The challenge
 The cards are out, and judgement is unanimous for once: nVidia’s 8800 GPUs currently hold the performance crown for desktop and gaming graphics, and nothing from any competitor in the near future is likely to touch them. They are graphical power behemoths, with more cores than a benchful of Playstation 3 consoles; their average size has drawn jokes, jests and jeers from the gaming public, and their heat production is being monitored by several environmentalist agencies worldwide. Being king is good, and not having to care about competition is even better.
The problem is that nVidia’s latest generation of monster cards is all about the future. There is no current or upcoming game that a high end series 7 card cannot handle, and the average series 8 card really requires dual core processing and serious megahurtz in the memory bus department in order to give its best. Is upgrading even worth considering? How about DX10? What about the future? What about the children?
In this exclusive review, we strap an ASUS 8800GTS card in a stock Dell pc, and let it roll with the best the gaming and benchmarking world has to offer. The results will enlighten current generation machine owners on whether the upgrade is worth the jump, as well as reveal a couple of interesting truths about the state of DX10 development, drivers, and everything. Read on to find out whether these GPU giants are powerful enough to give a mid-range system a viable gaming boost.
Page 01: The Challenge
Page 02: The Hardware I - The Tech
Page 03: The Hardware II - The Card
Page 04: The Hardware III - The Gimp
Page 05: The Test I – 3DMark 06
Page 06: The Test II – DiRT
Page 07: The Test III – Oblivion
Page 08: Test IV – Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and Company of Heroes
Page 09: What about productivity?
Page 10: What about DX10?
Page 11: Conclusions
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