Graphics: Two Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT
Recent price drops have put an SLI configuration of two 8800 GT graphics cards within our grasp, but not just any model would do. While most brands follow NVidia’s reference design, Gigabyte created its own card with a few key changes.
Rather than use the big circuit board from the 8800 GTS 256 or 512, Gigabyte’s design is shorter, with a different voltage regulator that the company claims is good for both reduced power consumption and heat. We’re not sure how much truth is behind those claims, but we do know that Gigabyte’s highest-speed model is quite a bit faster than the standard parts.
With a graphics processor clock of 700 MHz, Gigabyte’s model GV-NX88T512HPV1 comes clocked a full 16.7 % faster than most 8800 GT models, and is often comparable in performance to the 8800 GTS 512 models of other brands. Keeping it cool is a custom oversized sink and fan supplied by Zalman.
Gigabyte only raises the memory data rate from 1800 to 1840 MHz, but the chips it uses are rated at GDDR3-2000. This should leave us a little extra maneuverability in the overclocking competition, but we’re not yet certain how much farther the pre-overclocked GPU will go. We’re hoping that the improved voltage regulator will provide a pleasant surprise.
At $188 per card the GV-NX88T512HPV1 is far from the cheapest 8800 GT model we could find, but value hunters will appreciate the $30 per-card rebate. We assumed a “hard limit” to the amount of cash we could put aside for our system, without borrowing money against rebates, and used the total price before rebates to calculate our total system cost.
