this VGA is just awsome. my last one was a 7600GT and the power increase was just non-sense. if you want a mid-range card, with a huge power increase this is THE ONE.

This a excelent video card runs almost every game with high fps. Runs a little hot you have adjust the fan yourself and have a good case ventilation.

Well, its a great card for the value, I was able to play every single game at maximum without problem (whit the help oh my core Athlon FX 6400 black edition) BUT.. for some reason I don't know... my vid card just stop working... I just had order another one,and I will try to fix the old one... overall its a great card.