NVIDIA debuts cooler, cheaper, smaller GeForce 8800 GT

Even if it's smaller, cooler, and cheaper than its higher end brethren, that unfortunately doesn't mean it's better: the formerly G92-codenamed NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT sits in the middle of the 8800-series with a single slot configuration that uses 100 Watts less power than the top of the range model, but with a lower clock speed and six less "stream processors." It's a fair bit higher spec than the GTX and GTS models though, with the same "stream processor" (what the hell are these?) clock speed as the Ultra at 1500MHz, and a memory frequency of 900MHz. It also supports PCIe 2.0 and the PureVideo HD engine which offloads H.264 encoding onto the GPU. It sells for between $199-249, and should be available within the next few days at the usual online stores.

[Sander S @ Oct 29th 2007 10:07AM]

Could it fit into a laptop?
Will it blend?

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Oct 29th 2007 10:25PM]

No it won't blend in your laptop, but it will play Doom.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140

[Shadowise @ Oct 29th 2007 10:20AM]

I'm getting one of these as soon as they are available in the UK. All I can find at the moment is one on eBay from china :((

[tekdroid @ Oct 29th 2007 10:28AM]

my last graphics card purchase was a 6600GT. A few days ago i start reading up on things for an imminent upgrade and the 'stream processors' thing had me scratching my head too. I'm sure it won't be long 'til I find out what they are tho.

Years ago there wasn't one mention of stream processors. I hope they mean better fluid dynamics :)

[JD @ Oct 29th 2007 3:49PM]

Stream Processor: What the author of this post wishes his Apple had, since they're the best thing since sliced bread.
Sorry, the apple comment may be a little much, but really now? If you just type the words "stream processor" into Wikipedia, it will take you right to the entry, and you can get the gist of it from the first 2 sentences:

Stream processing is a relatively new, yet quite successful paradigm to allow parallel processing at never-before-seen efficiency with minimal effort. In certain applications requiring massive vector operations, this can yield several orders of magnitude higher performance than a conventional CPU.

In other words: They're awesome, fast as lightning, with the right software they can be used for more traditional tasks such as folding@home, but faster than a PS3, and they're pretty power efficient, to boot. I'm doing my part to save the planet since this new card uses less juice than my current one. Which is why I just ordered mine. Now just need folding for Nvidia cards.

[tekdroid @ Oct 30th 2007 1:56PM]

the Wiki knows all, thanks JD (and others who responded).

[clondike7 @ Oct 29th 2007 10:29AM]

this card also outperforms the 8800GTS and comes damn close to outperforming the 8800GTX. and it costs about half as much as them.

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140

[Mickey Jones @ Oct 29th 2007 12:12PM]

Other sites are coming to the same conclusion:

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1210/1

(click if you dare. Very slow as of now)

[snitch @ Oct 29th 2007 10:31AM]

Why the he'll did apple ditch them, for the piece of shiet ATI, I have to say that was a bone head move right there, now Macs are Freezing like Krazy because of this and its been two months and no cure for the problem yet on new Macs. I hope someone got fire for this bone head move, am about to suckered someone on ebay with my new imac to get the older model

[Dan @ Oct 29th 2007 9:56PM]

The 2400 and 2600 series are cheap to manufacture, fanless and that neat UVD chip. nVidia is behind AMD in those categories, ergo Apple heart DAAMiT.

[dmdallas @ Oct 29th 2007 10:33AM]

Seriously, this is a tech site??? Stream processors are the "new" vertex + pixel shaders crammed together they aren't quite as powerful as either, but can be applied as is demanded so they are more efficient. You can call them unified shaders if you want, they are just NVIDIA's term for it. They've been calling them that since Feb. of this year..

[Jack @ Oct 29th 2007 10:38AM]

aye, referred to as stream processors as they are capable of physics calculations too iirc

[David @ Oct 29th 2007 10:50AM]

Yeah, that's what we've been telling for years about an apple pc. Your not in control of your own hardware!

