MSI GeForce 8800 GTS test

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MSI NX8800GTS-T2D640E

When taking the MSI GeForce 8800 GTS from its box, the first thing we notice is that the GTS is somewhat smaller than the previously tested GTX. Though it may be a little smaller the GTS is still a beast of a card. The cooler for the GTS is based on the same design as the one used for the GTX, just a little smaller. Seeing as the card requires a little less power than the GTX we find only one PEG power connector one the card. One other point of interest is that the GTS, unlike the GTX, only has one SLI-connector, the same as the cards from the GeForce 6 and 7 series.

As we've mentioned before, the GTS has 640 MB of GDDR3 memory. Seeing as nVidia's partners are not allowed to release factory overclocked 8800's as of yet, MSI has followed these guidelines and has kept the clock speeds at the reference settings with the GPU at 500 MHz and the memory at 800 MHz. Luckily the card seems to have some decent overclocking potential: we managed to get the GPU working at 660 MHz and the memory at 920 MHz.

The software bundle that MSI have included with the card consists of a driver disc and Serious Sam II. Aside from this the package contains all the usual cables for the component output.

The suggested retail price of the MSI NX8800GTS-T2D640E is around 380 pounds. A large amount of money no matter which way you look at it, but still substantially cheaper than the GTX.

Benchmarks

We've subjected MSI's GeForce 8800 GTS to the same set of benchmarks as used for our original review of the GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS. Our system setup consisted of an Intel Core 2 Extreme 6800 processor, 1 GB of DDR2-800 memory, an ASUS P5W DH motherboard (Intel 975X chipset) and a Western Digital Raptor 74 GB harddisk. Please note that, in the following graphs, the ATI cards are red, nVidia cards from the previous generation are green and the GeForce 8800 cards are blue.