Upgrade Advice: Video Cards

8800gtf.jpgIf you’re looking to give your PC a bit of a jolt in the 3D accelerator department because you can only play Crysis on “Looks like arse” mode, don’t buy anything just yet.

NVIDIA’s just released the 8800GT, which is essentially a refresh of G80, the main chip that powers the current range of GTX and GTS cards. The new hardware in the 8800GT, dubbed “G92”, comes complete with a die shrink to 65nm, which means less heat and faster clocks. In fact, the GPU and RAM run faster than the top-of-the-line GTX.

Early benchmarks show the card coming very close to the performance of the GTX, which is pretty impressive for a refresh. Price-wise, 8800GT cards will be cheaper than the GTS (and about 1/3 the cost of a GTX), making the card even more tempting a purchase. Over in the US, cards are retailing for about $US 200-250.

There’s nothing on the Oz market just yet, but give it a few weeks and they should start appearing.

UPDATE: Scratch that, a few eagle-eyed readers have spotted stock in the following places:
PLE
Aus PC Market

Going rate seems to be $350-400, which reeks of that awesome kind of madness.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters [AnandTech]

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