8800GTS - EVGA, MSI and Gainward
Author: Luka Rakamaric
Date: 05 Dec 2006

Today we take a look at the second card launched together with the 8800GTX, which received a lot less attention in the media. It?s the GTX?s smaller brother, the 8800GTS. We won?t be going into architectural details of the card in this review, as you can read all the information in our technology preview of the G80 chip here.

Since the GTS is a cut down version of the GTX, it is only logical that we start with the things we lost on this model. The GTS has only 96 unified shaders, compared to the 128 of the GTX. This calls for a theoretical 25% drop in performance, and we will later see if that is the case. The amount of available memory also came down a notch. The GTS has a total of 640 MB of memory, an unusual amount in the computer world, but it all checks out: 64 MB chips times 10. It also means that the bandwidth is lower, 32 bits times 10 equals 320 bits, compared to the 384 of the GTX. The memory frequency remained the same at 900 MHz. Since NVIDIA uses G80 chips that can?t work in the GTX in this model, it is only natural that they reduced the frequency of the GPU as well. It is now 1.2 GHz for the SPs (simple processors), and 500 MHz for the rest of the chip.

The card itself is smaller than the GTX, but still uses the same heatsink. This provides for a silent and cool operation, as the cooler is designed for the stronger model that produces more heat. The other significant differences include only one SLI connector, so there will be "impending future enhancements" on the GTS card. The decreased power requirements also removed the need for the second PCI-E power connector. The one remaining is now placed "in the old place", because the card is shorter than the GTX. Having had the distinct pleasure of testing and re-testing these cards for quite awhile now, we can say that we're really pleasantly surprised with them, especially the fact that they're not noisy as hell and overhiting like a nuclear plant.