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Two 8800 Ultra cards in SLI at DailyTech
NVIDIA GeForce: Return of the Ultra

NVIDIA today pulled the wraps off its ultra high-end GeForce 8800 Ultra, its fourth G80-based graphics card. NVIDIA has taken its run-of-the-mill GeForce 8800 GTX and raised the core, memory and shader clocks, for an infusion of performance. The latest GeForce 8800 Ultra kicks performance into overdrive with a new revision of the G80 core as well. It also marks the revitalization of NVIDIA’s Ultra suffix, which spent the last generation locked away in NVIDIA nomenclature purgatory.

NVIDIA’s new flagship graphics card features a G80 GPU clocked at 612 MHz, a mild increase from the GeForce 8800 GTX’s 576 MHz. The 612 MHz G80 GPU pairs with 2.16 GHz memory, up 360 MHz from the GeForce 8800 GTX’s 1.8 GHz. Aside from subtle clock speed increases, there is still 768MB of video memory attached via 384-bit wide memory bus. NVIDIA has raised the shader clock speeds by 150 MHz to 1.5 GHz as well. A new cooler spanning the entire length of the card also joins the list of upgrades.

Despite previously hard launching the GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS last November, the GeForce 8800 Ultra will not hit stores until May 15. AMD expects to introduce its long-awaited ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT around the same time. NVIDIA maintains its performance crown with the GeForce 8800 Ultra.

“The definitive gaming platform is built around the fastest components available and today there is no disputing those components include the GeForce 8800 Ultra GPU and an NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI-ready motherboard,” Ujesh Desai, general manager of desktop GPUs, said. “The graphics industry evolves extremely quickly and it is quite an achievement when you can leapfrog your own performance milestones in succession like we have done with these GeForce 8 Series GPUs.”

Expect GeForce 8800 Ultra based cards to hit stores on May 15 from NVIDIA launch partners. NVIDIA launch partners include ASUS, BFG Tech, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision, Leadtek, MSI, PNY, Point of View, Sparkle and XFX. Pricing for the ultra high-end GeForce 8800 Ultra starts at $829, according to NVIDIA.

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Review at AT
By Puddleglum1 on 5/2/2007 5:11:51 PM , Rating: 5
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2979
quote:
Often, when reviewing hardware, it is difficult to draw a hard line and state with total confidence that our conclusions are the only logical ones that can be drawn from the facts. We try very hard to eliminate personal opinion from our reviews and provide readers with enough information to form their own educated opinions. We try to point out the downsides of the best products out there, as well as the niche uses for which otherwise disappointing hardware might shine. So often our job is about balance and temperance.

But not this time: The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra is an utter waste of money.




RE: Review at AT
By jlanders646 on 5/2/2007 5:19:40 PM , Rating: 2
from reading the article in the above post, I agree. This does look like a waste of money.


RE: Review at AT
By therealnickdanger on 5/2/2007 5:29:46 PM , Rating: 5
While I certainly agree with their analysis, part of me has trouble taking reviews of DX10 hardware too intensely. Naturally, the games we all play are DX9, so those numbers are very important, but we really have no idea yet how real-world and synthetic DX9 benchmarks will translate into DX10 numbers. I'm sure 10% gains in DX9 will be reflected in DX10, but we don't know.

We need R600, 3DMark2007, Crysis, and a G80 re-spin and shrink to get a fair playing field, I think.


RE: Review at AT
By Shining Arcanine on 5/2/07, Rating: 0
RE: Review at AT
By Shining Arcanine on 5/2/2007 6:11:46 PM , Rating: 2
I made a slight typo. I typed 7800 Ultra and 7800 GTX when I meant 8800 Ultra and 8800 GTX, respectively.


RE: Review at AT
By Puddleglum1 on 5/2/2007 6:31:57 PM , Rating: 3
I don't believe the CPU bottleneck is as severe as you deducted.

From the review, the Ultra is running:
Core Clock: 612 MHz
Memory Clock: 2160 MHz;

the EVGA GTX AC3 (Overclocked):
Core Clock: 626 MHz
Memory Clock: 2000 MHz.

Those figures look pretty similar to me, which is why the benchmarks are so similar. I would wait until there is an 8800 Ultra review that tests how well it overclocks.


what a waste of money
By nkumar2 on 5/2/2007 5:35:25 PM , Rating: 5
seriously i loved bragging about my gaming rig, but this is just meaningless, and utter bulls**t. i dont care how much money i have, now it seems that nvidia just wants to rape the enthusiast crowd. 829 common, instead of lowering the price on gtx they are just bringing this in their lineup as an excuse to not lower the price of 8800gtx, i am sure they have already made up their profits. i cant believe how bad this profit game is getting too, specially nvidia, 829 i dont care if they are in 100's of quantity, there is just no way to justify this price, i will switchting to ati, as soon as the r600 launches, i dotn care if i get 10 frames less than nvidia, i just hate the way they are pricing thier items, and taking advantage of the same consumers that have bought g80 series open heartly. its just bull crap.




RE: what a waste of money
By Ajax9000 on 5/2/2007 8:23:25 PM , Rating: 5
rape is non-consensual

Nvidia isn't forcing anyone to buy this product. If you don't like it, don't get it.

Nvidia's primary stakeholders are the shareholders, if they can pay a higher dividend but parting fools from their money they will do so -- thousands of companies do it.

That being said, many "mass market" companies have crippled themselves by moving to selling mainly high-margin goods and services (as opposed to niche players -- e.g. B&O in HiFi). If Nvidia does too much of this they could end up going the way of SGI.


