EVGA 8800GTS 320MB ACS3
Author: Luka Rakamaric
Date: 28 Feb 2007

Today we take a look at the EVGA?s version of the 8800GTS card with 320MB of memory, called ACS3. ACS stands for Advanced Cooling Solution, and the reason becomes apparent as soon as we take the card out of the box. The card is much heavier than the original 8800 GTS, and has a massive panel on the back of the card. The standard sticker on the GTS cooler has been replaced with a kind of a shell that envelops the whole card from the monitor to the power connector. The exhaust holes are now shaped as the E in EVGA, and the whole package gives the card a powerful look. However, from the cooling performance viewpoint, aside from the backpanel, the cooler doesn?t bring anything new into play.NVIDIA series 8800 was introduced with great media coverage, as it is the first architecture to support DirectX 10, as well as a completely different so-called unified shader architecture. Aside from the need for massive cooling solutions, the cards had one major flaw, their price. The 8800GTS 320 MB is positioned to fill the gap between the flagship cards and the midrange level. The only difference is the reduced frame buffer size, which brings a drop in price of around $100 or ?100.

As with all ACS3 products, this one comes factory overclocked. While NVIDIA recommends 500/800 MHz for 8800GTS, EVGA decided to push the cards to 580/850 Mhz. It is an increase of 16% in GPU clock, and 6,25 % in memory clock. To keep the price as low as possible and to allow the customer to choose his own games, the card has no game bundle, which is an approach we welcome with open arms. As we have seen at the 320 MB version launch, there is no significant difference to the original GTS with 640 MB of memory except on the highest resolutions and/or eyecandy settings. The ?100 price difference very well compensates for that small fall in performance.

We used our standard testing system:
- Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700
- EVGA nForce680i SLI motherboard
- Western Digital RaptorX 150 GB
- OCZ GameXstream 850W
- OCZ Platinum XTC PC2-8000 memory