NVIDIA launches "low-end" 320MB GeForce 8800 GTS

If you find it rather appalling that a $300 graphics card is on the budget end of things these days -- back in our day that was the price of a next-gen console, now get off our lawn! -- you might be comforted to know that NVIDIA's 320MB 8800 GTS ain't no sloucher. Sure, the 500MHz G80 core is stepped down from the 575MHz in the GTX, with the 320MB of memory falling far short of the 768MB in the GTX or even the 640MB in the beefier version of the GTS, but you're still getting a whole lot of DirectX 10 juice for your dollar, relative to the $600+ GTX and $400+ 640MB GTS. If you're still having trouble justifying the price, just google yourself a few Crysis screenshots -- there won't be any turning back. Be sure to peep the uniformly awkward OEM box art after the break.

[Via TrustedReviews]

The day when our culture advances past the point of finding high-rise undies sexy will be an important milestone for our civilization.


"With this card you too can control faceless puppet men in the holy fight against eyeball umbrellas from space attempting to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."


We're just confused here, is her hair on fire, or is there a sort of fire / hair hybrid thing going on?


What the carp is this? A hairy man? A dogmanwolfguy? We see the intelligence and danger in his eyes, but the puppy fuzz confuses us so.

[Jypson @ Feb 13th 2007 3:21PM]

Whats wrong with the box art?

[E @ Feb 13th 2007 3:54PM]

Probably cuz it doesn't have "Apple" written on it, that's what's wrong with it.

[Rohit Kapur @ Feb 13th 2007 3:25PM]

Yayyyyy... That's the second Dr. Strangelove reference I'm read on Engadget since I've started. Woo hoo!

And I think you mean "high-res undies", not "high-rise undies". :-)

[andy @ Feb 13th 2007 3:38PM]

grf cards are just getting ridiculous and unneccessary, and this is coming from a 3d animator

[Matt B @ Feb 13th 2007 3:41PM]

Until my 7800GT just can't handle things to my liking, I'm fine. The price will have dropped by time I need to upgrade too.

[hyloka @ Feb 13th 2007 4:07PM]

You need a better shot of what's in the woman in yellow's hand...can't be what it looks like at first glance.

[Ayle @ Feb 13th 2007 4:50PM]

.....It does look like a little you-kno-what......

[CowboyGA @ Feb 13th 2007 4:25PM]

Hey Matt B, when your card becomes outdated, let me have it. My 256MB 5500 card is doing fine still, I just have to run Oblivion at low graphics, but all other games are fine.

[Sizer @ Feb 13th 2007 4:27PM]

I would be just mortified to have that Albatron card in my system. If you're going to have a tacky babe ON your card it needs to be a famous tacky babe, say from Sorayama or Frazetta.

[The Monitor @ Feb 13th 2007 4:32PM]

I can unequivocally say that I am past high-rise undies

[J @ Feb 13th 2007 4:32PM]

The thing is the last picture is ManBearPig, it is real, i am super serious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manbearpig

[number40one @ Feb 13th 2007 4:38PM]

It's Manbearpig!!!!


I'm super serial...

[walk2k @ Feb 13th 2007 4:46PM]

What are the slots on the side for?

Also the XFX box art looks like the Warcraft box.

[Bill @ Feb 13th 2007 5:25PM]

The PC graphics card business is getting insane. These cards are physically huge, boast a rediculous amount of power, and require a miniature nuclear power plant to power them. The sad thing is, you NEED this much power or even much more to run the latest games smoothly with maxed-out settings. After years of upgrading, I finally bailed out of the endless (and expensive) upgrade cycle and purchased an Xbox 360. I'm SO glad I did. Now I can just play games, and enjoy very high quality graphics on a much more balanced piece of hardware. The upgrade cycle is controlled, and the games can do amazing things with a reasonable amount of relatively inexpensive hardware.

[icepop4who @ Feb 13th 2007 5:25PM]

slots on the side is for power because pci-e can't supply enough power to the beefy 8800 chipsets. the slots on the left side is for dissipating heat. 320 MB is too low for tomorrow's games. 512 should be the minimum for a high end chip, but i understand that this is a "budget" card. 8600 series should be hitting the shelves pretty soon also, so i probably will wait for that when my 7600GT expires.

[ASTROBOT @ Feb 13th 2007 5:32PM]

So how many games are running DirectX 10 at the moment? What's with this stupid highend card costing an arms and legs and can't even run under Vista properly?

[tau zero @ Feb 13th 2007 5:32PM]

I really dont care what the box art looks like, or even the fan/heatsink art.

All that matters to me is the 3D Fury that is underneath all that.

[ASTROBOT @ Feb 13th 2007 5:42PM]

I find the video cards are going the opposite and wrong route. Take a look at Intel Core 2 Duo. It's produced less heat and eat up less power. While the video card are getting bigger(eating up spaces), producing more heat and eating up more power from your PSU.

[CaptSaltyJack @ Feb 13th 2007 6:30PM]

Look at the size of these things!! Christ. I'm sticking with my 7900GT indefinitely, until this nonsense is resolved, and card manufacturers start concerning themselves with power consumption and packing more punch into a smaller surface area.

[TXman @ Feb 13th 2007 7:57PM]

Yeah i hope they can come up with some patch or some crap like that to get direct X 10 to put on my 7950 GT that I bought two months ago because there is no way in hell I am going to get rid of it rrandomly especially for this which number one has less GDDR3 memory and number two takes up more space for about the same if not less performance

[S @ Feb 13th 2007 8:48PM]

This is like, such yesterdays news!

Seriously though, wtf?! This came out yesterday, was available for purchase everywhere yesterday, reviews all came out yesterday, but it takes engadget until today to bring it up? Comon, whats up with that? ;)

[o0adam0o @ Feb 14th 2007 1:15AM]

Only half of the Chick? Bah! Ill wait for the R600 and have a full centerfold layout XD

JK im an ATI fanboy so im entitled to make make fun. ;)