RE: what a waste of money
By mars777 on 5/3/2007 3:39:17 AM , Rating: 5
Ok how about:

Nvidia if forcing enthusiasts to rape themselves? :D


Ultra DX10 Performance ....or Not
By dandres87 on 5/2/2007 8:22:50 PM , Rating: 1
Man, you can crank up the highest frames on the latest DX10 games with this card, AMD cant touch it. Oh wait, there is still not a single DX10 game out, my bad. Let me put forward another statement, you can have an imperceivable difference in frames over last-gen's best, instead of 60 FPS with your 7900 you now can get 120. Oh, and did I mention even if there was a DX10 games, nVidia's Vista drivers are uber l33t . . . . . or not. (BTW, I'm not jeolous of G80 owners, I personally own an 8800 GTS)




RE: Ultra DX10 Performance ....or Not
By housecat on 5/2/2007 10:42:15 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
Man, you can crank up the highest frames on the latest DX10 games with this card, AMD cant touch it. Oh wait, there is still not a single DX10 game out, my bad. Let me put forward another statement, you can have an imperceivable difference in frames over last-gen's best, instead of 60 FPS with your 7900 you now can get 120. Oh, and did I mention even if there was a DX10 games, nVidia's Vista drivers are uber l33t . . . . . or not. (BTW, I'm not jeolous of G80 owners, I personally own an 8800 GTS)


Calling shens on the GTS ownership based on all these statements.

Heres a better statement.

Man, you can crank up the highest frames on the latest DX9 games with this card, AMD cant touch it.
Oh wait, there is still not a single DX10 game out, I still have the fastest card from either NV or AMD, my bad.

Let me put forward another statement, you can have an completely perceivable difference in frames over last-gen's best, instead of 60 FPS with your 7900 you now can get 120.
Unless you cant see the difference between 4x (or NO-X) AA and 16X in your games?
Or unplayable at 1920x1200 with game options up on a 7900, or playable on the 8800. Darn.

Oh, and did I mention even if there was a DX10 games, nVidia's Vista drivers work fine here (BTW, I'm not jeolous of G80 owners, unlike dandres87 I actually own a G80 and I've been building my own PCs since the year of his birth in his name, 1987.. so my stuff works right because I have a clue what I'm doing)


By mars777 on 5/3/2007 3:44:53 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Oh, and did I mention even if there was a DX10 games, nVidia's Vista drivers work fine here (BTW, I'm not jeolous of G80 owners, unlike dandres87 I actually own a G80 and I've been building my own PCs since the year of his birth in his name, 1987.. so my stuff works right because I have a clue what I'm doing)


You sure are a lucky man.
Half of the games i tried on Vista and the 8800 needed a dual boot XP to run without glitches or problems...


By dandres87 on 5/3/2007 12:25:08 PM , Rating: 2
I have an EVGA 8800 GTS purchased December 26th (w/ Christmas $) it came with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic etc, if you would like I could link you to my dxdiag files. What % of gamers even play above 1920x1200? Also most games dont give you an option for x16 AA because they lack for G80 support. Also, if you compare Vista G80 performance vs XP performance Vista is far from efficient. ATI's drivers on Vista actually gain frames over XP in alot of cases versus nvidia. I love my G80, dont get me wrong, but its not skittles and beer.


By dandres87 on 5/3/2007 12:29:22 PM , Rating: 2
O, and also, in response to age criticisms, last time I checked as people get older they become more tech challenged, even if slowy because they work a tech job. (My parents use a type writer just fine but always need help with Word )Last time I checked it was someone my age who hacked the Cisco switches. I know how to build and optimize a computer, please dont flame


*Yawn*
By MrBungle123 on 5/2/2007 5:08:09 PM , Rating: 2
“The graphics industry evolves extremely quickly and it is quite an achievement when you can leapfrog your own performance milestones in succession like we have done with these GeForce 8 Series GPUs.”

yeah except that higher clocked versions of the card have already been available for months now.




RE: *Yawn*
By donttrustme on 5/2/2007 5:42:27 PM , Rating: 2
May be companies might release an overclocked version of 8800 Ultra....for eg: "XFX Geforce 8800 Ultra XXX" for 950$...

I know its a bad comment.

According to Guru3d the price of Geforce 8800 Ultra will reduce to 699$ by the end of this month. Well the funny thing is that at that point of time people might already end up buying an ATi HD 2900 XTX or XT.


RE: *Yawn*
By MrBungle123 on 5/2/2007 6:24:02 PM , Rating: 3
XT maybe, XTX... not if they don't make it faster.


It is just a crown, not for us.
By Roy2001 on 5/2/2007 5:26:26 PM , Rating: 3
I don't think nVidia is expecting to sell a lot. Maybe only a few thousands. nVidia just need to keep the performance crown.




RE: It is just a crown, not for us.
By Ard on 5/2/2007 5:34:13 PM , Rating: 2
Not like they're not keeping it anyway. The Ultra is merely an insurance policy.


By Puddleglum1 on 5/2/2007 5:36:25 PM , Rating: 2
The increase is so minimal that the performance crown for some games is simply an overclocked 8800 GTX.

The performance crown is going to be more important with the 8900 series, since the 8800 line is becmoing mature by GPU architecture standards.


Tell me again...
By Vanilla Thunder on 5/2/2007 5:57:59 PM , Rating: 4
Why this card is so expensive? The benchmarks not only show minimal improvement over the GTX,they establish the fact that this card runs quite a bit slower in Vista than XP. I'm sure this is one bad ass GPU, but I just don't think the cost premium is justified, when for $350-$400 less, you could still have a kick ass card. Bleeding edge = bleeding wallet.

Vanilla




RE: Tell me again...
By xsilver on 5/2/2007 7:28:15 PM , Rating: 2
I dont think nvidia themselves expect to sell that many of these cards, its more of a "if you dont know squat and you've got $800 lying around heres a way to get rid of it"

Its like buying a Porsche and then finding out that the car mats cost $200 O.o