[Chris @ Oct 29th 2007 1:59PM]

This is a Apple fan site that also reports tech news.

It's not there job to know anything or even type it into Wikipedia 2 minutes before you send it to the editor so you don't look like a tard. nope, not at all.

[Christian Martin @ Oct 29th 2007 2:15PM]

This article was written by someone who can't be arsed with those "definition" things unless it pertains to Apple.

[caramelzappa @ Oct 29th 2007 6:08PM]

Who cares, it's not like it's revolutionary like MULTITOUCH

[Jason @ Oct 29th 2007 10:38AM]

Engadget you have quite a bit wrong specs wise but whatever.....

Of interesting note, read the full review at HardOCP. It blows away the GTS's but they just got word from Nvidia that they are going to be changing the specs of the GTS's now.... WTF? So now I have to wait and see if the new and improved GTS's are better than the GT's lol.

[ToonPac @ Oct 29th 2007 11:06PM]

Since the 8800GT was announced the GTS 320MB was always going to be discontinued and the 640MB bumped up a bit spec-wise (to keep above the new 8800GT), I think it's more stream processors and something else, possibly the G92 chip.

[Lakritzator @ Oct 29th 2007 10:52AM]

"which offloads H.264 encoding onto the GPU"
Shouldn't that be "which offloads H.264 DECODING onto the GPU"???

[UKNigel @ Oct 29th 2007 5:40PM]

I hope not. It would be pretty sweet to be able to speed up those transcoding sessions with a little help from the GPU.

[Constable Odo @ Oct 29th 2007 10:54AM]

No Mac support. Pfft. I suppose that's one of the biggest drawbacks of being a Mac user. Limited choice of GPUs.

[Josh @ Oct 29th 2007 3:30PM]

they can't game anyways - just go get some quattro cards built for work.

[boe @ Oct 29th 2007 10:55AM]

Any new info on a new flagship card?

[Gerry @ Oct 29th 2007 11:01AM]

So the hierarchy is Ultra, GT, GTX, GTS?

[Tom @ Oct 29th 2007 11:12AM]

Nope. It's Ultra > GTX > GT > GTS. For now.

[Matthew Hilario @ Oct 29th 2007 11:21AM]

thanks santa.

[Arjy @ Oct 29th 2007 11:38AM]

Hmm, Might go back to making a gaming build now, this looks nice!

[Dean @ Oct 29th 2007 11:55AM]

im kinda pissed, i shelled out for a gts and the gt comes out and costs less, uses less power, performs better, and only uses 1 slot? i def got shafted.

[King724 @ Oct 29th 2007 1:01PM]

I feel your pain. I just got the GTS two weeks ago.

[peter @ Oct 29th 2007 12:03PM]

Damn it. I just bought dual 8500gt's for SLI on sale at Best Buy, and now this one comes out for only about 50 more than I paid. These bastards. Still, I think that 1 gig of total video memory will help me out some.

[Skemo @ Oct 29th 2007 1:11PM]

Cards in SLi do not pool memory, 2 512MB graphics cards in SLi still have only 512MB of usable video memory.

[sp00ks102 @ Oct 29th 2007 2:47PM]

should have bought from EVGA...they have a pretty nice step-up program and an AWESOME warranty (e.g. mine caught fire and they didn't ask any questions)

[Ken @ Oct 29th 2007 3:20PM]

Tip:

Don't buy computer hardware at Best Buy. You probably paid 40% more than you should've.

[Peter @ Oct 29th 2007 3:24PM]

No, at that point I paid less than I would have on Newegg, and even now it's the same price that Newegg lists.

[getz76 @ Oct 29th 2007 12:26PM]

Nice pricepoint. I'm stuck on a 8600GT because I have a nice, fanless card from Gigabyte. Performs about the same as my old 7900GT. Once they can get the temperatures down for a fanless version, I'm in.

