FX530XT Review: Gateway Gamer Gets 8800GTX

Introduction

It seems like everyone is dancing to the tune of nVidia these days, with ATI's performance dominance a distant memory. The GeForce 8800 series has become the performance champion, in spite of a few issues with SLI mode in Windows Vista. SLI mode requires an nVidia SLI chipset, though, so what is a builder like Gateway to do with its Intel 975X chipset high-end machine?

The only option Gateway had for its non-SLI motherboard was to offer a single 8800GTX as an upgrade to its lower-cost X1950 Crossfire configuration. With so many competitors offering 8800GTX SLI sets in high-end machines, Gateway also had to moderate its prices.

The following is the closest currently-available match to the system Gateway delivered to our lab.

The starting price of $3,995 tops out here at $4,499, the added $500 comprised of a memory upgrade from 2 GB to 4 GB ($220), the HD-DVD add-in ($299), and the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer audio upgrade ($79).

We received one upgrade that's no longer listed on Gateway's site: the system above includes two ordinary 500 GB 7,200 RPM hard drives, while ours contained two 150 GB 10,000 RPM Western Digital Raptors.