EVGA 8800GTS 640MB (w/112SPs) SSC Edition Review

DX10 Testing


PT Boats: Knights of the Sea

Russian developer Akella has released a nifty little DX10 benchmark centered around their upcoming game PT Boats: Knights of the Sea. I have to be honest with you and say that I have some reservations about including this benchmark here. Due to a bug in the software, the demo refuses to run on any graphics card with under 512MB of ram if AA is turned on. Yet, we were able to generate some numbers for the higher-end cards in our review and these numbers looked in-line with the performance I was expecting. I think this is a good exercise in showing the community the troubles some developers seem to be having with the implementation of DX10 into their games. Nonetheless, when it is running properly, this demo is nothing short of a visual masterpiece.



I have to say that I am very impressed with the performance for the EVGA 8800GTS SSC in this test. Where some cards fell flat on their faces with either low framerates (especially in the 1600x1200 test) or refused to run at all, this new 8800GTS is blazing a bright path with good performance throughout the tests.


World in Conflict



It is extremely impressive to see a sub-$400 graphics card achieving playable frame rates in World in Conflict DX10 with AA and AF turned on. While things do get a bit choppy once in a while at 1600x1200 resolution, the experience is a sensory overload with the amazing looking graphics in this game. Personally, what impressed me the most is the difference in the minimum frame rate between the 640MB GTS and everyone’s new darling; the 8800GT.


Company of Heroes



In the Company of Heroes DX10 test we see a bit of a roll reversal with the EVGA 8800GTS SSC switching places with the 8800GT 512MB when compared to the DX9 test. The scores are very close to one another but in the end, the 8800GTX stays on top and the EVGA SSC Edition comes in a close second.


Lost Planet: Extreme Condition



We are beginning to see that the extra 128MB of ram the EVGA 8800GTS has over its competitors is most certainly paying dividends. In this test the EVGA cards’ scores are very close to those of the 8800GTX which is very impressive. A little side note should be made about the slideshow the 8800GTS 320MB card presented us at 1600x1200 resolution; it was a massive disappointment.


Crysis Demo

Up until this point, I have avoided using game demos to test graphics cards. Personally, I am dead-set against it since a demo does not usually reflect the actual performance of a game once it is released. On the other hand, Crysis has so much hype swirling around it that it would be crazy for me NOT to include some benchmark numbers. In this test, the in-game benchmarking tool was used.



At Very High detail levels, the only card that presented a remotely playable experience was the 8800GTX at 1280x1024 resolution. This is by no means a fault of the graphics card architecture but rather (I hope) the lack of optimizations in the demo itself.