[Arnie @ Oct 29th 2007 12:33PM]

Accodring to AnandTech.com there is at least one company which will come out with a fanless version. This is truly a revolutionary product at the price point. If you take the less expensive version i.e 200$ and take it in SLI the performance is even better than a single GTX which retails for about 500$ so you get something truly better performance for 100$ less.
This imo is something which AMD will have nightmares about. For people who have older gen cards this one delivers in terms of performance and power at a price more than reasonably justified. Hope the street price and availability keeps them at that rate.

[Raymond @ Oct 29th 2007 12:59PM]

I would have to disagree with this, though. Unfortunately, SLI doesn't give the full 2X power that a single card would give you.

[Arnie @ Oct 29th 2007 1:04PM]

And I will quote this article while saying of course that the power you get is of course not 2x the GT single card the performance is very much better than a single 8800GTX.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140

The card is actually pretty close to the GTX in one on one and is actually much better than the GTS card which is much more expensive(I think close to 400$).
I haven't upgraded for ever (I use a laptop) but I know this will be my next card for sure when I build my workstation.

[Jeremy K. @ Oct 29th 2007 1:01PM]

W00T! Now just come out with a low profile version and I'll buy it immediately for my slimlines. Unfortunately, I don't think this will ever happen!

[Jason @ Oct 29th 2007 1:13PM]

It's only 1 slot, how much lower do you want it to go?

[Jeremy K. @ Oct 29th 2007 1:25PM]

I want it low profile (i.e. half height) so it'll fit in my slimeline cases. C'mon... is it too much to ask? lol

[flxrms @ Oct 30th 2007 3:35AM]

Yeah i wish they also release a low profile board ..sucks to have a slimline case you only have a limited card to choose

[Ruben @ Oct 29th 2007 2:46PM]

Yes. These things are hot as it is. Your basically just asking for the impossible right now.

[Ruben @ Oct 29th 2007 2:47PM]

Yea, i understand you were joking. I was just being an ass.

[E71 @ Oct 29th 2007 8:52PM]

Only shows how sucky ATI cards are... taking up twice the width (2 slots) whilst performing worse.

[wintermute @ Oct 29th 2007 1:36PM]

Yeah - I thought this was supposed to be a tech site?? If you have no idea what a stream processor is, then maybe someone else should handle writing PC hardware news for one of the leading new technology info sites on the internet. Putting a jessica simpson "uh... what is a stream processor" makes this place seem to have uneducated people writing for it. Not that you should automatically have detailed knowledge of every piece of gear out there, but come on, go to wikipedia, type in "stream processor", spend 5 minutes learning what it is, then write the article.

Also, the first sentence seems to imply that the card isn't all that great, when in actuality you are getting about 90% or more of the performance of the very fastest $500 video cards available for less than $250. It's quite a big deal in the video card world, this is a great card at a great price.

[Justin @ Oct 29th 2007 1:41PM]

"Also, the first sentence seems to imply that the card isn't all that great, when in actuality you are getting about 90% or more of the performance of the very fastest $500 video cards available for less than $250. It's quite a big deal in the video card world, this is a great card at a great price."

Even calling it quite a big deal might be an understatement. I'd call it huge, myself. I'll be in the market for a new machine in a few months, and this totally changed the directions I could go with the build.

[Sam @ Oct 29th 2007 1:51PM]

I JUST BOUGHT A GTS FOR £252 YESTERDAY AND THEN THIS?!

GAH!

BETTER PERFORMING, LESS WATTAGE, SMALLER CARD FOR £100 LESS?!?!

GAHHHHHHHHHHH

I got fucking owned.

[NightBlade @ Oct 29th 2007 2:34PM]

I feel a bit sorry for you... damn, I'd get a blackout if I was on your place.

I'm a bit pissed, too, you know. I bought a GTX 2 months ago for $600 and now THIS??

[Ruben @ Oct 29th 2007 2:50PM]

Just remember, the GTX is still better (thats what i tell myself, since the price of two of these = the GTX with alot more performance).

And i always get EVGA. They have that trade up program so you can trade in your card for its full value, and pay the difference to get another card. I wonder if it works down (because, technically, the GT is a lesser card).